Everyone Thought She Was the 'Cool Mom.' Not Anymore

'Mercury News' sheds more light on arrest of Shannon O'Connor
By Liz MacGahan,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2021 2:28 PM CDT
Parents: 'Party Mom' Lured Kids Using Social Media
In this undated photo provided by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is Shannon Marie O'Connor. Prosecutors say the California mother has been arrested in Idaho on charges she allegedly hosted alcohol-filled parties for her teenage son and his friends at her home.   (Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office via AP)

It all started with Snapchat. Shannon O’Connor, the California woman who allegedly threw alcohol-soaked parties for teenagers, including her own two sons, courted the kids on Snapchat, and used social media and group chats to plan the parties, the kids’ parents tell the Mercury News. The lengthy story sheds light on how prosecutors came to file charges and includes this remarkable paragraph: The parents "reveal their astonishment when they discovered what prosecutors say was really happening: A 47-year-old social-media-savvy mom had manipulated their kids into frequenting a party house of underage binge drinking and drunken teenage sex." The parents say they assumed O'Connor was supervising safe gatherings at her $4.7 million Los Gatos house as the "cool mom."

But suspicions began to grow when one set of parents picked up their 14-year-old son after a Halloween party in 2020. Back home, the boy vomited and reeked of alcohol. While he slept, his parents saw his phone blow up with group Snapchat messages, including from "Nun," who the parents realized was O’Connor after reading through the threads. And they say O’Connor was making it clear she organized the party, wasn’t home while it took place, and was keenly interested in making sure the kids’ parents didn’t know any of those facts. Read the full Mercury News story, which reports that O'Connor continued this lifestyle when she moved to Idaho with her sons. She was arrested there, then extradited to California where she is being held without bail, per the AP. (More California stories.)

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