Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Daycare Dangers, Babysitters, and Nannies from Hell? | JUSTICE NATION: CRIME STOPS HERE

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Daycare Dangers, Babysitters, and Nannies from Hell? | JUSTICE NATION: CRIME STOPS HERE · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome to Part five of
0:03
Speaker 1: Justice Nation. Crime Stops Here, daycare Dangers, babysitters, nannies from Hell.
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Speaker 1: Terms apply. Thank you LifeLock for making this possible and
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Speaker 1: for being our partner. Welcome to Session five. Daycare dangers, babycenters,
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Speaker 1: nannies from hell, not on my watch. You know. Sometimes
1:47
Speaker 1: I drive past the twins school and I wonder what's
1:51
Speaker 1: going on in there? And yes, when they were in
1:54
Speaker 1: place school, that was me outside looking in the window.
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Speaker 1: Is that wrong? But why? Why did I do it?
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Speaker 1: Because I am haunted. I'm haunted by true life cases
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Speaker 1: for students have been abused, mistreated, harmed, or even killed
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Speaker 1: by their care givers, the very people that moms and
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Speaker 1: dads trust with the ones they love the most, whether
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Speaker 1: it's a babysitter, a high class nanny from an elite agency,
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Speaker 1: or a paid by the our daycare. We as a
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Speaker 1: nation leave our children in the care of others so
2:38
Speaker 1: we can work. My mother did it so she could
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Speaker 1: punch a calculator. Her mother did it so she could
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Speaker 1: stand up all day and work in a factory. My
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Speaker 1: daughter will probably do it one day, as will my son,
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Speaker 1: just because we have to leave them so we can
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Speaker 1: work does not mean we cannot protect them. The pain
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Speaker 1: I felt as a crime victim would be magnified ten
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Speaker 1: thousand times over if that victim were my child. I
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Speaker 1: don't think I could live with myself if I made
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Speaker 1: a bad decision in child care and it resulted in
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Speaker 1: even a bruise. You may have the best school, you
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Speaker 1: may have who you think is a great babysitter, nanny
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Speaker 1: or daycare, but very often we I can't see the danger,
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Speaker 1: but there is a method of protecting your child when
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Speaker 1: out of your sight. I don't want to be that
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Speaker 1: parent asking why, and I don't want you to be
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Speaker 1: that parent either. My child a victim over my cold
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Speaker 1: dead body. Where do I start? How can we go
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Speaker 1: to work and ensure that our children are safe? Straight
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Speaker 1: out to you, Francy Haikes. I'm concerned specifically about children
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Speaker 1: too young to speak for themselves. That would be inference.
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Speaker 1: And the seminal case on Nanny's from Hell, Louise Woodward.
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Speaker 1: I covered that case life and I will never forget it.
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Speaker 1: The parents very educated, very wealthy, and affluent. I think
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Speaker 1: both of them were doctors, and they looked along and
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Speaker 1: hard before they went to an agency that sent them.
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Speaker 1: Louise Woodward. Now she was a brit and you know
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Speaker 1: a lot of Americans are taken in by the sophisticated
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Speaker 1: British accent. She seemed very worldly in a good way.
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Speaker 1: She loved Broadway. She was accomplice, she had an education.
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Speaker 1: Everything what went wrong.
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Speaker 2: Well, she had three days of training. It turns out
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Speaker 2: three days of training. She went from babysitting occasionally, as
5:15
Speaker 2: most young girls do even today, to being a full
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Speaker 2: time nanny of two children, including Matthew Epan, who was
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Speaker 2: only eight months old when.
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Speaker 1: She murdered him. You know, there was a lot of
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Speaker 1: discussion about what happened with baby Mattie, and I'm trying
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Speaker 1: to think of ways that I can take that tragedy
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Speaker 1: and learn from it and use that knowledge to help
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Speaker 1: other people. For instance, you have an infant that can't
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Speaker 1: speak for itself, what do you look for? What are
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Speaker 1: the signs that your babysitter or your nanny is a danger.
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Speaker 2: You have to look for things like mystery bruises that
5:58
Speaker 2: don't have a good explanation. You have to look for
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Speaker 2: a sense that the child might be uncomfortable whenever that
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Speaker 2: person is around them. If the child is not verbal,
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Speaker 2: which eight month old Matthew clearly was not. Then you
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Speaker 2: have to look at his nonverbal cues. How did he
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Speaker 2: act when he was with his nanny? Did he seem
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Speaker 2: happy to see her? Did he go to her easily?
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Speaker 2: Or did he cry? And again you look for injuries,
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Speaker 2: things that are unexplained. Does he seem to be eating
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Speaker 2: all the food that the mother wants him to eat?
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Speaker 2: Is he drinking all the bottles that he's supposed to
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Speaker 2: be drinking? How does he appear right when she comes
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Speaker 2: home from work and it's time for the nanny to finish.
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Speaker 2: Does the child seem healthy and happy? Those are really
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Speaker 2: the big signs still love for well.
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Speaker 1: Those are of course non verbal cues because the baby
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Speaker 1: can't tell you. I'm all about nanny Kim's and home security.
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Speaker 1: It's not just for intruders. When I first had the twins,
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Speaker 1: I had not only a babysitter, but a second babysitter
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Speaker 1: to watch the first baby's watch the babies. Yeah, okay,
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Speaker 1: very often I would have the two babysitters and my
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Speaker 1: mother and father there because I was so concerned and
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Speaker 1: freaked out by cases, just like Louise Woodward and the
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Speaker 1: brutal death of baby Mattie Matthew Apen. What was the
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Speaker 1: cause of death with Matthew Apen.
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Speaker 2: Well, it looked like what we called then we called
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Speaker 2: a shaken slamming case. So it looked like the baby
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Speaker 2: had brain injury and a two and a half inch
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Speaker 2: skull fracture. And I just want to emphasize, you know this, Nancy,
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Speaker 2: from being a prosecutor, I just want to emphasize, it's
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Speaker 2: actually not easy to fracture a baby's skull. They're a
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Speaker 2: little bit soft, they're a little bit malleable. That's why
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Speaker 2: you'll hear forensic medical examiners say on the witness stand
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Speaker 2: when they see injuries just like this that it's the
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Speaker 2: same kind of injury we'd get in a car crash,
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Speaker 2: that kind of terrible impact injury. So it's shaken.
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Speaker 3: Baby, silver can have infants will have impact which is
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Speaker 3: bad as bad as a sixty mile per hour car
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Speaker 3: crash on their skull.
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Speaker 1: That you don't get that from falling off the sofa.
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Speaker 2: No, you absolutely don't. And that's what Matthew even had.
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Speaker 2: The medical examiner found specifically that he had a skull
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Speaker 2: fracture that it looked to him to be blunt force trauma,
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Speaker 2: which is not the same as you would get in
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Speaker 2: a fall injury. And I know in that case they
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Speaker 2: went and they measured all the surfaces. Louise Woodward told
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Speaker 2: police at one point that she had dropped him on
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Speaker 2: the floor, but by the time trial came around, it
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Speaker 2: was I popped him onto the bed, and because that
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Speaker 2: would be a more British word, popped him onto the
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Speaker 2: bed and said that the police just misunderstood her when
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Speaker 2: she claimed to drop him on the floor. But you know, Nancy,
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Speaker 2: that is classic child murderer defense. Well he fell or
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Speaker 2: I just dropped him a very short distance. All they
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Speaker 2: ever do is minimize what's happened. But in that minimization
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Speaker 2: you get a kernel of truth.
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Speaker 1: Well, also, there is a shaken baby syndrome, which is
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Speaker 1: a close head injury. It's deadly, it's fatal. When you
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Speaker 1: shake a child. A lot of people do out of
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Speaker 1: frustration because the child won't go to sleep, or the
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Speaker 1: child won't stop crying, or it won't take its bottle
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Speaker 1: or do whatever it is the adult wants it to do.
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Speaker 1: They shake the baby and what that does is cause
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Speaker 1: a coup contrac coup effect. That means that brain actually
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Speaker 1: hits back in forth as the head is shaken, hitting
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Speaker 1: the interior of the skull, which causes bleeding or bruising
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Speaker 1: to the child's brain. The brain begins to swell. There's
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Speaker 1: nowhere to go. It swells against the skull, and there's
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Speaker 1: permanent brain damage that ends very often in death. What
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is when you come home and
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Speaker 1: there's not a blow or a bruise or a cut
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Speaker 1: on your child's head does not mean the child's okay.
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Speaker 2: The often show signs of that brain injury early. There's vomiting,
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Speaker 2: there's lethargy, there's oftentimes the baby has trouble staying awake.
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Speaker 2: These are all symptoms that something is wrong with your child,
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Speaker 2: something's wrong with the child's brain, and oftentimes that's how
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Speaker 2: parents figure out there's something wrong. But by the time
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Speaker 2: the child has been vomiting for some time, then the
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Speaker 2: child becomes unresponsive. It's now been hours since the injury,
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Speaker 2: and it's too late.
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Speaker 1: So what can I learn from this? The parents used
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Speaker 1: a good agency. She had references, and I'm curious about references.
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Speaker 2: So there's one thing that I think we need to
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Speaker 2: be doing as parents. There are no second chances when
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Speaker 2: it comes to the safety of your children. And if
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Speaker 2: you read the story, this woman was breaking rules, staying
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Speaker 2: out late, drinking, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And
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Speaker 2: the parents probably felt like, we're in too deep. We
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Speaker 2: brought her over from Great Britain, she's you know, she's
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Speaker 2: living with They probably just felt all of those things,
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Speaker 2: and they kept giving her more chances. There are no
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Speaker 2: second chances. As soon as you break the first rule.
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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, you're not going to be in charge of
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Speaker 2: my children.
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Speaker 1: And there were warnings as innocent as they may be,
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Speaker 1: coming in lay breaking curfew, not being where she was
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Speaker 1: supposed to be.
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Speaker 2: And being a little belligerent with them about the rules,
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Speaker 2: like she did not like the rules that they were
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Speaker 2: placing on her.
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Speaker 1: So there was some butting of heads. An angry babysitter
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Speaker 1: taking care of your baby. Recent killings in New York
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Speaker 1: where the children were killed by the nanny who had
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Speaker 1: never exhibited any sign mental illness of any sort. In fact,
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Speaker 1: as not mentally ill, was angry. She had complained she
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Speaker 1: needed more money, and the mom said, hey, you can
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Speaker 1: pick up some more hours here if you want. To
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Speaker 1: help me clean up. You know, I'm working all the time.
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Speaker 1: Then she and nanny fell overburdened and overwhelmed and killed
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Speaker 1: the children. That was her answer to being stressed out,
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Speaker 1: So she slaughtered those children. That's a horrible case. Its
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Speaker 1: appearance from yours a nightmare because we as moms are
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Speaker 1: overridden with guilt because we have to leave our children
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Speaker 1: to make a living, to support our children. We want
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Speaker 1: to be with them, but we have to work, or
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Speaker 1: we want to work, and we want to be a
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Speaker 1: great mom. And so you're already feeling guilty about it.
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Speaker 1: A lot of moms. Are you trust this babysitter, You
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Speaker 1: think you're doing the right thing, and you find out
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Speaker 1: they're harming your children. Those are two extreme cases, but
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Speaker 1: it happens quite often with babysitters and nannies. But concerning
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Speaker 1: about the Louis Woodworth cases, they think they've got this
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Speaker 1: Krim de la Krem, this great posh agency. When you're
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Speaker 1: looking at references, it's not just they went to school here, yes,
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Speaker 1: I've known her this long. I need references from other
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Speaker 1: families where they have been a babysitter or a nanny.
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Speaker 1: Now do you go about finding someone you can trust
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Speaker 1: to babysit your children.
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Speaker 2: Well, I think first all you have to think of
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Speaker 2: it as is, do not say go on to Craigslist. No, no,
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Speaker 2: it wasn't point too. Don't worry. Never, that's never going
13:08
Speaker 2: to come out of my mouth for any reason. You
13:11
Speaker 2: have to think of it as a pyramid, stacking of security.
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Speaker 1: As a pyramid.
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Speaker 2: The base really is things like background checks, criminal checks,
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Speaker 2: reference checks. But as you go up to the tip
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Speaker 2: of the pyramid, you really have to stack on top
13:22
Speaker 2: because that wouldn't have affected Louise Woodward. Probably she didn't
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Speaker 2: have a criminal history that we know of. She had
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Speaker 2: some decent references. So what else do you do? Then
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Speaker 2: it's making those observations, understanding what your child's routine is,
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Speaker 2: paying close attention to their health, but also considering things
13:37
Speaker 2: like nanny Cam's second babysitters. You have to do a
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Speaker 2: variety of things. It isn't just one thing. One thing
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Speaker 2: is never enough when it comes to the security of
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Speaker 2: your child. In this age of social media, it can
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Speaker 2: work in your favorite It can be a positive thing
13:51
Speaker 2: for you because you can put out there, hey, I'm
13:54
Speaker 2: looking for a good nanny, and you can get personal
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Speaker 2: recommendations from people who you know who have used a
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Speaker 2: good knee versus going to the agency, And to be
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Speaker 2: perfectly honest with you, nanny's churn like this through agencies,
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Speaker 2: so it's really hard for them to keep good people.
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Speaker 1: And it's a.
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Speaker 2: Low paying job generally, so they're not getting super high
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Speaker 2: quality people. As a general rule, using your personal circle,
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Speaker 2: leveraging your personal circle, and then meeting that person in person.
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Speaker 2: Even if the nanny agency screamed them for you or
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Speaker 2: somebody else screamed them for you, meet them in person,
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Speaker 2: bring them into your home, have a conversation, and get
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Speaker 2: a sense of how you feel about.
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Speaker 1: Well, that's funny because I was looking for a babysitter
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Speaker 1: for the twins and I met a lady and her
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Speaker 1: sister who would be filling in if she ever couldn't
14:41
Speaker 1: make it, and I distinctly smelled smoke. It wasn't just
14:47
Speaker 1: it was them, Okay, it wasn't where we were, And
14:50
Speaker 1: so I said, you know, I can't have anyone smoking
14:55
Speaker 1: around the children. Oh, we don't smoke. I'm like, well, okay,
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Speaker 1: that's over, because they just lied to me because it
15:02
Speaker 1: could smell it all over them even when they spoke.
15:05
Speaker 1: It was coming out of their math. It wasn't just
15:07
Speaker 1: their hair where maybe they had been in a car
15:10
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Speaker 1: you LifeLock for being our partner. So we've got the
16:43
Speaker 1: whole babysitting nanny issue. I want to think about the
16:48
Speaker 1: case of Ryland Coopmeyer. Do you remember that case, Francy
16:52
Speaker 1: I do.
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Speaker 2: This was a terrible case because the child was only
16:55
Speaker 2: three months old. Ryland was only three months old and
16:59
Speaker 2: died of what a skull fracture. That's why we say
17:03
Speaker 2: that your child may not get a second chance, because
17:06
Speaker 2: that skull fracture happens in an instant of rage when
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Speaker 2: the babysitter or the nanny or whoever is caring for
17:12
Speaker 2: your child doesn't like something the child is doing. And
17:15
Speaker 2: it oftentimes doesn't matter what. The child could be crying,
17:18
Speaker 2: the child could be coughing, the child could be refusing
17:21
Speaker 2: to do something. The child could be not going to
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Speaker 2: sleep when they're supposed to, and the sitter gets angry
17:28
Speaker 2: and bang slams the child down. And this person, Gum
17:32
Speaker 2: had been convicted of a dui, but no one told
17:35
Speaker 2: the parents that they didn't know. And you know, that's
17:38
Speaker 2: a misdemeanor. It's not a crime of moral turpitude as
17:41
Speaker 2: we would have referred to it when we were prosecutors.
17:43
Speaker 2: But it's still a red flag. Do you want someone
17:46
Speaker 2: who was so irresponsible as to get a dy to
17:49
Speaker 2: care for your children? What if there's an emergency or
17:52
Speaker 2: your child is just going on a playdate to school
17:55
Speaker 2: or back. You can't trust something like that with your child.
17:57
Speaker 1: Do you recall the case of Cooper film, and it's
18:01
Speaker 1: always stood in mind.
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Speaker 2: The Cooper Fails case is particularly gruesome, I think, or
18:06
Speaker 2: grim because when Cooper's father went to pick him up
18:10
Speaker 2: with the daycare, the daycare provider told him that Cooper
18:14
Speaker 2: was asleep and he was already in his car seat
18:17
Speaker 2: with a cover over it, so the father couldn't even
18:19
Speaker 2: see Cooper in the car seat. And an hour before
18:23
Speaker 2: the father came, the caregiver said, oh, you know, he's
18:26
Speaker 2: been vomiting a little bit and sort of sleeping a
18:28
Speaker 2: lot today, so I've gone ahead and put him in
18:30
Speaker 2: his car seat. So when you come and get him,
18:33
Speaker 2: you know he's going to be sleeping. So father thinks,
18:36
Speaker 2: as many young fathers do, I don't want to wake
18:39
Speaker 2: my child because he's getting some blessed sleep, So he
18:43
Speaker 2: puts him in the car and he takes him home,
18:45
Speaker 2: and it isn't until he gets him home and takes
18:47
Speaker 2: the cover off that he realizes his child is blue.
18:50
Speaker 2: The child had died, according to the medical examiner, at
18:54
Speaker 2: least an hour before the father ever picked him up.
18:59
Speaker 2: Because this is where I say this is so grim.
19:01
Speaker 2: They couldn't intubate the child because his jaws were stiff
19:04
Speaker 2: and locked. They couldn't manipulate his hands to try to
19:08
Speaker 2: put any ivs in because they were stiff. Because of course,
19:11
Speaker 2: the child had been dead for some time. And yet
19:14
Speaker 2: this caregiver, who I want to use that term, this offender,
19:19
Speaker 2: had violated all the rules, had too many children in
19:22
Speaker 2: her daycare, and this child was dead, but no cause
19:28
Speaker 2: of death could be determined, and so she was never
19:32
Speaker 2: criminally charged. And that is where I have trouble sleeping
19:37
Speaker 2: over that case, because no one has ever been held
19:39
Speaker 2: accountable for that baby's death. He didn't just stop breathing
19:42
Speaker 2: on his own. Something bad happened.
19:45
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about daycare. First of all, I don't
19:48
Speaker 1: understand why there can't be live streaming. Not everyone can't
19:54
Speaker 1: afford daycare where they had live streaming, but the reality is.
20:00
Speaker 1: It doesn't if you hate that much. They even have
20:03
Speaker 1: life streaming in the pet kennels where they have claystations
20:08
Speaker 1: for pets where you drop your pet off if you're
20:10
Speaker 1: going out of town and you can see the cat
20:13
Speaker 1: or the dog playing or whatever. They have that for dogs.
20:18
Speaker 1: But I can't line streaming to my children's school. That
20:22
Speaker 1: to me is a red flag. If you can't visit
20:26
Speaker 1: anytime you're they're unannounced, right, that is a red flag
20:30
Speaker 1: to me. Yes, you know, sometimes, especially after our cove
20:35
Speaker 1: cover these cases. I just want to go to the
20:37
Speaker 1: twins school and I will dream up anything I have to.
20:40
Speaker 1: I'll show it with two baby Aspen and go. They're sick,
20:43
Speaker 1: but not so sick they need to stay out of school.
20:45
Speaker 1: They're just sick enough that I need to go to
20:47
Speaker 1: see them. Give them this baby Aspers or John David
20:51
Speaker 1: left his water bottle at home. Sorry, and they go,
20:55
Speaker 1: we'll take it away. Oh no, I'll take it. I'll
20:57
Speaker 1: be happy to and go to just see them, laies
21:02
Speaker 1: on them and know what's happening.
21:04
Speaker 2: Well, there are a lot of things that so I
21:05
Speaker 2: do a lot of training to schools and daycares and
21:08
Speaker 2: children's charities, that fund daycares and some of the things
21:11
Speaker 2: that you should look for in a good daycare. If
21:13
Speaker 2: they don't have cameras, I'm concerned. But more than that,
21:17
Speaker 2: how many people are in the room with the infants
21:20
Speaker 2: and babies, the ones who have to have their diapers changed.
21:23
Speaker 2: Do they have a rule where two personnel are in
21:25
Speaker 2: there at all times? Where is the diaper changing station?
21:29
Speaker 2: Is it somewhere way in private where one adult takes
21:32
Speaker 2: one child away in private to change the child's diaper
21:36
Speaker 2: where no one can see them. Are there windows in
21:38
Speaker 2: the doors of the classrooms or the doors of the
21:40
Speaker 2: wherever the children are their windows? Generally speaking, what are
21:45
Speaker 2: their safety protocols with respect to who can see the
21:49
Speaker 2: children and how often are they checked? These are all
21:52
Speaker 2: things that to me, if they don't exist, are serious
21:55
Speaker 2: red flags about a daycare. And different states have different
22:01
Speaker 2: Like in Georgia where I'm from, they have quality rated
22:05
Speaker 2: standards and it's a star system where the daycare has
22:09
Speaker 2: to go through a certain series of you know, take
22:11
Speaker 2: a certain service, actions, protocols for training, protocols for safety
22:16
Speaker 2: to earn different levels of stars, and then people who
22:19
Speaker 2: are searching for a daycare can go on to the
22:21
Speaker 2: quality rated site and can look and see, you know,
22:24
Speaker 2: what's the star rating of this daycare. And they can
22:27
Speaker 2: also see if there have been complaints or violations filed
22:30
Speaker 2: against that daycare and they can see them. So parents
22:32
Speaker 2: need to do their due diligence, yes, and yeah, out
22:35
Speaker 2: blind the school. It's the parents. The onus is on
22:38
Speaker 2: the seerance to sign the right place. Well, I mentioned
22:40
Speaker 2: not being able to afford, and I totally understand daycare
22:43
Speaker 2: is expensive, but if you're choosing where to spend your money,
22:46
Speaker 2: you should be spending it on the safety of your children.
22:49
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely so in my mind, you know, stop beating
22:52
Speaker 2: out or stop taking vacations. Even as a small daycares
22:55
Speaker 2: in the neighborhoods the little lady who takes in three
22:58
Speaker 2: of the kids in the neighborhood, If that woman can't
23:01
Speaker 2: afford a fifty dollars petcam that you can all tie into,
23:05
Speaker 2: you just don't go there, or you buy or one
23:07
Speaker 2: something separating without a license.
23:10
Speaker 1: Right, it doesn't have to be that accident. That brings
23:12
Speaker 1: me to my next point, and that is the home
23:15
Speaker 1: daycare where it's a lot of them are unlicensed. The
23:19
Speaker 1: ones that are licensed did you know that the House
23:22
Speaker 1: of Horrors, the Turpens in California, they actually had licensed
23:29
Speaker 1: to their home to be a school of sorts or
23:33
Speaker 1: a play school of sorts. Yes, they were purportedly homeschooling
23:36
Speaker 1: all those It had never been checked out by the
23:41
Speaker 1: local government, It had never been under all the due
23:45
Speaker 1: diligence spy of local authorities. Nothing, it had never been visited. Nothing.
23:52
Speaker 1: So when somebody just puts a sign out that they
23:55
Speaker 1: are a daycare or there are a play school, that's
23:59
Speaker 1: not a necessarily true.
24:01
Speaker 2: Well, and to your point, social media can be a
24:04
Speaker 2: critical tool today, and if you are not, if you're
24:07
Speaker 2: not using social media to check out the daycare provider,
24:11
Speaker 2: the people inside the daycare, the certified supposedly providers. What
24:16
Speaker 2: are their pages show? What do they post on Instagram?
24:19
Speaker 2: What did they post on Facebook? Do they engage in
24:22
Speaker 2: behavior that you think is risky? And you wouldn't let
24:25
Speaker 2: a babysitter who comes into your home engage in then
24:27
Speaker 2: you shouldn't. You shouldn't have your children with those people.
24:31
Speaker 2: If you're not checking out on social media at a minimum,
24:34
Speaker 2: the people in your child's life, you're crazy.
24:38
Speaker 1: The story of Baby Autumn is one that seems to
24:43
Speaker 1: echo over and over and over what happened with Baby
24:46
Speaker 1: Autumn Francy.
24:48
Speaker 2: Well, of course baby Autumn died of what severe head trauma,
24:53
Speaker 2: just like most of these children do. Her babysitter through
24:56
Speaker 2: her to the floor. She admits that she threw her
24:59
Speaker 2: to the floor, which I'm not sure I credit, by
25:02
Speaker 2: the way, because throwing a child to the floor is
25:07
Speaker 2: maybe not going to result in severe head trauma depends
25:10
Speaker 2: on how much the child weighs, how hard she threw her.
25:14
Speaker 2: A three year old child, if you just shove her down,
25:17
Speaker 2: is not going to have severe head trauma. So I
25:20
Speaker 2: don't necessarily buy the babysitter's tail on that. But she
25:24
Speaker 2: claimed that the child wouldn't take her jacket off, and
25:27
Speaker 2: so the babysitter flew into a rage and killed her.
25:31
Speaker 2: I mean, she killed her over a jacket. We'll never
25:35
Speaker 2: know really what happened, because every time these women, it
25:39
Speaker 2: seems like it's almost always women in these caregivers. Every
25:41
Speaker 2: time these caregivers murder a child in their care, we
25:44
Speaker 2: only have their side of the story, and of course
25:47
Speaker 2: they minimize what has happened. I suspect that she brutally
25:52
Speaker 2: injured that child very purposefully slamming her somewhere or hitting
25:57
Speaker 2: her with something causing that level of head trauma.
26:00
Speaker 1: She was only three years old and the parents had
26:03
Speaker 1: tried so hard to have a child and they finally
26:07
Speaker 1: get baby Autumn and she loses her life that way.
26:12
Speaker 2: This child had a black eye and bloody lips and
26:17
Speaker 2: I think a split chin while she was in the
26:21
Speaker 2: care of the babysitter, So there were signs. Now, I'm
26:24
Speaker 2: assuming that she probably gave the parents, because you know,
26:27
Speaker 2: a three year old fall down. I'm sure she gave
26:30
Speaker 2: them good explanations. But those are definitely red flags that
26:34
Speaker 2: should have led to a nanny camp, further investigation, maybe even.
26:39
Speaker 1: Calling in zero tolerance and zero But becau's the thing
26:42
Speaker 1: about the nanny cams. I let the babysitters know that
26:46
Speaker 1: there are nanny cams. In fact, I call them and say,
26:51
Speaker 1: John David is crawling up the bookcase right now. If
26:56
Speaker 1: you would just turn around, you could see that. Or
26:59
Speaker 1: did you turn the lights off and so and so room?
27:02
Speaker 1: Or could she turn the lights on outside? If I
27:05
Speaker 1: had to be out of town early night watching, yeah,
27:08
Speaker 1: I'm watching, deal with it. And if you don't like it.
27:13
Speaker 1: Don't cast a check and go somewhere else, Cleanny. I mean,
27:16
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be watching. It sounds sort of silly.
27:18
Speaker 2: We don't have any kids in the house, but we
27:20
Speaker 2: have a pet cam so that when we go out
27:22
Speaker 2: of town for extended periods of time, I can make
27:24
Speaker 2: sure that our pet sitter is actually coming in and
27:28
Speaker 2: taking care of our pets. I mean, if I had
27:30
Speaker 2: a child, I would certainly be doing that minimum amount.
27:33
Speaker 1: So they're very very low costs. As a matter of fact,
27:37
Speaker 1: you can now get them tied in with your cable company.
27:40
Speaker 1: It's so easy to do. You can get them online
27:44
Speaker 1: stuffed into a teddy bear if you want to keep
27:46
Speaker 1: it a secret. But I like to put it out
27:49
Speaker 1: there with a secret, and that's right, it's not a secret.
27:51
Speaker 1: I am watching. As you know, there are the issues
27:56
Speaker 1: of over medication at daycares and with babies and nannies
28:00
Speaker 1: when they don't want to deal with the baby, they
28:02
Speaker 1: put the baby's sleep with, say Ben Adrill. Yes, really
28:07
Speaker 1: have to watch out when your child is lethargic when
28:09
Speaker 1: you pick it up. Children aren't supposed to be a lethargic.
28:12
Speaker 1: They're not tired. I may be dragging my tail at
28:15
Speaker 1: the end of the day. But they are full of energy.
28:18
Speaker 1: They want to stay up all night. We can model that. Yeah,
28:22
Speaker 1: So when they are lethargic, that's a big red flow.
28:26
Speaker 2: And when a daycare center or a service or a
28:30
Speaker 2: home daycare has too many children, that's when we hear
28:34
Speaker 2: about those cases because that person and I just really
28:38
Speaker 2: oppose one person at a daycare too on every level.
28:41
Speaker 2: But when it's one person, they can't handle that many children,
28:45
Speaker 2: and that's what happens. They medicate those kids so that
28:48
Speaker 2: they can either go watch television and eat in peace,
28:51
Speaker 2: or just not deal with the children generally and put
28:55
Speaker 2: them all to sleep effectively.
28:57
Speaker 1: Here's another issue with babysitters and daycares. Who else comes
29:02
Speaker 1: to visit. You know, you may have a babysitter or
29:06
Speaker 1: a nanny. You don't want their boyfriend riding up on
29:09
Speaker 1: his motorcycle and coming in to watch a movie and
29:11
Speaker 1: have a beer. No, you don't know that boyfriend, You
29:15
Speaker 1: don't know anything about them, and you don't want that
29:18
Speaker 1: person around your child. Just like in the home. Don't
29:24
Speaker 1: expose your children if you can help it to the
29:26
Speaker 1: TV repairman, the cable guy, the phone guy. No, you
29:31
Speaker 1: don't know them. You don't want them watching your child. No,
29:37
Speaker 1: that gives them an opportunity to get to know your
29:39
Speaker 1: child and plan to abduct your child. I know it
29:43
Speaker 1: sounds crazy, but it happens, Francy. It does happen. It
29:47
Speaker 1: does happen.
29:48
Speaker 2: And what's really frightening is that if your child sees
29:50
Speaker 2: the cable guy come in or the refrigerator repairman and
29:53
Speaker 2: sees you talking to him and bantering about with him,
29:56
Speaker 2: if that person comes back when you're not home, that
29:59
Speaker 2: child feels like they know that person. That is a
30:02
Speaker 2: huge risk to expose your child to someone you can't
30:05
Speaker 2: possibly know their background, So you.
30:07
Speaker 1: Don't want them pulling up ten minutes after you drive
30:10
Speaker 1: out of the driveway or go down the elevator. You know,
30:14
Speaker 1: we're talking about nanny cams and babycams. A big fear
30:19
Speaker 1: now is baby monitor hacking. And it happens where people
30:25
Speaker 1: can get control of your baby monitor. It's on a frequency,
30:30
Speaker 1: and if you can get into the frequency, you can
30:34
Speaker 1: see what's happening in someone's home.
30:36
Speaker 2: It's been really the video baby monitors. But even now
30:39
Speaker 2: we've got Alexa in our house and everything's wired together.
30:42
Speaker 2: And if you don't think people can see your stuff
30:45
Speaker 2: through your webcams and through your TV sets and every
30:49
Speaker 2: technology device in your house now is able to be hacked.
30:53
Speaker 1: How do we go about preventing the hacking. So a
30:57
Speaker 1: lot of people don't want to get them because they
30:59
Speaker 1: I don't want to be hacked.
31:00
Speaker 2: That's well, it's all about cyber security. It's generally about cybersecurity.
31:03
Speaker 2: There's really two things you need to worry about if
31:05
Speaker 2: you have any kind of a baby monitor or frankly
31:08
Speaker 2: a webcam on.
31:09
Speaker 1: Your laptop, which we all do now, or on your iPad.
31:12
Speaker 2: That is first, you have to worry about whether or
31:14
Speaker 2: not you're keeping up with security updates on your phone,
31:17
Speaker 2: your iPad, you your laptop, and your baby monitor. More importantly, though,
31:23
Speaker 2: is your own wireless router. If you're someone who has
31:27
Speaker 2: an unsecured wireless router, you are really begging for trouble
31:32
Speaker 2: in your house because then they can get into every
31:35
Speaker 2: single device that you have, So have good password security
31:39
Speaker 2: on both the baby monitor and the router. Don't have
31:42
Speaker 2: the same password security. One of the things of all
31:45
Speaker 2: these cases of recent baby monitor hacking, the parents all
31:48
Speaker 2: admitted that when they first opened the box and turned
31:52
Speaker 2: on and installed the baby monitor over the internet. They
31:55
Speaker 2: just left it at the default password, which you can
31:59
Speaker 2: find online, just like you can for any device that
32:03
Speaker 2: you have. It's zero zeros. Here's here are one, two, three, four.
32:07
Speaker 2: If you forget it, you too can go online to
32:10
Speaker 2: get the original manufacturer's password. So the first thing you
32:14
Speaker 2: have to do is change that and make it something secure.
32:18
Speaker 2: Think a little bit about cybersecurity. Do you want someone
32:21
Speaker 2: walking in your house and rummaging around your things. That's
32:25
Speaker 2: why you have locks on your doors and alarms. Think
32:28
Speaker 2: of your computers the same and your router the same ways.
32:31
Speaker 2: Those are gateways into your home. You've got to secure them.
32:37
Speaker 1: It's overwhelming, and it's easy to be lulled into a
32:41
Speaker 1: sense of complacency. It won't happen to me, It will
32:44
Speaker 1: happen to them because they did X, Y and Z,
32:48
Speaker 1: which I would never do. That's not true. These types
32:53
Speaker 1: of crimes happen across the boards, regardless of your race, socioeconomics, education.
33:01
Speaker 1: Look at baby Maddie's parents, both of them physicians from
33:06
Speaker 1: fantastic schools in a wealthy and affluent neighborhood. Maybe Maddie
33:11
Speaker 1: is dead through no fault of theirs. It happened to them,
33:16
Speaker 1: It can happen to us unless we stop it. That
33:22
Speaker 1: was a tidal wave of information. Let's boil it down. Daycarees, babysitters,
33:29
Speaker 1: nannies from hell. Let's tackle daycare first. Good indications of
33:35
Speaker 1: high quality childcare. First of all, there should be small
33:40
Speaker 1: groups of children. Look for two staff in the room
33:44
Speaker 1: at all times. Is the changing station where everybody can
33:50
Speaker 1: see it? You want that? Are there windows so you
33:54
Speaker 1: can see through the doors? Now in some states there
33:58
Speaker 1: are quality rating systems and websites that you can check
34:02
Speaker 1: when you're looking for daycare. You want regular visits from
34:06
Speaker 1: a child care health consultant in that daycare, that's every
34:11
Speaker 1: one to three months. Always make sure the daycare is
34:15
Speaker 1: licensed by the state at the very least. Ask about
34:19
Speaker 1: staff turnover. You want low staff turnover. Make sure the
34:25
Speaker 1: daycare runs background checks on all the employees, including a
34:30
Speaker 1: criminal record check and a motor vehicle record check. You
34:35
Speaker 1: don't want some woman with eight DUIs taking care of
34:39
Speaker 1: your baby. If she'll drive drunk, will she take care
34:43
Speaker 1: of your baby drunk? And remember, while background checks can
34:47
Speaker 1: show you red flags, you should take the interview process
34:51
Speaker 1: and reference checks very seriously in order to get the
34:56
Speaker 1: full picture of your future care giver. You think of
35:00
Speaker 1: safety as a pyramid background checks, criminal history references, then
35:07
Speaker 1: making observations. Drop in whenever you feel like it, especially unannounced.
35:15
Speaker 1: If they don't want you to show up unannounced, then
35:18
Speaker 1: you don't want them. That's a problem. Does your daycare
35:23
Speaker 1: have a nanny kim and can you stream into it?
35:27
Speaker 1: If not, why not? Childcare is expensive, but choose to
35:33
Speaker 1: spend your money on the safety of your children. Let's
35:37
Speaker 1: think about your babysitter. First of all, don't want your
35:42
Speaker 1: babysitter or nanny bring over the boyfriend. Okay, you don't
35:48
Speaker 1: know him and you don't want him in your home
35:51
Speaker 1: around your children. Remember, with babysitters zero tolerance, there are
35:58
Speaker 1: no second chances when it comes to taking care of
36:01
Speaker 1: your child. A great tip use social media and your
36:07
Speaker 1: personal circle to find a good babysitter or nanny. Research
36:12
Speaker 1: your caregivers, babysitters nannies on social media. Look at what
36:17
Speaker 1: they post on Facebook. If every other picture is them
36:20
Speaker 1: holding a drink or a joint, you don't want them.
36:26
Speaker 1: Hold your caregivers accountable. Get a nanny cam. Tell them
36:31
Speaker 1: you're watching, it's not a secret. What if your child
36:39
Speaker 1: can't tell you what's wrong? Think about signs of abuse
36:44
Speaker 1: and distress in your children. Does your baby cry or
36:48
Speaker 1: put up a fight when it's time to go to
36:51
Speaker 1: daycare or when the sitter walks in the room. Have
36:55
Speaker 1: you ever come home to find unexplained bruises, gratches, or injuries.
37:02
Speaker 1: Have you noticed changes in the behavior of your children?
37:07
Speaker 1: Have they become especially clingy? Do they isolate themselves? Or
37:12
Speaker 1: have they turned overly aggressive? Have they begun to wet
37:17
Speaker 1: the bed when it didn't happen before. Do they exhibit
37:22
Speaker 1: more infantile behavior than normal? Do they suddenly begin complaining
37:29
Speaker 1: of tummy aches or headaches when the babysitter shows up
37:33
Speaker 1: or after being with the babysitter. If your child is
37:38
Speaker 1: lethargic after being at daycare or with a babysitter, you
37:45
Speaker 1: must take them to urgent care or call the doctor immediately.
37:52
Speaker 1: Hows your babysitter or caregiver describe your child in a
37:56
Speaker 1: negative way, belittled your child, or seem apathetic towards your child?
38:05
Speaker 1: Have they behaved irrationally to your knowledge? Do they seem
38:09
Speaker 1: harsh with discipline. Do they act controlling or jealous with
38:14
Speaker 1: family members? We have to discuss sex abuse. Does your
38:20
Speaker 1: child have itching or an injury to their genital area?
38:26
Speaker 1: Do they have any difficulties sitting down or walking? Have
38:30
Speaker 1: they demonstrated sexual knowledge or curiosity beyond their age? That's
38:38
Speaker 1: a warning sign about your caregiver. The moment you suspect
38:43
Speaker 1: abuse or neglect, remove your child as quickly as possible.
38:50
Speaker 1: Take your child to a pediatrician or a health care
38:53
Speaker 1: provider to be examined immediately. Doctors, social workers, nurses, psychologists
38:59
Speaker 1: are requi wired under the law to report cases of
39:03
Speaker 1: suspected abuse. As to baby monitors, practice good password security
39:11
Speaker 1: on your monitor, your computer, and the router. Do not
39:16
Speaker 1: use the default password on the baby monitor. You can
39:19
Speaker 1: look up the default password online. Please update your security
39:25
Speaker 1: updates on a regular basis. Please consult the materials that
39:30
Speaker 1: we have given you. In addition to this series, there
39:34
Speaker 1: are downloads. There's information and even more tips regarding babysitters,
39:41
Speaker 1: nannies and daycares from Hell