Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Evil parents watch little daughter die of LICE BITES
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How can a little girl,
- 0:16Speaker 1: a fifth grader die at home of a lice infestation.
- 0:25Speaker 1: I didn't know you could die of lice? And where
- 0:31Speaker 1: were her parents? What happened to this beautiful twelve year
- 0:38Speaker 1: old girl? And I can tell you this much, somebody's
- 0:42Speaker 1: going to jail. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It's not
- 1:00Speaker 1: a topic that's let's just say, it doesn't taste good
- 1:04Speaker 1: going down. It's not something you want to talk about
- 1:08Speaker 1: over the fence with your neighbor or at a dinner party.
- 1:11Speaker 1: But this is the reality, this is happening right under
- 1:15Speaker 1: our noses. That when you see the picture of this
- 1:18Speaker 1: little girl, Caitlyn, it's gonna break your heart. But I
- 1:23Speaker 1: want justice. I can't bring Caitlin back, but I can
- 1:30Speaker 1: find the truth and we can get justice for Caitlin.
- 1:35Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. The Creamers say they first
- 1:37Speaker 1: met Katie Hordon and Joey Yosbiac in March of two
- 1:40Speaker 1: thousand and eight when they discussed adopting baby Caitlyn. We
- 1:43Speaker 1: absolutely everything ready carcat baby day furniture. Everything was pink
- 1:49Speaker 1: and brown. I'm outfitcher Binger Homi and diaperb absolutely everything.
- 1:53Speaker 1: The Creamers say Katie and Joey told them they wouldn't
- 1:55Speaker 1: be able to take care of the baby themselves. He
- 1:59Speaker 1: worked a part time job. At that point, he wasn't
- 2:01Speaker 1: working at all. They just felt like they couldn't provide
- 2:03Speaker 1: for it. After months of getting ready, the day had
- 2:06Speaker 1: finally arrived. The Creamers were in the hospital on June
- 2:08Speaker 1: ninth when Caitlin was born. I named her. I was
- 2:11Speaker 1: in the delivery room, we held her. I have probably
- 2:15Speaker 1: a hundred pictures of her first few hours. She was beautiful, beautiful,
- 2:19Speaker 1: dark eyes, beautiful dark eyes. You know, it just breaks
- 2:23Speaker 1: my heart so much to hear what I just heard.
- 2:26Speaker 1: This little girl was fifteen minutes away from having loving parents,
- 2:33Speaker 1: loving adoptive parents, but everything went sideways. Did you hear that?
- 2:41Speaker 1: They took about one hundred pictures of her and the
- 2:43Speaker 1: first twenty minutes of her life their baby. They even
- 2:47Speaker 1: got a little pink outfit to bring her home from
- 2:53Speaker 1: the hospital for her to wear a special coming home outfit.
- 2:57Speaker 1: I'm just thinking back on bringing my twin home. She
- 3:04Speaker 1: was this close to having a real family, a mother
- 3:08Speaker 1: and a father that took care of her. That close
- 3:12Speaker 1: and everything went to crap. Listen, the Creamers learned they
- 3:17Speaker 1: wouldn't be taking Caitlyn home. I went to the hospital.
- 3:20Speaker 1: We were supposed to go home that day. I had
- 3:22Speaker 1: the car seat, I had the diaper bag, I had
- 3:24Speaker 1: her outfit, I had everything there. When I walked into
- 3:27Speaker 1: her room, she was crying, but Shelle says Horton told
- 3:29Speaker 1: her she felt obligated to keep her daughter in. She
- 3:32Speaker 1: looked to me that day and said, this baby's supposed
- 3:34Speaker 1: to be yours. This baby supposed to be yours. I
- 3:39Speaker 1: don't want this baby, but I feel like I have to.
- 3:41Speaker 1: The couple say they were devastated for months. It was
- 3:44Speaker 1: almost like a funeral around here for three or four days.
- 3:47Speaker 1: We never dreamed they changed their minds. They were adamant
- 3:50Speaker 1: that this baby's yours, and the worst part for us
- 3:53Speaker 1: was we really didn't know what she was going to
- 3:54Speaker 1: be going into. The Creamers say they didn't hear of
- 3:56Speaker 1: Caitlin or Horton since until this week, when Michelle found
- 3:59Speaker 1: the story. We ran Friday explaining documents were received on
- 4:03Speaker 1: the family's history with d facts. I was probably two
- 4:05Speaker 1: lines into it and I went that was my baby,
- 4:10Speaker 1: and of course crowd all over again. It was it
- 4:16Speaker 1: was it was so hard to watch knowing that we
- 4:20Speaker 1: were within six seven hours of her life being completely
- 4:24Speaker 1: different than that. It's just so much to take in.
- 4:27Speaker 1: And now we know what happened to this beautiful little
- 4:30Speaker 1: baby with the big dark eyes. I'm looking at her
- 4:35Speaker 1: photo right now and I can just imagine how beautiful
- 4:39Speaker 1: a baby that she was. Let me introduce to you
- 4:43Speaker 1: an all star pale and I really mean that. And
- 4:46Speaker 1: we need to hear from everyone, every single one of
- 4:50Speaker 1: these experts to make sense of what happened to little Caitlin.
- 4:54Speaker 1: With me Kathleen Murphy out of North Carolina. She is
- 4:58Speaker 1: a family law expert. Let me tell you something. Family
- 5:03Speaker 1: law is everything but family like it's like putting your
- 5:07Speaker 1: hand in between two fighting rottweilers. When you go into
- 5:11Speaker 1: family courts, you gotta be a pro, and she is.
- 5:14Speaker 1: You can find her at NC Domestic Law dot com.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Karen Stark. We're now New York psychologists joining us from
- 5:21Speaker 1: Manhattan today. She's at Karen with a CE Karen Stark
- 5:25Speaker 1: dot com. Stephen Lampley, detective author of twelve and Murdered,
- 5:30Speaker 1: coming out next month on Amazon. You can find him
- 5:33Speaker 1: at Stephen Lampley dot com. Ashley Kelly, poor thing, she's
- 5:37Speaker 1: in for it. She's a former defacts worker, a licensed
- 5:41Speaker 1: clinical social worker, and her expertise is child abuse. Doctor
- 5:48Speaker 1: Chris Berry with me, famous former chief medical Examiner for
- 5:54Speaker 1: the State of Georgia. Let me tell you. I spent
- 5:58Speaker 1: many many hours with doctor Chris Sperry preparing for trial.
- 6:03Speaker 1: And when he would walk into a courtroom, open those doors,
- 6:06Speaker 1: walk into that white medical jacket, it's like everything stopped
- 6:11Speaker 1: and walk up, take the stand, and the case would
- 6:15Speaker 1: be on. I usually either put him up as the
- 6:18Speaker 1: first witness or the last witness to either start with
- 6:21Speaker 1: a bang or finish with a bang. But first, a
- 6:25Speaker 1: Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Levi Paige Levi, when
- 6:30Speaker 1: I hear these adoptive parents about all the preparations they
- 6:35Speaker 1: had made to bring baby Caitlin home and now I know,
- 6:39Speaker 1: just a few short years later she dies of headlice?
- 6:43Speaker 1: How does that even happen? But that's a question for
- 6:45Speaker 1: the medical examiner for you, Levi page what went wrong
- 6:50Speaker 1: with the adoption? Well, Nancy. One went wrong with the
- 6:54Speaker 1: adoption was at the very last minute, her parents decided
- 6:58Speaker 1: that they wanted to keep her her bio correct. Oh,
- 7:04Speaker 1: Kathleen Murphy, why is under the law? Can you build
- 7:09Speaker 1: the adopted parents up like that just to yank the
- 7:13Speaker 1: rug out from under them at the last minute, Nancy,
- 7:16Speaker 1: that actually happened to me. What My youngest child was
- 7:21Speaker 1: adopted at birth, and the birth mother attempted to change
- 7:26Speaker 1: her mind at the last hour, and we were able
- 7:30Speaker 1: to engage in discussions and negotiations such that she realized
- 7:35Speaker 1: that she was not able to really do this, and
- 7:38Speaker 1: so we were fortunate. But yes, they can. You just
- 7:41Speaker 1: gave me chills all the way down my left arm,
- 7:44Speaker 1: Kathe Murphy. Boy, that would really give you chills. You
- 7:47Speaker 1: have four children, right? I do? Okay? And so is
- 7:50Speaker 1: this your your youngest? This is my youngest and my
- 7:53Speaker 1: only adopted child. You lucky duck. I always wanted four children,
- 7:58Speaker 1: but I waited so late in life. I'm lucky I
- 8:01Speaker 1: got the two that I got. Boy, was I blasted?
- 8:04Speaker 1: I just how right there at the last moment she
- 8:08Speaker 1: changes her mind. And now years later, these adoptive parents
- 8:12Speaker 1: have the heartbreak of reading their baby. Guys, who hasn't
- 8:17Speaker 1: had headlights? I mean, really, wait a minute, right a minute.
- 8:20Speaker 1: I haven't had head lice, and neither is anybody in
- 8:22Speaker 1: my family. Okay, you guys had head lice. Okay, John
- 8:28Speaker 1: Terenzio oxygen producers in here saying you have not had headlines. Okay,
- 8:34Speaker 1: but you're okay. I don't know a nice way to
- 8:36Speaker 1: say this, but you're partially bald right right there. Okay,
- 8:39Speaker 1: So how likely is it you're gonna get head lies?
- 8:41Speaker 1: Bratt head lice? So not everybody has had head lies,
- 8:47Speaker 1: Kathleen Murphy, So let's just be people. Just yeah, I
- 8:52Speaker 1: guess we are. But I've never heard of anything like this,
- 8:55Speaker 1: and it had to be extremely painful. And where I'm
- 8:59Speaker 1: going with this is if she died, this little girl
- 9:02Speaker 1: died of headlice, that means neglect. Neglect in this gigantic
- 9:09Speaker 1: proportion means that were these parents abusive crime stories With
- 9:26Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, we're talking about a gorgeous little girl. She
- 9:31Speaker 1: is so beautiful, not that looks matter because they don't.
- 9:36Speaker 1: And she's got this beautiful head of gorgeous, dark brown hair.
- 9:42Speaker 1: And I'm just imagining what this little girl went through
- 9:45Speaker 1: every single day. A few moments ago, you were listening
- 9:48Speaker 1: to our friend Ashlan Webb at Shela thirteen WMAZ. Now
- 9:53Speaker 1: take a listen to this. When Caitlin Yosviak was born,
- 9:56Speaker 1: her parents had already had two children removed from the
- 9:59Speaker 1: home to be raised by relatives, so Katie Horton and
- 10:02Speaker 1: Joey Yosevic arranged for a couple, the Creamers, to adopt Kaitlin.
- 10:06Speaker 1: After Caitlin was born, Horton and Yosevic had a change
- 10:09Speaker 1: of heart and canceled the adoption. The Georgie's Department of
- 10:12Speaker 1: Family and Children's Services had been involved with the family
- 10:15Speaker 1: when the boys were removed from the home, and now
- 10:17Speaker 1: they were called to make sure the family could care
- 10:20Speaker 1: for baby Kaitlin, and Kaylin went home with her mom
- 10:22Speaker 1: and dad. That was the last contact Defacts had with
- 10:25Speaker 1: the family until twenty eighteen. Our friend Dave Mack at
- 10:29Speaker 1: crime online dot Com. That's what I don't get to
- 10:33Speaker 1: Ashley Kelly. She is now a licensed clinical social worker.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Her expertise is child abuse and boys. She cut her
- 10:41Speaker 1: teeth and a tough environment at DEFACTS Department of Family
- 10:48Speaker 1: Children Services. Ashley Kelly, Now this is not about you, Okay.
- 10:54Speaker 1: I know you're not with DEFACTS anymore, but why in
- 10:58Speaker 1: the h E double l when you've already had two
- 11:02Speaker 1: little boys removed from the home for abuse and neglect.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Would you send an innocent baby girl into that situation
- 11:10Speaker 1: when the parents wanted to adopt her out anyway in
- 11:13Speaker 1: the last minute have a change of heart. Why in
- 11:16Speaker 1: the world would they get to keep a little baby.
- 11:19Speaker 1: That's a great question, and I know I can remember
- 11:22Speaker 1: several times that I had a tough time needing to
- 11:26Speaker 1: do that as well. What do you mean needed to
- 11:31Speaker 1: do that? Unfortunately, when you're just a keep manager, you
- 11:35Speaker 1: don't make any decisions by yourself, so you have to
- 11:39Speaker 1: stop it up and then do whatever is told to
- 11:44Speaker 1: you to do. And that's an arizona. I don't know
- 11:46Speaker 1: what it is. And and they said that to the
- 11:49Speaker 1: guard keepers at Auschwitz too, it's your job. So I
- 11:54Speaker 1: don't understand. Well, how in the world could defect send
- 11:57Speaker 1: a little baby like this and in a sent infant
- 12:01Speaker 1: girl into a home where the agency had already removed
- 12:06Speaker 1: two boys for neglect and abuse. I agree, and the
- 12:10Speaker 1: question is rue you have to do a home visit.
- 12:15Speaker 1: So I'm wondering, and just a couple of years ago,
- 12:18Speaker 1: how much different it could have been. I doubt it. Okay,
- 12:24Speaker 1: not two years past until DEFACTS is called to the home.
- 12:30Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend at Child thirteen, wmaz
- 12:34Speaker 1: Ashland Webb dfax By will show a call in twenty
- 12:37Speaker 1: eighteen about the home being quote bug infested, excessive cats
- 12:40Speaker 1: and hazardous conditions. Our folks came in, they saw that
- 12:43Speaker 1: the house was really a wreck. Dfacts agreed the house
- 12:46Speaker 1: was unsanitaria. They responded very quickly to our request that
- 12:50Speaker 1: they made this house a fit place to live. That
- 12:54Speaker 1: indicated to us that they were in fact capable of
- 12:57Speaker 1: caring for Caitlin. He says there wasn't enough is to
- 13:00Speaker 1: Bulkaitlin out of the home in two thousand and eight
- 13:02Speaker 1: or twenty eighteen. The standard required to remove a child
- 13:05Speaker 1: from home is that the child is an imminent dangers
- 13:08Speaker 1: and there's a child's safety. Is it really a threat
- 13:12Speaker 1: that can be emotional safety as well as physical safety.
- 13:16Speaker 1: But we also do get involved with cases that maybe
- 13:21Speaker 1: are a little less than that, but that where there's
- 13:24Speaker 1: a chronic issue where we need the assistance of the
- 13:27Speaker 1: courts in making sure the family does what they need
- 13:30Speaker 1: to do to remedy the situation. You're hearing our friend
- 13:34Speaker 1: Ashland Web at thirteen WMAZ and you're also hearing the
- 13:39Speaker 1: voice of Tom Rawlings, Georgia Defects Director. Well, I don't
- 13:44Speaker 1: know if he still has his job after this, so
- 13:47Speaker 1: let me understand something to you. Levi Page Crime online
- 13:50Speaker 1: dot Com investigative reporter, so Defacts removes two boys from
- 13:55Speaker 1: the home for a beast and neglect. Then mom gets
- 13:59Speaker 1: pregnant again. She has a little baby. She renigues on
- 14:04Speaker 1: the adoption deal from her hospital bed, says she doesn't
- 14:08Speaker 1: want the baby, but feel like she has to keep it.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Defects lets her keep the baby, and within a couple
- 14:16Speaker 1: of years, Defects is back at the home with bug infestation.
- 14:21Speaker 1: There were rats there as well, excessive Do I understand
- 14:26Speaker 1: that correctly? And they leave the girl there? Yes, Nancy,
- 14:30Speaker 1: They actually took her brothers and placed her brothers with
- 14:34Speaker 1: their grandmother, but they placed Caitlin with an aunt and
- 14:39Speaker 1: she was only there for six days and then for
- 14:43Speaker 1: some reason this is very hard to explain on their
- 14:47Speaker 1: part Shop Protective Services, they placed Caitlin back into the home,
- 14:53Speaker 1: but they did not place her brothers back into the home.
- 14:56Speaker 1: So the big question is if the home was not
- 15:00Speaker 1: safe enough for her brothers? Why was it safe enough
- 15:04Speaker 1: for her? Think about this and I need to go
- 15:07Speaker 1: to our doctor, doctor Chris Sperry. On this repeated hundreds
- 15:14Speaker 1: of life bites lowered her blood iron levels, causing anemia
- 15:20Speaker 1: and triggering a heart attack on this little girl, she's twelve.
- 15:28Speaker 1: She just turned twelve, a heart attack because of a
- 15:32Speaker 1: lice infestation. Doctor Chris Sperry. I've got so many questions
- 15:36Speaker 1: for you. Number one, why is it a danger to
- 15:40Speaker 1: children to have a home overrun with cats? So sorry?
- 15:45Speaker 1: What kind of diseases? Now? Why is it a danger
- 15:48Speaker 1: to have children in a home that's overrun with cats? Oh? Well, filth.
- 15:53Speaker 1: You know, cats or animals they carry parasites. Toxoplasmosis is
- 15:59Speaker 1: one of them that actually will get into people's brains. Um,
- 16:05Speaker 1: you know it's it's it's a bad disease to have
- 16:07Speaker 1: you Will you say that again? Talk boxoplasmosis? Is that
- 16:12Speaker 1: what's been connected to paranoid schizophrenia. Yes, yeah, it's been
- 16:17Speaker 1: connected to that. And uh, you know it's in you know,
- 16:21Speaker 1: you find it basically at all cats. And if there's
- 16:24Speaker 1: a lot of cats, then you just have more parasites.
- 16:28Speaker 1: And cats are dirty, and they have litter boxes, and
- 16:32Speaker 1: flies come and lay eggs in the litter boxes, and
- 16:37Speaker 1: you know, you have to be really worked very hard
- 16:41Speaker 1: to keep uh you know, a house or an apartment
- 16:44Speaker 1: with cats in it clean. It's it's just it's a
- 16:47Speaker 1: hard thing to do and requires causes and attention. Uh
- 16:51Speaker 1: does this apply to guinea pigs? This is a personal question.
- 16:54Speaker 1: Apply to guinea pigs? Well, not not so much unless
- 16:58Speaker 1: they're dirty, you unless you don't. Of course, they dirty,
- 17:01Speaker 1: They poop where they eat, they're filthy, they're disgusting, they're
- 17:05Speaker 1: they're more pig than guinea. Yeah. Well, any animal if
- 17:11Speaker 1: it's if it's not kept clean and its surroundings are
- 17:15Speaker 1: not clean, and it poops and peas in the house,
- 17:20Speaker 1: that's just a setup for all kinds of bacteria. Let
- 17:25Speaker 1: me ask you another question, doctor Sperry. This says the
- 17:29Speaker 1: home was um It says the home was filthy and disrepair,
- 17:36Speaker 1: with vermin covering the mattress, soft animals, and other furniture
- 17:42Speaker 1: in Caitlin's room. What does that mean specifically? By vermin?
- 17:47Speaker 1: Vermin means bugs, bugs of all sorts of you know
- 17:51Speaker 1: that feast on uh, feces on waste, you know, human waste.
- 17:58Speaker 1: They feast on the people, They bite them and get
- 18:03Speaker 1: their nourishment by biting and sucking some blood. So you know,
- 18:07Speaker 1: burman is a kind of a broad term, but it
- 18:10Speaker 1: really means all sorts of bugs. And then there's bugs
- 18:14Speaker 1: other types of bugs that eats certain bugs. So you know,
- 18:18Speaker 1: you have a whole ecosystem almost going on, but at
- 18:22Speaker 1: the heart of it is the human beings. The person
- 18:26Speaker 1: who is living in that room, and everything else just
- 18:29Speaker 1: comes to either bite her or to eat the bugs
- 18:33Speaker 1: that are biting her, and it becomes just a you know,
- 18:36Speaker 1: a giant, steaky mess crawling all over the time stories
- 18:52Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about just a beautiful
- 18:59Speaker 1: twelve year old little girl. I would say she would
- 19:03Speaker 1: have been in about the sixth grade in middle school.
- 19:09Speaker 1: Her name is Caitlin Yazaviak, and once you look at
- 19:15Speaker 1: her picture, you'll never forget her. You just heard doctor
- 19:20Speaker 1: Chris Sperry, who was the medical examiner for the State
- 19:26Speaker 1: of Georgia, describing what vermin, bugs, life s, infestation and
- 19:34Speaker 1: others can do to a child. You've also learned how
- 19:38Speaker 1: de Facts repeatedly sent this infant newborn baby back into
- 19:44Speaker 1: the home as she would get older and made her
- 19:47Speaker 1: live there. Take a listen to our friends at WMAZ.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Caitlyn's maternal grandparents in a statement to us Anna Horton,
- 19:56Speaker 1: the grandmother says she's been taking care of Caitlyn's two
- 19:59Speaker 1: older others since Joey and Katie lost custody of them
- 20:03Speaker 1: before Caitlin was born. Now here's their statement. They say,
- 20:06Speaker 1: we are gutted. We are in the dark, and we
- 20:08Speaker 1: don't understand. It's a deep, dark, black void. There is
- 20:11Speaker 1: nothing we can say. Joey should have been arrested immediately.
- 20:15Speaker 1: He deserved it. I've been raising Katie and Joey's two
- 20:17Speaker 1: sons since they were in diapers and taken away from
- 20:20Speaker 1: taking away from them. Had the system done their job
- 20:22Speaker 1: and rescue Kaitlyn, I would have raised her two In
- 20:25Speaker 1: quote to Karen Start and joining me New York psychologist Karen,
- 20:30Speaker 1: how can the people at Defects. I think they should
- 20:34Speaker 1: a be fired and b be criminally prosecuted over the
- 20:37Speaker 1: death of Caitlin Yah Siak And I'll tell you why
- 20:41Speaker 1: they stood by and watched it happen. Karen Start, you know,
- 20:46Speaker 1: if you stand you know my theory. If you stand
- 20:48Speaker 1: by and you let injustice go on and you don't
- 20:52Speaker 1: even try to do anything about it, you're complicit. You're
- 20:56Speaker 1: part of it. You're part of the conspiracy of what
- 20:59Speaker 1: happened to this little girl. What a horrible, horrible death
- 21:03Speaker 1: that she endured, being bitten hundreds, probably thousands of times
- 21:10Speaker 1: by lice until she dies of a heart attack. She's twelve.
- 21:16Speaker 1: And Karen, do you hear this. That was the aunt,
- 21:19Speaker 1: Anna Horton speaking, excuse me, the grandmother. Then you have
- 21:24Speaker 1: an aunt all of them saying we saw what was happening.
- 21:30Speaker 1: They should have been arrested long before Caitlin died, but
- 21:34Speaker 1: nobody did anything. Karen, Why nobody did anything? And how
- 21:40Speaker 1: many times do we see that happening, Nancy, Through the
- 21:43Speaker 1: years we hear about children who are neglected. I think
- 21:47Speaker 1: that not enough people. It's horrific, just terrific, And yet
- 21:52Speaker 1: it doesn't surprise me at all. It just the idea
- 21:57Speaker 1: that they understood to take the brothers out of there
- 22:00Speaker 1: and not let them back again. And this little girl
- 22:04Speaker 1: was even checked, they were even called to the home,
- 22:08Speaker 1: and yet she was allowed to stay there. And it
- 22:11Speaker 1: makes you feel powerless because there need to be more
- 22:15Speaker 1: people on these cases checking out even understanding the fact
- 22:21Speaker 1: that two of the children are not there, so how
- 22:25Speaker 1: could this third be allowed to be there? It's outrageous
- 22:28Speaker 1: to Stephen Lampley, detective, author of twelve and Murdered, coming
- 22:33Speaker 1: out November twenty nine on Amazon at Stephen Lampley dot com. Stephen,
- 22:37Speaker 1: what kind of an investigation should have been done? Because
- 22:41Speaker 1: let me hear this. When the agents got to the
- 22:44Speaker 1: home and find Caitlin's body, the inside of the home
- 22:49Speaker 1: was filthy and disrepair, vermin recovering her mattress, stuffed animals,
- 22:55Speaker 1: the furniture in her room. The mother, Mary Catherine Wharton,
- 23:00Speaker 1: says her daughter had not had a shower or bath
- 23:04Speaker 1: in a week and a half. A week and a half,
- 23:10Speaker 1: I mean, didn't teachers, didn't neighbors, relatives notice what was
- 23:16Speaker 1: happening to this girl, Nancy. The neighbors did. As my
- 23:20Speaker 1: understanding that several of the neighbors said that they didn't
- 23:22Speaker 1: see the little girl out playing in the yard, and
- 23:25Speaker 1: she would sometimes go to their houses and then visit
- 23:28Speaker 1: and have snacks, and then the neighbors didn't notice that
- 23:31Speaker 1: she was not doing her normal routine. She was not
- 23:35Speaker 1: getting out and playing in the yard, she was not
- 23:37Speaker 1: riding her bicycle, she was not coming to their houses,
- 23:40Speaker 1: you know. And twenty one years of law enforcement, Nancy,
- 23:44Speaker 1: I hadn't been in these homes and some of these situations.
- 23:50Speaker 1: Police officers are taught to be stoic, unemotional, but there
- 23:54Speaker 1: are times that I had to bite the inside of
- 23:57Speaker 1: my cheeks to keep from crying. When you have a
- 24:01Speaker 1: little child. When you get a call to a house
- 24:04Speaker 1: and you have a child eight nineteen eleven, twelve years old,
- 24:08Speaker 1: and you walk in and they run to you and
- 24:10Speaker 1: they hug you, asking for help. There are some, indeed,
- 24:17Speaker 1: some really horrible situations out there that some are investigated properly, some, unfortunately, Nancy,
- 24:25Speaker 1: are not. You know, to Ashley Kelly, now a very
- 24:30Speaker 1: successful licensed clinical social work or expertise of course children,
- 24:35Speaker 1: but former de Facts Department Family Children's Services employee, what
- 24:41Speaker 1: can a single employee do when you see these horrible
- 24:45Speaker 1: conditions and the child living there. The cap that there
- 24:48Speaker 1: are always hired, Nancy, because if we call them dirty
- 24:52Speaker 1: home cases, and sometimes you can go in and say
- 24:54Speaker 1: the home needs to be cleaned up in a certain
- 24:56Speaker 1: amount of days or we're going to interview. But this
- 24:59Speaker 1: would have been a case at the very least for
- 25:02Speaker 1: an in home intervention, so people going in regularly for
- 25:06Speaker 1: up to ninety to one hundred and twenty days at
- 25:08Speaker 1: least in Arizona, to make sure that the family has
- 25:11Speaker 1: the skills needed and the resources needed to make sure
- 25:14Speaker 1: that that would be remedied. I'm not sure what, if
- 25:18Speaker 1: anything defects did, but what would have been sp standard
- 25:22Speaker 1: operating procedure? Actually, what should they have done? Put in
- 25:25Speaker 1: a referral at least for community resources or like I
- 25:30Speaker 1: said that that third party that would be the in
- 25:32Speaker 1: home intervention, so that would be a counselor a family
- 25:36Speaker 1: support specialist, and from there, if they found that it continued,
- 25:41Speaker 1: they can go to a higher level of intervention. You know,
- 25:45Speaker 1: I'm looking at the home on the outside, and it's
- 25:48Speaker 1: got a nice yard. The home looks fine. They're shrubbery
- 25:52Speaker 1: all around, although it's kind of growing up toward the
- 25:57Speaker 1: roof of the house. But her her bedroom was infested
- 26:01Speaker 1: with rats and vermin. Back to doctor Chris Sperry, what
- 26:07Speaker 1: kind of pain would this child have endured? Her room
- 26:10Speaker 1: is infested with rats and her mattress is covered in bugs.
- 26:14Speaker 1: The furniture, the stuffed animals are infested. She had been
- 26:18Speaker 1: bitten thousands of times, to the point where she had
- 26:22Speaker 1: a heart attack. What suffering did she go through is
- 26:25Speaker 1: defects did by and twiddle their thumbs. It would be
- 26:28Speaker 1: horrible suffering because this is not something you know, to
- 26:32Speaker 1: get to the state that she was in. It isn't
- 26:35Speaker 1: a day, a week, This is on the order of months.
- 26:39Speaker 1: And you mentioned the rats. You know, we talked about
- 26:42Speaker 1: vermin earlier with bugs and bugs eating bugs. Well the
- 26:46Speaker 1: rats come in and they start eating on the insects too.
- 26:51Speaker 1: They're they're looking for a good food source, and all
- 26:55Speaker 1: the while the child is being bitten. Now, the itchiness
- 27:00Speaker 1: of the insects of the life especially would be insane,
- 27:06Speaker 1: would be overpowering. I mean really to the point where,
- 27:09Speaker 1: uh people they actually they've managed to ignore it because
- 27:16Speaker 1: they get so sick and so weakened that the itch
- 27:20Speaker 1: kind of fades into the background. But she would become
- 27:23Speaker 1: weak and confused, and with losing as much blood as
- 27:27Speaker 1: would would happen with you know, guiding her and sucking
- 27:31Speaker 1: the blood, she is then a setup for infections. You know,
- 27:37Speaker 1: her immune system is weakened. Um, she's nutritionally in terrible shape.
- 27:44Speaker 1: She know, she's just just deteriorating in front of in
- 27:47Speaker 1: front of everyone's eyes. Really uh, she could she would
- 27:51Speaker 1: not be normal if someone were to know before she died,
- 27:54Speaker 1: if someone were to see her, she would be weak
- 27:57Speaker 1: and lethargic, not talking, and the stink would be overpowering
- 28:03Speaker 1: as well. So here she is inside of a cesspit, basically,
- 28:09Speaker 1: with tens of thousands of bugs biting her, sucking her blood.
- 28:14Speaker 1: She gradually becomes weaker and weaker and weaker, and then
- 28:20Speaker 1: you know it's she lost. In this case, she lost
- 28:22Speaker 1: so much blood that her blood was borless, like water,
- 28:27Speaker 1: and that's why she had a heart attack because there
- 28:30Speaker 1: wasn't enough red cells, enough cells to carry oxygen. Because
- 28:35Speaker 1: her blood was so thin, it would it would be
- 28:38Speaker 1: horrible time stories with Nancy Grace. This little girl did
- 28:55Speaker 1: not have to die. Her name Caitlin Yasvak. She deserved
- 29:03Speaker 1: and could so easily have had a wonderful life. But
- 29:08Speaker 1: at the beginning, her deadbeat parents, who've already lost two
- 29:13Speaker 1: boys to de facts for neglecting abuse, reverse their decision
- 29:18Speaker 1: to adopt her out to a loving family and her
- 29:21Speaker 1: life was pure hell until the day she died, a
- 29:26Speaker 1: painful death. Neglected, mistreated, under fed. Take a listen to
- 29:36Speaker 1: Megan Bragg NBC two. We're also learning the three other
- 29:40Speaker 1: children in the home were only allowed to eat raw
- 29:43Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables, and two of them were severely underweight.
- 29:48Speaker 1: Sheila and Ryan did admit to police they thought something
- 29:51Speaker 1: was wrong with her baby weeks before, but didn't call
- 29:54Speaker 1: for help and if nine page report just obtained by
- 29:57Speaker 1: NBC two, Sheila tells police the baby he became sick
- 30:01Speaker 1: six months ago and was throwing up and lost weight
- 30:04Speaker 1: about a week before the baby died. Sheila says they're
- 30:07Speaker 1: eighteen month old, stopped eating and would only breastfeed occasionally.
- 30:11Speaker 1: The medical examiner says the baby was extremely malnourished, dehydrated,
- 30:17Speaker 1: and feet were swollen. Sheila says the baby has never
- 30:20Speaker 1: been to the doctor and was born inside their home.
- 30:23Speaker 1: Cape Coral police also say two other children were also
- 30:27Speaker 1: extremely underweight and one of their children's teeth were rotting.
- 30:31Speaker 1: Sheila told police the family would sleep in the living
- 30:34Speaker 1: room with one child on a hammock and another on
- 30:37Speaker 1: a dogbed. That is a story of another child allowed
- 30:42Speaker 1: to wither away in front of the eyes of their parents,
- 30:47Speaker 1: Ryan Patrick O'Leary and Sheila O'Leary, and they stood by
- 30:52Speaker 1: while their children's teeth rotted out. I mean to you,
- 30:57Speaker 1: doctor Chrisperry, how long would that take? Oh, that would
- 31:00Speaker 1: take really months, because it takes a long time for
- 31:05Speaker 1: teeth like this to start decaying and then rotting. It's constant.
- 31:11Speaker 1: Poor diet, you know, lots of just sugary drinks, just
- 31:16Speaker 1: you know, to give the child something, uh, you know, soda,
- 31:20Speaker 1: Coca cola, things like that that would just be really
- 31:25Speaker 1: sugar flavored flavored juices. And that's about it. But you
- 31:30Speaker 1: know what impresses me the most is that the stink
- 31:34Speaker 1: would be unbearable. Wait a minute, now, you're talking about
- 31:38Speaker 1: our first case of Caitlin Yasvak. I was comparing the
- 31:43Speaker 1: other case where the parents stood by and watch the
- 31:47Speaker 1: child slowly digress. But as a matter of fact, let's
- 31:52Speaker 1: go back to Caitlin, because the parents did the same thing.
- 31:57Speaker 1: It's the point that I'm making. Take a listen to
- 32:00Speaker 1: Cheryl Preheim WXIA eleven Alive in August, Katie Horton and
- 32:07Speaker 1: Joey Yazviiak were both charged with murder and child cruelty
- 32:11Speaker 1: in the twelve year old's death. A GBI investigator testified
- 32:14Speaker 1: Monday that Caitlin's death likely resulted from a severe lice infestation.
- 32:19Speaker 1: Special Agent Ryan Hilton testified that Caitlin's primary cause of
- 32:23Speaker 1: death was cardiac arrest, the secondary cause was anemia. He
- 32:27Speaker 1: said the girl's lice infestation was the worst he'd ever
- 32:31Speaker 1: seen and doctors had ever seen, and it may have
- 32:34Speaker 1: lasted for years. Hilton said repeated bites lowered her blood
- 32:38Speaker 1: iron levels, which likely caused that anemia and may have
- 32:41Speaker 1: triggered the heart attack. After hearing the evidence, Judge Brenda
- 32:45Speaker 1: Trammell ruled there was enough evidence to charge both parents.
- 32:49Speaker 1: Prosecutor's plan to ask a Wilkinson County grand jury to
- 32:53Speaker 1: indict the couple. The case against these two sorry parents
- 32:56Speaker 1: making its way through the justice system. We understand that
- 33:02Speaker 1: there have been murder charges filed, but sadly, to Kathleen Murphy,
- 33:07Speaker 1: North Carolina family law attorney, what I've seen over all
- 33:11Speaker 1: the years that I prosecuted and covered cases when the child,
- 33:15Speaker 1: the victim is a child for some reason, is treated
- 33:21Speaker 1: more leniently. The parents could get voluntary manslaw and get
- 33:26Speaker 1: a sentence of seven years and be out in three
- 33:30Speaker 1: What do you think unless we stay on the case
- 33:34Speaker 1: and keep covering it, that's what's going to happen. Jump in.
- 33:38Speaker 1: It is disgusting because I went through and read what
- 33:40Speaker 1: Caitlin's attorneys were saying, and they said there was absolutely
- 33:45Speaker 1: no neglect because they had critics in the home to
- 33:49Speaker 1: treat the life. And I almost literally sward my computer
- 33:54Speaker 1: across the room. The house is disgusting. There is no
- 33:58Speaker 1: excuse to treat a child like that, and they have
- 34:01Speaker 1: been bound over. Caitlin's parents have been bound over for
- 34:03Speaker 1: felony murder to trial. And it to me is I
- 34:12Speaker 1: couldn't been a criminal defense attorney. I don't know how
- 34:14Speaker 1: they do it. You know. A neighbor, Solomon London, says
- 34:19Speaker 1: he was so worried about Kaitlin the first time you
- 34:21Speaker 1: ever met her because she was playing with his three
- 34:24Speaker 1: children and Kaylyn stop and said, oh no, no, no, no, no,
- 34:28Speaker 1: don't come any closer. My mom will beat me. I mean,
- 34:34Speaker 1: if that's not a tip off, Please tell all your listeners,
- 34:37Speaker 1: Please tell all your listeners. Reach out and contact Social Services.
- 34:42Speaker 1: If you have an inkling, especially during the time where
- 34:45Speaker 1: children are isolated, if you have an inkling that something's
- 34:48Speaker 1: going wrong, please call protect our children. You know, I'm
- 34:52Speaker 1: just thinking about what you're saying to Stephen Lampley. How
- 34:55Speaker 1: often the neighbors, teachers, the parents, the children's friends know
- 35:01Speaker 1: something is wrong but don't do anything about it, Nancy.
- 35:05Speaker 1: Unfortunately that happens more often than it should. Of course,
- 35:09Speaker 1: there are times when people you know, and they brush
- 35:12Speaker 1: it off. Sometimes well, maybe their own vacation or maybe
- 35:15Speaker 1: the child's sick, and they trying to rationalize some of this.
- 35:19Speaker 1: There's nothing at all wrong. If you suspect something, to
- 35:24Speaker 1: let somebody know. It's not a bad omen. You're not
- 35:29Speaker 1: going to reach seven years of bad luck. Let somebody
- 35:33Speaker 1: know if you suspect something. Murder charges against the parents
- 35:36Speaker 1: of Wilkinson County twelve year old Caitlin heading to a
- 35:40Speaker 1: grand jury after a probable cause hearing. We understand there
- 35:44Speaker 1: are going to be felony murder charges. Now, Kathleen, of
- 35:51Speaker 1: course we know what that means. That means that and
- 35:55Speaker 1: it's a very wise moved by the state instead of
- 35:58Speaker 1: showing they intend inly murdered, Caitlin. The state is going
- 36:03Speaker 1: to show another felony was in progress and a death occurred.
- 36:07Speaker 1: It would be as if you and I went into
- 36:08Speaker 1: rob a bank and then suddenly I got a wild
- 36:10Speaker 1: hair and shot the teller dead. You're on the hook
- 36:13Speaker 1: for murder because we were in the commission of an
- 36:16Speaker 1: armed robbery and a death occurred. It could have been
- 36:20Speaker 1: as we drove away and we ran over a pedestrian.
- 36:23Speaker 1: We were in a felony bank robbery and a death occurred,
- 36:28Speaker 1: would still be charged with felony murder. It's very simply
- 36:32Speaker 1: in the commission of a felony, a death occurs, And
- 36:36Speaker 1: I think that's the way to go with these two parents,
- 36:39Speaker 1: because there's clear a child felony child abuse and felony
- 36:43Speaker 1: child neglect and a death occurred. Kathleen spot On, spot On,
- 36:47Speaker 1: well done to the prosecutors. The parents have also said
- 36:50Speaker 1: we fed her, we closed her, we bought her ridex,
- 36:55Speaker 1: we didn't neglect her. The facts speak for themselves. What
- 37:00Speaker 1: would they have seen, doctor Chris Berry, What would the
- 37:03Speaker 1: parents have been seeing manifest right before their eyes? Well,
- 37:09Speaker 1: seeing tens of thousands of lice is inescapable being they'd
- 37:15Speaker 1: be moving in her hair. Her hair would be constantly
- 37:20Speaker 1: moving and just wriggling and twisting because of all these
- 37:24Speaker 1: bugs that are crawling all through the hair. You could
- 37:27Speaker 1: see it probably from ten feet away actually, And she
- 37:32Speaker 1: also would be very wasted away. She'd be very, very pale, listless,
- 37:39Speaker 1: you know, no energy, She just you know, she would
- 37:43Speaker 1: look like an ill child. But the most bizarre thing
- 37:47Speaker 1: is that the parents, well anyone but the parents, seeing
- 37:51Speaker 1: her every day, would see all these tens of thousands
- 37:54Speaker 1: of lice wriggling and moving throughout her hair and its
- 38:00Speaker 1: capable And as a matter of fact, the state has
- 38:03Speaker 1: brought in an entomology abug expert to discuss the effects
- 38:08Speaker 1: of this life infestation. After the death, we wait as
- 38:14Speaker 1: these two make their way through the justice system. And
- 38:17Speaker 1: this has got to be felony murder or nothing. I'm
- 38:20Speaker 1: begging the bib County prosecutors, do not reduce this case down,
- 38:27Speaker 1: don't plead it out. Nancy Grace crime story signing off,
- 38:32Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,