Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Tot-girl, 4, BURIED IN BACKYARD

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Tot-girl, 4, BURIED IN BACKYARD · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Do you have a particular
0:15
Speaker 1: picture of your child, or your niece, or your nephew,
0:20
Speaker 1: your grandchild, a little sister brother that is especially dear
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Speaker 1: to you? Because I do, And as I'm talking, I
0:30
Speaker 1: can think about pictures of the twins, specific pictures I've
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Speaker 1: taken over the years. They're thirteen now that are etched
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Speaker 1: in my memory. Well, I've got another picture etched in
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Speaker 1: my memory. It's a four year old little girl out
0:48
Speaker 1: of North Carolina. Her name is Magela Young, four years old,
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Speaker 1: nicknamed Jelly. I'm never I'm gonna forget her face. I,
1:04
Speaker 1: like many people that love her, will never get to
1:07
Speaker 1: see her grow up. I guess unless I do an
1:13
Speaker 1: age progression photo. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, we cover
1:29
Speaker 1: crime and justice, unsolved homicides, missing people every single day,
1:36
Speaker 1: and the hope that we can bring about change. And
1:43
Speaker 1: let's start with Jelly. Take a listen to our friends
1:48
Speaker 1: at the Charlotte Metrod. This investigation became began early Friday morning,
1:54
Speaker 1: about four o'clock in the morning, officers were called out
1:57
Speaker 1: to residence in the twenty seven hundred block of Branden Driving.
2:00
Speaker 1: Someone reported that they believe that a four year old
2:02
Speaker 1: girl had been missing for some time. We got the
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Speaker 1: Dignity investigation. This four year old victim, Magelic Young, we
2:12
Speaker 1: can identify for you now. People who knew and loved
2:15
Speaker 1: her knew her as Jelly, had not been seen since
2:18
Speaker 1: going to visit her mother last September. Specifically, that's Lieutenant
2:22
Speaker 1: Bryant Crumb speaking there from the Charlotte metropd chake A.
2:27
Speaker 1: Listen to more of what Lieutenant Crumb has to say.
2:30
Speaker 1: So when officers get to the house, they speak with
2:33
Speaker 1: a resident there, they start having some concerns about the
2:36
Speaker 1: information that they're getting. They contact the Missing Persons Unit,
2:40
Speaker 1: who initiates a missing person's investigation to find out where
2:44
Speaker 1: Magelic is. Very quickly, they became concerned that there may
2:48
Speaker 1: be foul play involved, so they contacted the homicide unit,
2:52
Speaker 1: and we also brought in the Crimes against Children units.
2:54
Speaker 1: So this is really a full core press to find
2:57
Speaker 1: out where Magelic was. We knew we needed to the
3:00
Speaker 1: hermine where she was at. Certainly, that's concerning when no
3:02
Speaker 1: one can account for a child for that period of time.
3:05
Speaker 1: How does a child just seemingly disappear and nobody knows
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Speaker 1: for weeks and weeks that she hasn't been seen thinking
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Speaker 1: about four year old Magelic young. How does time pass?
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Speaker 1: And nobody notices she's gone? Where's Mommy, Where's daddy? Where's
3:25
Speaker 1: Grandma or auntie, brothers, sister? Where are they? Where's the neighbors?
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Speaker 1: Where are the people at church or at school or
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Speaker 1: at camp? Nobody notices she's not at the supper table
3:39
Speaker 1: at night. She doesn't run into the kitchen in the morning.
3:44
Speaker 1: Does that strike you odd? It strikes me as a
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Speaker 1: lot more than odd. Again, I'm Nancy Grace's Crime Stories.
3:53
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us at Fox Nation and
3:55
Speaker 1: series Sex and one eleven. Let me introduce to you
3:57
Speaker 1: an all start panel of experts to break it down
4:01
Speaker 1: and put it back together again. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
4:04
Speaker 1: author of Red Flags. You can find her at Wendy Patrick, PhD.
4:08
Speaker 1: And on Today with Doctor Wendy, And that's at CASEBQ,
4:12
Speaker 1: San Diego. Doctor Joy Krasen, police psychologist, faculty Saint Leo University,
4:19
Speaker 1: research consultant and author of Operation s OS Practical Recommendations
4:24
Speaker 1: to help stop officer suicide. Doctor Michelle Duprie, well known
4:29
Speaker 1: forensic pathologist, former medical examiner, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide,
4:35
Speaker 1: and to top it all off, former police detective Karen Smith,
4:40
Speaker 1: forensic expert, lecturer University of Florida, founder and star of
4:45
Speaker 1: Shattered Souls podcasts. And you can find her at Karen's Forensics.
4:51
Speaker 1: Chish Williford akor reporter WCCB Charlotte. You can find her
4:55
Speaker 1: at Chiswilliford dot com and Very Special US joining us
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Speaker 1: Lucille Puckett activists who has spoken in depth with this
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Speaker 1: child's father. I want to go first to you, Chris Williford,
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Speaker 1: joining US WCCB Charlotte. What leads police to go to
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Speaker 1: the home where we believe Jelly have been living. There
5:23
Speaker 1: will have been phone calls. A member of DSS call
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Speaker 1: nine and said, please go find little Magellic Young. Had
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Speaker 1: nobody reported her missing, Chris Williford, because that's where I
5:42
Speaker 1: looked to mommy and daddy, Grandma, auntie, uncle. They didn't
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Speaker 1: report her missing. And now we're hearing reports where the
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Speaker 1: child's father pleaded with CMPD. We're hearing reports from family
5:57
Speaker 1: members that the child's father reached out to the media,
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Speaker 1: possibly even DSS. But it wasn't until nine months later
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Speaker 1: that a DSS worker asked police to go and check
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Speaker 1: on the welfare of this child at the Northwest Charlotte home.
6:18
Speaker 1: Chris Willafir, WCCB, you said CMPD, I sim you're referring
6:23
Speaker 1: to Charlotte Metre Police Department, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police, Michael Okay?
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Speaker 1: And did I also get it correct? Nine months past
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Speaker 1: after daddy raises the alarm, raises the flag before anyone
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Speaker 1: went to investigate. Apparently that that was the situation, because
6:42
Speaker 1: you know occurred. According to the search warrants, Magelic began
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Speaker 1: living with her mother, Malika Bennett, in August of twenty twenty.
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Speaker 1: When was she last scene? Do we know that the
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Speaker 1: last date she was seen by anybody outside of that home?
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Speaker 1: It was in August of twenty twenty. Guys, just who
7:01
Speaker 1: is this beautiful little girl that's stuck in my head
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Speaker 1: now forever? Take a listen to our friends at crime Online.
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Speaker 1: I'm smart, happy diva who loved lip gloss and unicorns.
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Speaker 1: That's how family members describe Magellic Young. The four year
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Speaker 1: old's aunts say the little girl also loved pancakes, and
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Speaker 1: she and her cousins who were as close as siblings
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Speaker 1: would get syrup everywhere whenever they had them. Magelic's parents
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Speaker 1: shared custody and last fall it was time for a
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Speaker 1: swamp and I don't like where it's going at all.
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Speaker 1: And just thinking about this little girl, smart, happy, I
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Speaker 1: quote Diva, and I assume that's meant in the best
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Speaker 1: light possible. Who loves lip gloss and unicorns. That reminds
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Speaker 1: me so much of my little girl. And my son
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Speaker 1: loves pancakes and no matter where he eats, you will
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Speaker 1: find syrup in CRuMs not far away. Just thinking about
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Speaker 1: this all American little girl nickname Jelly, and I'm looking
8:04
Speaker 1: at her picture right now. She has got the most
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Speaker 1: beautiful braids in her hair, all matching, of course, big
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Speaker 1: brown eyes and perfect little smile. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
8:34
Speaker 1: We're talking about a four year old little girl nicknamed Jelly,
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Speaker 1: and I can tell by looking at her bottom teeth
8:44
Speaker 1: she hasn't even gotten all of her grown up teeth yet. Guys,
8:52
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen to our friends
8:57
Speaker 1: at Fox forty six. But first I find that highly,
9:02
Speaker 1: highly unusual too. Wendy Patrick, California, prosecutor, author of red Flags.
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Speaker 1: I just don't understand how a child can quote slip
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Speaker 1: through the cracks of the system when the alarm has
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Speaker 1: been sound it takes nine months to go check. The
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Speaker 1: reality is, let's get real, Wandy. A child doesn't fall
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Speaker 1: through the cracks. Somebody screws up. Somebody screwed up when
9:26
Speaker 1: the dads started looking for her and did not do
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Speaker 1: their job. That's not wholves felt through the cracks somebody.
9:35
Speaker 1: That's right, man. The children do not fall through the cracks,
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Speaker 1: even when they're four. Now, initially people say, oh, a
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Speaker 1: four year old, they're not showing up to work every
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Speaker 1: day or necessarily even school at that age. Nonetheless, there
9:47
Speaker 1: are friends, family, siblings, there are so many other ways
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Speaker 1: to keep track of children, even if they themselves aren't
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Speaker 1: regularly appearing in some outside location. And that would especially
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Speaker 1: be true with lots of children in the house. And
10:02
Speaker 1: then add to that, Nancy, the reality that the fathers
10:04
Speaker 1: already sounded the alarm. So you have lots of facts
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Speaker 1: and circumstances here that should have led to action much
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Speaker 1: sooner than it did. Rish Williford, WCCB Charlotte. This was
10:15
Speaker 1: in August. But when do students go back to school
10:22
Speaker 1: in North Carolina? They go back to school in August?
10:25
Speaker 1: So at age five, wouldn't she had been going to
10:27
Speaker 1: pre K? Isn't there mandatory pre k? You should have
10:30
Speaker 1: been okay, she should have been in school. And nobody
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Speaker 1: from the school said, hey, Jelly's not here, whereas Magellica young.
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Speaker 1: Our understanding is no one from the school system sounded
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Speaker 1: the alarm saying that little Jelly was not in school?
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Speaker 1: What is going on in North Carolina? Don't they have
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Speaker 1: a school roster? For Pete's sake? I mean, am I
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Speaker 1: missing something? Was she not registered? Did nobody knows? She
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Speaker 1: should be in at least K or pre K at
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Speaker 1: age four years old? She should have been registered for
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Speaker 1: free K And no neighbors, nobody at church, a babysitter
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Speaker 1: and auntie and nothing. Nobody said a word. And then
11:13
Speaker 1: when dad did say something, police didn't go. I do
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Speaker 1: I understand that, correct, Lucy old Pucket. Well, Jelly was
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Speaker 1: just four and she it was, and it's during COVID
11:23
Speaker 1: so it was a different kind of setting this last
11:28
Speaker 1: past year. She was not yet due in school. She
11:31
Speaker 1: did not mandatorily attack to be enrolled in school. Okay, yeah,
11:35
Speaker 1: all right, I see that. I see that. You're right.
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Speaker 1: During COVID, okay, guys, police finally go to the scene
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Speaker 1: where Jelly was last seen. Take a listen to our
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Speaker 1: friends at crime online dot com, Jelly Young was lasting
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Speaker 1: live in September of last year. Over the next few months,
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Speaker 1: Young's father voiced concerns to authorities and Malika Diane Bell.
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Speaker 1: It was asked about her daughter, she would say the
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Speaker 1: four year old was with another family member. Yet as
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Speaker 1: the months pass, Bennett is very active on social media,
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Speaker 1: acting if she doesn't know where Magelic is. A Child
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Speaker 1: Protective Services caseworker called nine one one and police are
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Speaker 1: sent to perform a welfare check in May Belief Say
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Speaker 1: Bennett tells them she dropped Magelic off with another relative
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Speaker 1: in August and has not seen her since. To Trisha Williford,
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Speaker 1: anchor reporter WCCB Charlotte, what does that mean? Our friends
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Speaker 1: at crime online, say mom sends some Jelly to some
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Speaker 1: relatives on her side, some of her blood relatives, but
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Speaker 1: then she goes on social media, where she's very active
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Speaker 1: and acts as if she doesn't know where Jelly is.
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Speaker 1: What was she putting online? She was posting a lot
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Speaker 1: of pictures of her self posing in her front yard.
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Speaker 1: It appears just, you know, seemingly going on with her
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Speaker 1: life as if nothing had happened. Now, let me understand
13:01
Speaker 1: before I chear up the mom. The mom is saying,
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Speaker 1: Jelly's with relatives. So if she's with relatives, why should
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Speaker 1: she be concerned? Or are you saying cops are looking
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Speaker 1: for Jelly. Mom can't locate Jelly and she's not concerned.
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Speaker 1: During the times of these posts, we understand that the
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Speaker 1: child's father had been trying to go to different homes
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Speaker 1: to locate Malika Benett and had been going to police
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Speaker 1: to ask for help. At the same time, Malika is
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Speaker 1: saying she's with other relatives, got it, And so nobody
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Speaker 1: can quite pin down where is the baby? And nobody
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Speaker 1: can pin dead down? Yeah to you, doctor Jerry Cross
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Speaker 1: in Psychologists Faculty, Saint Leo University. Sounds a lot like
13:55
Speaker 1: another case we all are familiar with, and that would
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Speaker 1: be taught Mom Casey Anthony. Remember everybody's looking for little Kelly.
14:05
Speaker 1: And finally tot Mom Casey Anthony says, oh, yeah, I've
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Speaker 1: been looking for her too. She's with the babysitter Zenata Gonzalez. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but which was entirely not true. Very similar here, and
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Speaker 1: you noticed at some point in time mother does come
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Speaker 1: out with that kind of a response, like, you know,
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Speaker 1: I gave her to somebody and she's been gone now.
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Speaker 1: I think it was what several months she gave her
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Speaker 1: and she's still not concerned about where the child is
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Speaker 1: or any physical you know, eyes on. So, Wendy Patrick,
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Speaker 1: why can't we just haul mommy in and say what aunt?
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Speaker 1: What home? Where'd you leave her? Yeah, as soon as
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Speaker 1: you find out that she potentially is a suspect, that's
14:43
Speaker 1: normally what exactly you would expect to happen and start
14:46
Speaker 1: asking questions right away. And so one of the things
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Speaker 1: I'm sure, at least I hope we're going to determine
14:52
Speaker 1: between now and the time we have our next update
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Speaker 1: on this is why that wasn't done, because you would
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Speaker 1: think that would be one of the first thing she
15:00
Speaker 1: would do, not something you do nine months later. Well,
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Speaker 1: I also believe it has a little something to do
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Speaker 1: with the right to remain silent unless someone If someone
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Speaker 1: is on a suspicion and they've been named a target,
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Speaker 1: you can't question them without a lawyer if they want one.
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Speaker 1: But the mom is telling them upon their questions, she
15:22
Speaker 1: took her to a relative. It's not all fitting together
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Speaker 1: from a Karen Smith, No, none of us fits together.
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Speaker 1: You have a missing four year old that sounds alarm
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Speaker 1: bells to law enforcement. If you have the father who
15:38
Speaker 1: apparently was calling law enforcement thing, I haven't seen my
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Speaker 1: daughter an x amount of time, that should set off
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Speaker 1: a red flag for law enforcement to go to the
15:46
Speaker 1: last known location of this four year old and say,
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Speaker 1: where's Jelly? Where is she? Can you produce her? Give
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Speaker 1: us a phone number of where you dropped her off.
15:55
Speaker 1: What's the address of where you last saw her? All
15:58
Speaker 1: of these things these are dropped. You're so right, and
16:02
Speaker 1: it's nothing good. Karen Smith. It reminds me of another
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Speaker 1: case we've been covering, called Mom Laurie Vallo, who says, oh,
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Speaker 1: JJ and Tiley are with relatives in another state. So
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Speaker 1: police leave her home and they go back to the
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Speaker 1: station and they call the relatives and the relatives say
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Speaker 1: what they're not here. They go back to call it
16:23
Speaker 1: my Laurie Vallo's house. The next day, every stick of
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Speaker 1: furniture gone along with her, so Lucille Pucket activists and
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Speaker 1: founder of Take Back our Hoods, who has been in
16:36
Speaker 1: close contact with Jelly's dad. Lucille, do you believe that Mommy,
16:42
Speaker 1: she really doesn't even deserve that title, actually tried to
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Speaker 1: trick authorities. She did very well, and I think it
16:49
Speaker 1: was just the fact that Jelly had lit for her
16:52
Speaker 1: day for four years, so Mom had the perfect story elibi.
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Speaker 1: She would tell her immediate family the Jelly had went
17:00
Speaker 1: back close to her dad, and when Dad was calling
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Speaker 1: to speak even speak to see or get Jelly back,
17:09
Speaker 1: the mother would say that she's with her family members.
17:12
Speaker 1: So she was able to confuse the family or keep
17:15
Speaker 1: them divided by saying that Jelly was with one of
17:18
Speaker 1: the other families. So authorities really dropped the ball because
17:21
Speaker 1: Mom had three charges of child abuse. She had been
17:25
Speaker 1: in jail in March of twenty so it really should
17:29
Speaker 1: have raised the red flag if someone's acting about another
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Speaker 1: channel of hers that hadn't been seen. And every case
17:35
Speaker 1: we're talking about, Miss Pucket ends in the worst way.
17:40
Speaker 1: Kelly Anthony is found with duct tape around her skull,
17:47
Speaker 1: over her mouth and nose. She's skeletonized in her skin
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Speaker 1: left and JJ entirely are found buried and called mom
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Speaker 1: Laurie Vallo's new husband's backyard. One dismembered and burned, the
18:02
Speaker 1: other hermetically sealed and buried. So it's never a good
18:07
Speaker 1: ending when Mommy it's lying that we know about about
18:11
Speaker 1: where the baby is. Guys, take a listen to this.
18:14
Speaker 1: A neighbors, teachers and staff members have made a makeshift
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Speaker 1: memorial by placing balloons and teddy bears near where the
18:20
Speaker 1: four year old's remains were found. The family actually allowed
18:23
Speaker 1: us to see where police discovered her body, and right
18:26
Speaker 1: now they're asking the community for prayers. Her neighbors tell
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Speaker 1: us they hadn't seen the little girl in several months
18:31
Speaker 1: and became worried about her. Investigators arrived to the scene
18:35
Speaker 1: last night and say they received several tips that indicated
18:38
Speaker 1: file play may have been involved. No police have not
18:41
Speaker 1: mentioned how the girl may have died, nor have they
18:44
Speaker 1: mentioned a motive. Right now, police are working to identify
18:47
Speaker 1: the four year old's remains and say they will release
18:50
Speaker 1: her name afterwards. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we
19:08
Speaker 1: are talking about the disappearance of a beautiful four year
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Speaker 1: old little girl and I am not going to let
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Speaker 1: her case go unnoticed. Why this has not been a
19:21
Speaker 1: top story in every national paper and website, I don't know.
19:29
Speaker 1: But while we're all so busy worried about what's happening,
19:33
Speaker 1: I've been Washington, DC. Can we worry a moment about
19:37
Speaker 1: our own children? To Chrish Williford, thank your reporter, WCCB.
19:44
Speaker 1: Where was Magelic's body found? Magelic's body was found on
19:51
Speaker 1: May twentieth, twenty twenty one, nine months after she disappeared,
19:56
Speaker 1: in her mother's backyard. Lucille Pucket in the back yard.
20:02
Speaker 1: How obvious is that a place to look and listen?
20:07
Speaker 1: I'm just a shrink, I'm not an empty psychiatrist. But
20:12
Speaker 1: Lucille Pucket, to put dirt on your child's face, bury
20:21
Speaker 1: her in the back yard, I guess in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the night. What kind of a monster would do
20:27
Speaker 1: something like that? Not a mother, definitely. And it wasn't
20:32
Speaker 1: even twenty feet from the back door. And for the
20:35
Speaker 1: grandfather to say that, you know, he was mowing that
20:40
Speaker 1: lawn and mowing over his grandchild, not knowing that his
20:45
Speaker 1: granddaughter was there, and his daughter not saying a word,
20:49
Speaker 1: and they had a pit bull to make it so
20:51
Speaker 1: bad that was constantly trying to dig up magellic body.
20:56
Speaker 1: So they got rid of the dog because he would
21:00
Speaker 1: reveal when that child was laying. Not only for a
21:04
Speaker 1: mother to bury her child, but what the mother dear
21:09
Speaker 1: to the child before she even buried her was even
21:12
Speaker 1: more horrific. You know what, You are so right, And
21:14
Speaker 1: let me go to our guest for Issich pathologist, former
21:18
Speaker 1: medical examiner and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, doctor
21:22
Speaker 1: Michelle Dupree. Doctor Dupree, So nine months pass, we think,
21:27
Speaker 1: with this child buried in the backyard, how difficult does
21:33
Speaker 1: it make an autopsy to determine cause of death? I mean, see,
21:38
Speaker 1: of course, it's going to depend on the condition of
21:40
Speaker 1: the body, and being wrapped in trashbags surprisingly may actually
21:45
Speaker 1: preserve some of the evidence and help answer some of
21:47
Speaker 1: the questions that we would want to know. It's going
21:49
Speaker 1: to depend on the decomposition, It's going to depend on
21:52
Speaker 1: how the child was actually killed or murdered. And in
21:58
Speaker 1: this case, it's probably not going to give us a
22:01
Speaker 1: lot of information because there was no indication of trauma
22:06
Speaker 1: per se. But we're still going to look at the
22:09
Speaker 1: body and look at the tissues and take sensils of everything.
22:12
Speaker 1: We may even analyze the dart and the inside of
22:14
Speaker 1: the bags for different clues. Guys, you heard Lucille Pucket
22:18
Speaker 1: allude to what the child went through before she was
22:22
Speaker 1: buried in the backyard. Take a listen to our friends
22:26
Speaker 1: at Crime Online. Court Record say Magelic's thirteen year old
22:29
Speaker 1: sister told police that the four year old was being punished.
22:32
Speaker 1: Bennett forced the girl to stand in the laundry room.
22:35
Speaker 1: She was not allowed to sit down or leave for
22:37
Speaker 1: three days. During that time, the girl defecated in her pants.
22:42
Speaker 1: Young collapsed from exhaustion and fell out the back door
22:44
Speaker 1: of the laundring room, hitting her head. The teen says
22:47
Speaker 1: Magellic had troubled breathing, then Bennett tried to do CPR.
22:52
Speaker 1: Magellic Young died the same day. Her mother cleaned the body,
22:55
Speaker 1: grabbed two black trash bags and placed the girl's body inside.
22:59
Speaker 1: The bags were then stuffed into an suv for about
23:02
Speaker 1: five days until the odor was unbearable. That's when Bennett
23:06
Speaker 1: bought a shovel and had her thirteen year old daughter
23:08
Speaker 1: help her dig a hole to bury the rotting corpse. Well,
23:12
Speaker 1: it'll be a cold day in h double l doctor
23:15
Speaker 1: Joy Crossing, police, psychologists, faculty, Saint Leo, and author that
23:21
Speaker 1: this woman is going to be able to claim insanity
23:23
Speaker 1: because whatever states she portrays herself to be in court
23:27
Speaker 1: if that day ever comes, doesn't matter insanity under our
23:33
Speaker 1: law as whether you knew right or wrong at the
23:35
Speaker 1: time of the incident. If she knew enough to go
23:37
Speaker 1: buy a shovel, put these remains in trash bags, move
23:41
Speaker 1: them when the odor became overwhelming and forced her thirteen
23:45
Speaker 1: year old to help bury the body, she clearly could
23:49
Speaker 1: form a plan and hiding the body shows she knew
23:52
Speaker 1: what she did was wrong. Yeah, you go back to
23:55
Speaker 1: her past behavior with the other abuse charges. This was
23:59
Speaker 1: leading off all up to this, and there's this planning.
24:02
Speaker 1: Like you said, there's there's no insanity, there's no delusion,
24:06
Speaker 1: there's nothing. This is deviant or as evil as you
24:10
Speaker 1: want to put it. This was a plan and she
24:12
Speaker 1: solicited and basically forced the thirteen year old to join
24:16
Speaker 1: in and help her dig the grave. I want a
24:18
Speaker 1: circle back to Lucille Pucket, a special guest joining us
24:22
Speaker 1: today along with Fish Williford. Lucille pucketed activists, founder of
24:26
Speaker 1: Take Back Our hoods in close contact with Jelly's dad, Lucille.
24:31
Speaker 1: What exactly is alleged that the mom did to Jelly,
24:35
Speaker 1: her own blood biological mother with Jilly, I mean her
24:41
Speaker 1: mom even in one of the warrens we see where
24:45
Speaker 1: Jelly was swollen, she had black eyes and um like
24:50
Speaker 1: we already heard, she had her daughter standing in a
24:54
Speaker 1: corner beside a washer machine for three days and when
24:59
Speaker 1: Jelly felt weak, not only did she deprecate on herself,
25:03
Speaker 1: but she fell out of the back door and she
25:05
Speaker 1: hit her head. Mom tried to administer CPR to Magelic.
25:11
Speaker 1: But what I find even worse in this situation, the
25:14
Speaker 1: grandmother told the mother not to call the police because
25:19
Speaker 1: she would go to jail. Did she not think that
25:23
Speaker 1: the truth was going to come out and her daughter
25:25
Speaker 1: was going to go to jail anyway, And that's why
25:27
Speaker 1: the mother was also arrested. I think the mother should
25:31
Speaker 1: have had even more serious chargets with accessory to to
25:36
Speaker 1: ruling for WCCB. What did this child endure before her death?
25:40
Speaker 1: What was she forced to do? And so keep in
25:42
Speaker 1: mind these are accounts, you know, that we're getting from
25:46
Speaker 1: Magelic's thirteen year old big sister you know, according to
25:51
Speaker 1: this search warrant, and according to the warrant, Magelic was
25:55
Speaker 1: actually being punished for having about movement in her pants.
26:01
Speaker 1: Forced to stand up. But what is this about making
26:03
Speaker 1: her stand up for long periods of time? Forced her
26:07
Speaker 1: to stand up? Explain? According to the warrants, forced her
26:11
Speaker 1: to stand up in the laundry room and not allowed
26:15
Speaker 1: to sit or leave for three long days. Prime Stories
26:31
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. You know, this is not the first
26:35
Speaker 1: time that children have actually died because of physical exertion,
26:41
Speaker 1: enforced physical exertion. I want to tell you about a
26:45
Speaker 1: similar transaction, or a couple of them. They're very similar
26:48
Speaker 1: to this. First a little girl named Savannah Harden. Listen
26:52
Speaker 1: to me questioning wb RC reporter Jonathan Hardison. This is
26:57
Speaker 1: our cut seventeen about an other little girl forced exercise
27:03
Speaker 1: till she literally drops dead. Last Friday afternoon, about three o'clock. So,
27:08
Speaker 1: nine year old Savannah Harden comes home from elementary school
27:11
Speaker 1: with her grandmother. She was fine when she left school.
27:13
Speaker 1: She gets back to her house and that's when an
27:16
Speaker 1: investigators say the grandmother discovered that at some point. We're
27:18
Speaker 1: not sure exactly when this was, maybe it was Friday,
27:20
Speaker 1: maybe it was the day before. The grandmother found out
27:23
Speaker 1: that Savannah had had a candy bar. Now she was
27:25
Speaker 1: not supposed to have chocolate, according to the grandmother, forty
27:28
Speaker 1: six year olds Doyce Garrard, because Savannah had a bladder
27:31
Speaker 1: condition that they believed chocolate could exacerbate or make worse.
27:35
Speaker 1: So to punish her, according to investigators, Joyce Girard began
27:39
Speaker 1: making her duran child run around the house and this continued,
27:43
Speaker 1: they say, for about three hours, until she collapsed into
27:46
Speaker 1: a seizure about six forty five. That's when her step mom,
27:49
Speaker 1: twenty six year old Jessica Harden, who by the way,
27:51
Speaker 1: at the time was nine months pregnant, calls ninety one
27:54
Speaker 1: one and says, my stepdaughters having a seizure. Medics come
27:57
Speaker 1: out to this scene in rule Edowa County, north east
28:00
Speaker 1: of Birmingham, take her to a local hospital native side.
28:03
Speaker 1: She's in bad enough condition. They're going to airlifter to
28:05
Speaker 1: Children's Hospital in Birmingham, and that is where she died
28:09
Speaker 1: about nude on Monday. Died of over exhaustion heat stroke
28:14
Speaker 1: from being forced to run around and around the house
28:17
Speaker 1: holding an armful of logs. While Mommy had a sig
28:21
Speaker 1: with Grammy up on the front porch watching may they
28:24
Speaker 1: both Rotten Hill, Savannah, Hard's not the only one, there's
28:27
Speaker 1: Charlie Bothuel. Take a listen to our cut twenty three.
28:30
Speaker 1: This is our friends at Fox to Detroit. Charlie told
28:34
Speaker 1: investigators he was beaten with a PBC pipe all over
28:37
Speaker 1: from his head and chest to the bottom of his feet,
28:40
Speaker 1: often forcing him to bleed and to the point he
28:42
Speaker 1: was too sore to sit or walk. Police are in
28:45
Speaker 1: the process of testing blood found on that pipe they seized,
28:49
Speaker 1: and a medical evaluation revealed scars on Charlie's chest and
28:53
Speaker 1: buttocks on days even after Charlie was allegedly beaten, The
28:56
Speaker 1: twelve year old claims he was forced to undergo grueling
28:59
Speaker 1: workouts five thousand revolutions on the elliptical, one hundred pushups,
29:03
Speaker 1: five hundred situps, jumping jack's and waits twice a day,
29:07
Speaker 1: seven days a week, and if he didn't finish, he
29:10
Speaker 1: would have to do it all over again. So let
29:13
Speaker 1: me ask you to doctor dupree, how does a child
29:18
Speaker 1: die of exhaustion? In this case, Jelly was forced to
29:21
Speaker 1: stand in the laundering room and if she got off,
29:24
Speaker 1: she'd be beaten. She would stand there till she defecated
29:29
Speaker 1: in her own pants. Since she got beaten for that,
29:31
Speaker 1: How do you die a physical exertion, Nancy. This is
29:35
Speaker 1: really it's a very tragic case. The big thing here
29:38
Speaker 1: is she had no food and water. You can only
29:41
Speaker 1: live for maybe three days without water, and because of this,
29:45
Speaker 1: her body is going to literally shut down. She'll go
29:48
Speaker 1: into shock, she'll be confused, her heart rate will go up,
29:52
Speaker 1: her brain will even swell. Eventually she will pass out,
29:56
Speaker 1: which she likely did and fell out the back door,
29:58
Speaker 1: probably again causing other injuries. You cannot go without water
30:03
Speaker 1: for three days, especially a child at this age. These
30:07
Speaker 1: are not the only cases of excessive exercising forced on children.
30:13
Speaker 1: There's also the case of Emeric Ossuna. Take a listen
30:17
Speaker 1: to our friend. Martin Johnson KATVB seven, the father of
30:21
Speaker 1: a nine year old boy who prosecutors say died after
30:24
Speaker 1: months of abuse, is not mentally competent to stand trial,
30:29
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean he's off the hook. Right now.
30:32
Speaker 1: Thirty year old Eric Ossuna is facing a first degree
30:36
Speaker 1: murder charge in the death of his son, Emeric Ossuna.
30:40
Speaker 1: Investigators say the boy was beaten and locked in closets
30:43
Speaker 1: and forced to do repetitive exercises punishment. They even say
30:48
Speaker 1: he was starved by his stepmother, twenty eight year old
30:51
Speaker 1: Monique Ossuna. They say the father knew about this but
30:55
Speaker 1: never intervened, adding he later tried to hide the evidence
30:59
Speaker 1: that it ever happened. And to you doctor Jorry Cross
31:02
Speaker 1: and a psychologist and faculty Saint Leo University, doctor Jory
31:08
Speaker 1: I think the street meaning of she had to be
31:12
Speaker 1: crazy to force her four year old girl to stand
31:15
Speaker 1: in the launder room until she defecated her pants and
31:18
Speaker 1: she got beaten for that, but crazy and vernacular, it's
31:24
Speaker 1: not crazy under the law. That that's correct. Insanity is
31:28
Speaker 1: a legal term. It's nothing. You don't find that anywhere
31:32
Speaker 1: in the psychological you know stuff. The ability to know
31:38
Speaker 1: right from wrong is basically the standard in the criteria
31:41
Speaker 1: we look for. And again you know she knew right
31:45
Speaker 1: for wrong her behavior before and after the crime, So
31:50
Speaker 1: you know, I couldn't see an insanity defense working at
31:55
Speaker 1: all here. I mean, they may try to write, and
31:57
Speaker 1: not only that, Chess Williford WCC she had been accused
32:02
Speaker 1: of mistreating the children in the past. What more do
32:06
Speaker 1: we know about what was done a little Jelly before
32:09
Speaker 1: her death. Well, we do know on two or three
32:13
Speaker 1: occasions that police have arrested been It on charges of
32:20
Speaker 1: child abuse, and we do know that one of those
32:25
Speaker 1: episodes included leaving several children home alone for more than
32:32
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Keep in mind, she's had eight kids
32:37
Speaker 1: and and she's been charged before. These are still pending
32:42
Speaker 1: charges here in Mecklenburg County for child abuse previous to
32:46
Speaker 1: this murder charge. So nothing happened with those cases. And
32:50
Speaker 1: finally there's a dead child. Lucille Pucket. I mean, it's
32:54
Speaker 1: just one horrible fact after the next, and another thing, Lucille.
33:00
Speaker 1: It's reminiscent of caught Mom Laurie Valo and taught Mom
33:03
Speaker 1: Casey Anthony in another way, while their children were quote missing,
33:08
Speaker 1: truth dead at their own hands, they carried on as
33:12
Speaker 1: if nothing was wrong. Called Mom Laurie Valo, shops online,
33:16
Speaker 1: buys a wedding dress, gets married, and goes to move
33:19
Speaker 1: to Hawaii. Taught mom Casey Anthony is danced on every
33:24
Speaker 1: stripper pole and every bar in town while her daughter
33:27
Speaker 1: is missing, i e. Dead. And here you've got this
33:30
Speaker 1: mom posting online with selfies and photos of herself while
33:37
Speaker 1: her daughter is dead in the back yard, also posting
33:41
Speaker 1: pictures of her other children like everything is fine, having
33:46
Speaker 1: Earthday celebrations and all that kind of stuff. And the
33:49
Speaker 1: mom was pregnant during this time? Does she bury her
33:53
Speaker 1: other child? The mom was pregnant. So what do we
33:56
Speaker 1: know about the cause of death? Lucille, Well, right now,
34:00
Speaker 1: still waiting on the optopsy to come back. They say
34:03
Speaker 1: they're waiting on the top theology report, so infirmative. We
34:09
Speaker 1: really knows nothing, but you know preliminaries. We know that
34:14
Speaker 1: the baby had two black eyes, she was slowly and
34:18
Speaker 1: for you to be able to see after eight months,
34:21
Speaker 1: nine months, you know, still this kind of evidence. You
34:25
Speaker 1: know that it had to be very horrific, very horrific.
34:29
Speaker 1: And for this mother to tell her other seven children
34:33
Speaker 1: that if anybody said anything, the same thing will happen
34:37
Speaker 1: to them. So for her other children, especially the thirteen
34:41
Speaker 1: year old, to live in such fear of dying at
34:45
Speaker 1: their mother's hand, can you only imagine? Can you only imagine?
34:49
Speaker 1: And Jelly only just wanted to spend time with her mother,
34:53
Speaker 1: being raised by her dad for four years, and to
34:57
Speaker 1: have to look up at the woman that she love
35:01
Speaker 1: taking her life and just wanted to go home with
35:04
Speaker 1: her daddy, just wanting to be back where she was
35:07
Speaker 1: safe with her father. What do we believe happened in
35:10
Speaker 1: that laundry ram trish well? But what we do know
35:13
Speaker 1: is from that search warrant Again police interviewed being his
35:18
Speaker 1: thirteen year old daughter that would be Magellic's older sister.
35:24
Speaker 1: She was forced to stand up in the laundry room,
35:27
Speaker 1: not allowed to sit or leave for three days. Again,
35:31
Speaker 1: the child got so weak, according to the warrant, that
35:34
Speaker 1: she fell out of the back door, hitting her head
35:37
Speaker 1: on the ground. According to the little girl, Magellic's breathing
35:44
Speaker 1: was on and off, on and off, and that she
35:47
Speaker 1: died after three days. We also know according to this warrant,
35:53
Speaker 1: the girl said that her mom attempted to do CPR
35:58
Speaker 1: but couldn't. This is after three days. Why was she
36:04
Speaker 1: being forced to stand up in the laundry room and
36:07
Speaker 1: not sit down? That was her punishment punishment for what
36:09
Speaker 1: or using the bathroom on herself? According to the warrant, Guys,
36:13
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut four. This is Jamal
36:18
Speaker 1: Goss Fox forty six CEFD says thirty one year old
36:21
Speaker 1: Malika Bennett has been arrested and is facing charges for
36:24
Speaker 1: the death of her four year old daughter. But lease
36:26
Speaker 1: say they found the little girl berry in near some
36:28
Speaker 1: woods in the back of her home on bread and
36:30
Speaker 1: Drive right now. Bennett is facing several charges including felony,
36:34
Speaker 1: chart abuse and child abuse and murder. And also take
36:38
Speaker 1: a listen to this. This is These are our friends
36:41
Speaker 1: at WC and CE Charlotte. Mother accused of killing her
36:46
Speaker 1: four year old daughter and then hiding her remains. The
36:49
Speaker 1: mother now facing multiple charges, including first degree murder in
36:53
Speaker 1: her daughter's death. Now, according to you Lucille Puckett, the
36:56
Speaker 1: father is taking this horribly. He can't bring himself to
37:01
Speaker 1: speak of it. Why he has her father Darren Young,
37:05
Speaker 1: it's really going through because he really, you know, in
37:09
Speaker 1: port thoughts himself because after raging his daughter for four
37:13
Speaker 1: years and the daughter, Jelly's wish for her birthday was
37:17
Speaker 1: to spend time and see her mom, and he granted
37:20
Speaker 1: her that wish, and then after her birthday party, she
37:23
Speaker 1: just wanted to spend a little bit more time with
37:26
Speaker 1: our mom, and her mom said, okay, we'll go for
37:28
Speaker 1: an overnight visit. And unbeknown to him that that would
37:32
Speaker 1: actually be his last time seeing his daughter. A love
37:36
Speaker 1: Darren is just I mean, he's outside of himself. He
37:40
Speaker 1: really separated itself from the family. I mean the family
37:43
Speaker 1: is just like really worried, you know about him, because
37:47
Speaker 1: I mean he's again outside of his hand. Back to Aricia,
37:51
Speaker 1: well heard what happens next in the case, Well, Molissa
37:55
Speaker 1: Bennett has been and guided by a grand jury, so
37:59
Speaker 1: we'll just have feel wait until it goes to trial again.
38:03
Speaker 1: Her mother, Tammy Moffatt, is out on bond right now,
38:07
Speaker 1: about a ten thousand dollars bond for each charge. What
38:10
Speaker 1: has happened to the children, specifically the thirteen year old,
38:13
Speaker 1: She forced to help bury the child's body. Well, prior
38:16
Speaker 1: to even them finding the body, the thirteen year old
38:21
Speaker 1: had went to live with her dad because she had
38:23
Speaker 1: started acting out behaviorally, you know, she had started running
38:27
Speaker 1: away if the situation had really started to bother her
38:30
Speaker 1: in her mind. So she's now living with her dad,
38:33
Speaker 1: and all of the other children aren't either with their
38:36
Speaker 1: grandparents or what they father. We wait as justice for
38:41
Speaker 1: Majella the Souls Nancy Grace Scribe's choice, Sonny R.