Girl Who Killed Father With Lye: Megan Imirowicz Sentenced to Jail and Probation

Megan Imirowicz had been planning her 18th birthday and she started talking over ideas with her dad, Conrad. Conrad agreed to pay for a room for Megan and her friends to have a hotel party. There were a lot of times when Conrad wouldn’t end up following through on his promises though, but she was expecting him to keep his word this time for her birthday. Conrad also promised that he would drive her to go get her hair done the morning before her party.

When the day of the party arrived, Megan woke up excited to get the day started by going to her hair appointment at around 10:30 am. However, when she got out of bed, she went to look for her dad and found him passed out on the couch in the living room. Megan tried to wake him up, but he was clearly either drugged or hungover and wasn’t moving from the couch.

According to Megan, she clearly became very upset because Conrad had promised to take her to get her hair done, so she started yelling at him to get up. He sort of came to, and they started yelling at each other before he rolled over, turning away from Megan. In hurt, anger, and frustration, Megan started grabbing various items that were just laying around their messy, cluttered home and began throwing them at her dad.

When it was obvious that he was too impaired to take her to the appointment, she called one of her friends to see if they could take her instead. Even though she was mad, Megan has said that she was mostly over it by the time her friend picked her up for her hair appointment, and she told her dad bye as she walked out of the door.

After Megan got her hair done, she went to pay with her dad’s bank card; either the PIN wasn’t working, or she was misremembering it. She tried to call her dad several times, but she figured that he had passed out again because he wasn’t answering her phone. A little bit later, around 3:45 pm, Megan called Kayla and asked her if she could stop by her house to check on her dad and to ask him the PIN number for his bank card so that she could book the hotel. Kayla was Megan’s friend of five years, and she lived just a two-minute drive away from Megan.

Kayla arrived at Megan’s home at around 4:00 pm, and when she started up the stairs, she heard Conrad call out hello, so Kayla said hello, and then when she reached the living room, she was shocked by what she saw. Kayla said that it seemed like Conrad was covered in burns, blood, and bruises, or something else. She could not exactly tell what was all over him, but she knew that something was wrong. Kayla asked Conrad what happened, and he said he didn’t know but that his hand hurt. He reached out his hand, and Kayla was horrified when she saw that his fingertips were a dark purple color and his fingernails were completely curled up. She said that Conrad appeared to be very out of it. He was actually sitting on the couch completely naked, covered only with a blanket, but Kayla could see that his legs had a green color to them, and there were sores all over his body, including the top of his head.

Megan called Kayla a few moments later and asked her if she got the card number, and on speakerphone, Conrad started calling out the numbers to Megan. Kayla didn’t even know what to say at this point because they were acting like everything was normal. So she went outside and decided to call her mom to tell her what was happening. During the call with her mom, Megan called back, and Kayla said, “Megan, something is wrong with your dad,” and Megan just laughed and said, “He’s just drunk,” clearly not understanding what was going on. Megan told her to call her brother Austin to handle whatever was going on.

So Kayla called Austin and told him what was going on and what she saw, and he told her to hang up and call 911 and that he would be on his way. About 15 minutes later, a fire truck and EMTs arrived at the house. They had to make their way through the extremely cluttered home to get to Conrad, who at this point was still alert and talking but kind of dazed and confused. As Conrad was taken out through the driveway, Austin and his friend Lucas arrived at the house, and as the ambulance drove him away, Lucas and Austin decided to go inside to see and try to figure out what happened.

Austin said that there was some blood and white powder on the couch where his dad was sitting, and he could smell a chemical smell. Then, Austin, Lucas, and Kayla drove to the hospital together, and Austin and Lucas went to the room first to talk to Conrad. Conrad said that he had set up a bug bomb in the house because the cats had fleas, but Conrad said he couldn’t really remember much but did end up saying that he thinks Megan had thrown some stuff at him.

After a short time, Austin said that Megan called him and asked him how to get their dad’s card working, and Austin told her, “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” and he said Megan made a scoffing sound and hung up the phone in an annoyed way. So when Conrad was speaking to Austin, a nurse overheard them, realizing that someone might have done this on purpose. She ended up calling and reporting the incident to the police. His blood test report showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.225%, well over the legal limit of 0.08%. That was after six hours after the ambulance arrived.

During his tests, three state troopers arrived to start the investigation into what had happened. In the meantime, Austin revisited his father’s house and started to look a little more in-depth for any chemicals, and he noticed a bottle surrounded by white powder on the couch. So Austin called Megan and started to scream at her, blaming her for causing the burns on their dad. At the same time, the trooper decided to look for Megan and ask her some questions. At around midnight, a trooper arrived at a hotel parking lot and saw a group of teenagers in a car getting ready to drive away, and Megan was also in that car. So Megan was asked to come out and answer some questions. The trooper told her that she wasn’t being arrested but just wanted to ask some questions. They asked Megan what she had thrown at her father so that they could tell the nurse how to treat him by determining what was thrown at him. At first, Megan didn’t admit to throwing anything, but when troopers kept pushing, she told them that she threw some bread and a water bottle. When the trooper asked if she threw anything that looked like white powder, she said, “I think so.” With this uncertain admission, police took it as a confession of Megan throwing a chemical powder at her father, and she was under arrest. This was caught on Dash Cam.

After Megan was taken to the hospital, one of the troopers went to ask Conrad questions. When questioning, Conrad said he and Megan got into an argument and that she threw some stuff at him. He didn’t specify what stuff, so he asked for Conrad’s permission to search his house, and Conrad was okay with it.

When the troopers arrived at the house, they noticed how miserable the condition was. There were bugs, all messy. They saw a bottle on the couch surrounded by white powder, and the bottle said, “Gets the clog out, household 100% lye drain opener. Danger. Poison. Causes severe burns. Read all instructions carefully before use.”

After Megan was arrested, she was initially charged with one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and one count of domestic violence. She received a $75,000 personal recognizance bond and was released.

The doctor who treated Conrad said that they had to debride the burns, basically scrape and remove the damaged and dead skin and tissue. His burns were basically all over his body from head to toe. The doctor also stated that burns are generally categorized from levels 1–4, 4 being the worst and most severe, and his burns were mostly between 3 and 4. Conrad’s infections were starting to take over his body. First, his leg was amputated, and soon after, his right leg was amputated too. After five months of enduring these horrible procedures, shock, and pain, Conrad felt like he didn’t want to continue existing on life support anymore, and none of the treatments were working anyway, so he decided to go back home and spend his remaining time on hospice. Unfortunately, just three days later, he passed away. He died on March 6th, 2022.

Austin reportedly didn’t notify his passing right away, and they only found out when Megan was rearrested. The medical examiner who performed Conrad’s autopsy following his death concluded that he died of chemical burns with complications that compromised his kidneys and lungs, and he ruled the manner of death as homicide. Megan remained in jail for 15 months until the beginning of her trial, which began with jury selection on June 12th, 2023.

The prosecution’s argument was that Megan intentionally concocted a mixture of lye to pour on her father while he was passed out, all in order to hurt or kill him. While the defense stated, Conrad wasn’t passed out when Kayla arrived and that Conrad told people that he was awake during his and Megan’s argument. They pointed out the fact that no one else who saw the couch that day reported that it appeared to be wet, only that there was a pool of liquid next to the couch that stretched from one end to the other. The defense said that considering Conrad’s urinary issues and the fact that he had been relieving himself on the couch, it’s possible that the bottle of drain cleaner was leaking the liquid that had spread out. The defense also said that lye is not an ingredient in drain cleaner, only crystals are.

Another one of the arguments the defense made was that there was no physical evidence that lye crystals were thrown at him. Since there was no splash evidence and Megan didn’t have any burns or irritation on her skin, the conclusion that she did it intentionally wasn’t justified. There was no clear reason why Megan would harm her father, and there were many motives for her to have thrown lye at her father.

Finally, after six days of witness testimony, on June 20th, the jury was sent to deliberate, and after less than two hours, they came to a decision: Megan was guilty of all charges.

For felony cases, Michigan uses an indeterminate sentencing system, leaving the sentence up to the judge’s discretion. Megan Imirowicz’s sentencing hearing was set to occur 10 days after the verdict. Being just a few days over 18 at the time of the incident, Megan faced the possibility of life in prison for her father’s death.

Before Judge Victoria Valentine announced her decision, Megan requested to make a statement to the court. Having chosen not to testify during the trial, she used this opportunity to express her feelings:

“Nineteen years ago, I was placed into the arms of the first man to ever love me, the man I’m lucky enough to call my dad. Growing up he became so much more, he was a storyteller, a tooth fairy, a friend, and a hero. Through it all, the one thing that never changed was that he was mine.”

Megan, visibly emotional, continued:

“One of the biggest things overlooked in this case is that me and my siblings lost my dad too. That loss has severely broken us. The prosecution has tried to make me look like a monster, but that’s not me and never was.”

She concluded her statement with a Biblical reference:

“The evil are ensnared by the transgressions of their lips, but the righteous escape from trouble,” quoting Proverbs 12:13.

Despite facing life in prison, Judge Valentine handed down a sentence that surprised many. Megan was sentenced to one year in jail, with credit for 506 days already served, followed by five years of probation. The misdemeanor domestic violence charge was dropped during the sentencing hearing.

As part of her probation, Megan must complete “intensive probation” requirements, including a mental health assessment, psychological examination, and regular drug and alcohol testing as directed by her probation officer. Additionally, she is required to participate in a high school or GED program, adhere to a 9 p.m. curfew, and wear an electronic tether. Megan’s probation will be reviewed in court six months later, in January.