Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 6-year-old Maddox Ritch's body found, cops say investigation NOT OVER ; PLUS: mommy blogger charged in tot's death

Transcript

6-year-old Maddox Ritch's body found, cops say investigation NOT OVER ; PLUS: mommy blogger charged in tot's death · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: If you have heard about the murder of Jessica Chambers,
0:03
Speaker 1: do not miss the new docuseries on Oxygen. It's the
0:06
Speaker 1: true story of a teen girl, a cheerleader in Mississippi
0:10
Speaker 1: who is burned alive and the story of the man
0:15
Speaker 1: accused of this heinous crime. Is that the right guy
0:19
Speaker 1: on trial? Who is he? And who is Jessica Chambers?
0:23
Speaker 1: And how does such a horrific crime occur? With more
0:29
Speaker 1: questions than answers, this is the case that has captured
0:32
Speaker 1: national headlines, taken over social media, and leaves a small
0:37
Speaker 1: town divided. This is a must see TV event. It
0:41
Speaker 1: features exclusive interviews that take you inside the investigation as
0:47
Speaker 1: a search for answers and justice goes on. Unspeakable crime,
0:52
Speaker 1: The Killing of Jessica Chambers, Saturdays at seven six Central
0:56
Speaker 1: on Oxygen, the new network for Crime. I'm raphael In,
1:00
Speaker 1: Chief of Police and I'm heartbroken. Our communities are broken,
1:07
Speaker 1: our searchers, our investigators. This is not the end that
1:13
Speaker 1: we had hoped for. Maddox Rich a beautiful young man,
1:19
Speaker 1: blonde hair, blue eyes, out walking this past Saturday with
1:24
Speaker 1: his dad, walking around the lake, looking at turtles, doing
1:28
Speaker 1: the things that a young man would do. And this
1:34
Speaker 1: is not the ending we hope I Nancy Grace, this
1:37
Speaker 1: is crime stories. Thank you for being with us. A
1:39
Speaker 1: search for little Maddox has not turned out the way
1:45
Speaker 1: we had prayed, but the search has ended with a
1:50
Speaker 1: discovery of Maddox's body. Listen, the chief night saw Maddox
1:56
Speaker 1: and it is absolutely amazing that he was found. And
2:01
Speaker 1: for for anyone who doesn't have an understanding of just
2:03
Speaker 1: how difficult, uh what we have asked the search and
2:07
Speaker 1: rescue efforts to do is um. I don't know there's
2:12
Speaker 1: a way for you to understand, but it was extremely
2:14
Speaker 1: difficult to see him, even when we were standing right
2:17
Speaker 1: next to him. But yet, even though the body of
2:20
Speaker 1: six year old Maddox has been found, officials insisting, quote,
2:26
Speaker 1: the investigation is not over for those of you just
2:32
Speaker 1: joining us. Six year old little Maddox goes for a
2:35
Speaker 1: walk with his dad and his dad's girlfriend in Rankin Park,
2:39
Speaker 1: North Carolina. The father says he got ahead of him,
2:45
Speaker 1: Max got ahead of him, and then when he tried
2:49
Speaker 1: to find him, he couldn't. So many questions this morning,
2:54
Speaker 1: but let's first start with the discovery of the body,
2:58
Speaker 1: the body of this beautiful little boy. Authorities had gone
3:03
Speaker 1: so far as to pipe out play out the sound
3:08
Speaker 1: Maddox's parents calling for him. Maddox autistic and non verbal,
3:14
Speaker 1: in the hopes that he would come from his hiding
3:18
Speaker 1: place in the woods and that huge, huge, densely wooded
3:22
Speaker 1: park that was not to be joining me. Cop turned
3:27
Speaker 1: private eye Vincent Hill. They're in the jurisdiction Kathleen Murphy,
3:32
Speaker 1: North Carolina family lawyer and forensics expert, professor of forensics,
3:38
Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet. Joseph Scott Morgan jo Scott,
3:42
Speaker 1: I want to start with the discovery of Maddox's body. Hey,
3:46
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, Nancy, Uh it is uh the
3:50
Speaker 1: body is found in a densely, densely uh covered area.
3:57
Speaker 1: I'm thinking the way they're describing it, Nancy, is that
4:00
Speaker 1: it sounds as though it's like low brush and it's
4:03
Speaker 1: covering a little waterway, a little creek that's immediately adjacent
4:07
Speaker 1: to this big lake that's a big recreational area. The
4:12
Speaker 1: reports that we're hearing right now is that the police
4:16
Speaker 1: that searched this area, uh specifically this area, and had
4:19
Speaker 1: not seen him, as you heard in the earlier clip. Uh,
4:22
Speaker 1: they were saying that they had been in a specific area,
4:25
Speaker 1: had not had not seen him, and that they were
4:28
Speaker 1: very fortunate to find him this time. Unfortunate as kind
4:30
Speaker 1: of a dubious word there, but he was found submerged,
4:34
Speaker 1: their saying, uh, in two to three feet of water. Well,
4:38
Speaker 1: hold on, I don't understand something when you're saying they
4:41
Speaker 1: hadn't seen him. The way I was envisioning it is
4:45
Speaker 1: that he was deep under the pond and there was
4:48
Speaker 1: no way they could have seen him. Yeah, And and
4:51
Speaker 1: that's that's the striking thing, uh, you know, and uh,
4:55
Speaker 1: He's the only thing I can really think of is that, Uh,
5:00
Speaker 1: they've been you know, they've had that whole area covered
5:02
Speaker 1: with drones, They've had dogs in here. Of course, they've
5:05
Speaker 1: even deployed a swat team uh to wander through this
5:08
Speaker 1: area and and and just see what they could what
5:11
Speaker 1: they could turn up, and no one was able to
5:15
Speaker 1: see this child at this point. Tom the you know,
5:17
Speaker 1: as a forensics guy, when I begin to hear this
5:20
Speaker 1: sort of thing, uh, as gruesome as it is, one
5:23
Speaker 1: of the things I begin to think about is that
5:25
Speaker 1: potentially decomposition had begun to set in and he has
5:29
Speaker 1: essentially kind of floated to the top, whereas he wouldn't
5:32
Speaker 1: he wouldn't seen before. Uh. That's really the only thing
5:36
Speaker 1: I can think of, right, And that does make sense
5:38
Speaker 1: if if anyone is suggesting that Maddox's body was not
5:43
Speaker 1: there at the beginning of the search and ended up
5:45
Speaker 1: there through a nefarious uh path, I don't believe that's
5:50
Speaker 1: forensically possible. The whole part was covered with people searching
5:54
Speaker 1: for Maddox. There's no way. I don't think that it's
5:58
Speaker 1: feasible for the body to have been planted in the
6:01
Speaker 1: water after the search started. And I'm not thinking that either, Nancy.
6:07
Speaker 1: They've had this thing lockdown. You could, I mean, and
6:10
Speaker 1: if you just go back to the news conference, this
6:13
Speaker 1: guy was just busting with emotion. Uh, this poor fellow
6:17
Speaker 1: that's having to lead the search. And I can tell
6:19
Speaker 1: you they had eyes on all over this place. They
6:21
Speaker 1: were covering every tot until you know Vincent Hill, private investigator,
6:25
Speaker 1: when Joe Scott Morgan's said that due to decomposition, your
6:29
Speaker 1: body as it decomposes, becomes full of gases like if
6:34
Speaker 1: you think of a piece of fruit. Okay, those gases
6:37
Speaker 1: are trapped inside your body, and your body will float up.
6:41
Speaker 1: Hold On, I'm about to take a call from Leslie
6:43
Speaker 1: and Pittsburgh. But Vincent Hill, you have a theory regarding
6:48
Speaker 1: the body, Yeah, Nancy. One of the things that strikes
6:50
Speaker 1: me as odd is one of the investigators said that
6:54
Speaker 1: the body could not have drifted from the park to
6:57
Speaker 1: where it was found because there's some barriers in between
7:01
Speaker 1: there for that exact reason, So the question becomes exactly
7:06
Speaker 1: how and more importantly, when did Maddox's body get to
7:10
Speaker 1: where it was found. Now we've always assumed that he
7:13
Speaker 1: was out on his walk with his dad, But strikingly, again,
7:18
Speaker 1: we still have not yet heard from people inside that
7:21
Speaker 1: park to say, yes, I saw him running, I saw
7:24
Speaker 1: the dad, I saw the dad chasing him. So there's
7:26
Speaker 1: still so many questions, Nancy. Okay, hold On, that's a
7:29
Speaker 1: couple of different different thoughts right there. And the one
7:33
Speaker 1: one zero in on is you saying, Vincent Hill, that
7:39
Speaker 1: from where he was last seen, he could not have
7:42
Speaker 1: gotten to this body of water. According to investigators, they
7:47
Speaker 1: say there are barriers in the park, the lake in
7:50
Speaker 1: the park to prevent things from floating out into these creeks,
7:55
Speaker 1: So it would be almost impossible for Maddox to have
7:58
Speaker 1: gotten into that botty body of water at the park
8:01
Speaker 1: and ended up where he was. Well. Kathleen Murphy joining
8:04
Speaker 1: us there in North Carolina. You have poured over the
8:09
Speaker 1: aerial shots. Could you explain to our listeners what is
8:13
Speaker 1: Vincent Hill? Saying Vincent Hill is always right and I'm
8:19
Speaker 1: looking at the map and the reality of it is
8:22
Speaker 1: is to get to the ranking parks, you have to
8:26
Speaker 1: cross a highway, Highway three, and go through all of
8:31
Speaker 1: these businesses. I think it's highway. The body was found
8:37
Speaker 1: across the major map road to the east of the park,
8:44
Speaker 1: and if I'm looking at this map, it was a
8:47
Speaker 1: mile perhaps from the park. I could be wrong about that,
8:51
Speaker 1: but it's on a major it's off of a major
8:55
Speaker 1: road on the other side of the park. There's no way,
9:00
Speaker 1: there's no way. We are taking your call straight out
9:02
Speaker 1: to Leslie in Pittsburgh. Hi, Leslie. You know Leslie, I've
9:08
Speaker 1: covered so many cases, and I've tried so many cases
9:12
Speaker 1: in court, and I I remember, Leslie, when I would
9:15
Speaker 1: get a verdict from the jury of guilty. People think
9:20
Speaker 1: that you celebrate that you go out and pop the champagne.
9:23
Speaker 1: It's not like that. I was always just exhausted and
9:27
Speaker 1: relieved one more bag I was put away, And that's
9:30
Speaker 1: kind of how I feel right now. I'm I'm I'm
9:33
Speaker 1: glad there are answers and the searches over, but I
9:36
Speaker 1: just exhausted and and just worn down with worrying and
9:41
Speaker 1: thinking about Maddox and his parents, and I know that
9:45
Speaker 1: they are just just torn in half with this discovery.
9:50
Speaker 1: Leslie in Pittsburgh weigh in, Yeah, first of all, can't
9:54
Speaker 1: even imagine, and obviously it's not the news we're all
9:58
Speaker 1: hoping for us devastating here that Um, I really am
10:02
Speaker 1: curious what you think. You kind of already touched on
10:05
Speaker 1: the location of the body and how it probably wouldn't
10:08
Speaker 1: have been planted there later. But if there was fyle play,
10:12
Speaker 1: what does the location of the body suggests. Would it
10:14
Speaker 1: be a quick crime of opportunity? It seems like if
10:19
Speaker 1: the father was involved, she probably wouldn't have hidden him,
10:22
Speaker 1: you know, so close to where they were searching, or
10:23
Speaker 1: what do you think about that? Well, I think that
10:27
Speaker 1: under the scenario of the father looking for him and
10:32
Speaker 1: him last being seen in the park, it would only
10:36
Speaker 1: make sense to have the body there. If there was
10:40
Speaker 1: a nefarious intent on this um of course, it could
10:44
Speaker 1: have always if you wanted to kill a child, I
10:47
Speaker 1: assume you could have killed the child and pretended that
10:51
Speaker 1: someone had kidnapped him and taking them out of the park.
10:53
Speaker 1: But you're thought about a common opportunity, yes, And I'll
10:57
Speaker 1: go back to a case we are all familiar with,
10:59
Speaker 1: Robert Blake. He, according to prosecutors and a civil jury,
11:03
Speaker 1: kills Bonnie Lee Bakley, his wife, the mother of his child, Rosie,
11:08
Speaker 1: and it's a crime of opportunity, and he dumps the
11:12
Speaker 1: murder weapon right there. Of course he has it planned,
11:16
Speaker 1: but he can't get rid of the murder weapon, okay,
11:19
Speaker 1: so it has to be put in the dumpster, remember that, Leslie. Okay,
11:23
Speaker 1: So here if it was planned, but it had to
11:28
Speaker 1: be carried out in a certain way, the body would
11:31
Speaker 1: have been disposed of right there. But there is no
11:35
Speaker 1: suggestion at this point that the father or the girlfriend
11:40
Speaker 1: had anything at all to do with the child's death.
11:45
Speaker 1: Right now, we are still waiting on a cause of
11:48
Speaker 1: death of baby Maddox. But right now, take a listen
11:54
Speaker 1: to this. We will not take anything for granting you.
11:58
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of work and there's a lot
11:59
Speaker 1: of people did have lost a lot of sleep and
12:02
Speaker 1: are committed to continuing to making sure that we answer
12:04
Speaker 1: every question that we can about where Maddox was, how
12:08
Speaker 1: his movement occurred, and how it was that he ended
12:10
Speaker 1: up where he did. And that means, as you've heard,
12:15
Speaker 1: let's ask many times that we still want to hear
12:18
Speaker 1: from the people who are in the park that day.
12:21
Speaker 1: Death in counting on one one? What is the address?
12:24
Speaker 1: Her emergency? We had Reaking Lake, Paul Gath owner and
12:28
Speaker 1: um gotta missing kid. Um if he's missing, he's still missing,
12:33
Speaker 1: probably the last thirty forty minutes our maybe we's the address? Oh,
12:39
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty Renking Lake grows, he said, almost say almost
12:44
Speaker 1: an hour now we thirst everywhere? Are you an employee?
12:56
Speaker 1: Is the parents there? Yeah, they're here, they're out looking
12:58
Speaker 1: for what's the child's name? Dad? I forgot, I don't know.
13:04
Speaker 1: He had to told me the light that I forgot
13:06
Speaker 1: the kid's name. Black waters spanning, I'm sorry, what is
13:12
Speaker 1: the child? Black witer? Hispanning, I'm sorry, whit white male? Okay,
13:18
Speaker 1: can you give me a description of what the little
13:21
Speaker 1: boy was wearing? His blonde head? Um one shirt. I
13:28
Speaker 1: think the shirts saying I'm the man or something like that.
13:31
Speaker 1: And he had black shorts. Where is the last place
13:35
Speaker 1: they seen him at in the park? They seen him
13:37
Speaker 1: right Bob the um here in the sestis freeze over
13:41
Speaker 1: here on the other hand, seen him near the pier
13:44
Speaker 1: in the trees. Okay, And I can't. I need to
13:49
Speaker 1: know his name as a parent's fair by or somebody
13:51
Speaker 1: near the e can talk to give me one second.
13:56
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't know a kid's name. There are
14:00
Speaker 1: out here, you were hearing part employee Rick Fox as
14:05
Speaker 1: he calls into nine one one the disappearance of Maddox
14:09
Speaker 1: Little Maddox, just six years old. Maddox Rich allegedly runs
14:14
Speaker 1: away from his dad in the park, and the dad
14:16
Speaker 1: says he couldn't catch him in the last hours. The
14:19
Speaker 1: search comes to an end, and not the way that
14:23
Speaker 1: we wished. Take a listen, the investigation is not over
14:28
Speaker 1: and you should not take away anything from that except
14:30
Speaker 1: to understand that in law enforcement we will not take
14:34
Speaker 1: anything for granted. So there's a lot of work, and
14:37
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that have lost a lot
14:39
Speaker 1: of sleep and are committed to continuing to making sure
14:41
Speaker 1: that we answer every question that we can about where
14:44
Speaker 1: Maddox was, how his movement occurred, and how it was
14:47
Speaker 1: that he ended up where he did. Investigators in North
14:49
Speaker 1: Carolina say they believe that they have found the body
14:53
Speaker 1: of missing six year old little boy Maddox Rich in
14:56
Speaker 1: a shallow creek and it is near the here where
15:00
Speaker 1: he was reported missing, and that was last Saturday. Now,
15:03
Speaker 1: according to his dad, Maddox ran away in a park
15:07
Speaker 1: and he couldn't catch him. But right now the possible
15:11
Speaker 1: last witnesses being sought. Who is that witness now? The
15:15
Speaker 1: dad said he had to run around people in the park.
15:19
Speaker 1: Where are those people? Where are those people? More than
15:22
Speaker 1: three hundred investigators spent nearly a week pouring over hundreds
15:26
Speaker 1: of leads, searching acre after acre after acre, thousands of
15:31
Speaker 1: acres for the six year old. Of course, this is
15:34
Speaker 1: not the conclusion that anyone wanted. I find it really
15:39
Speaker 1: interesting and this is out to you, Vincent Hill cop
15:43
Speaker 1: turned p I that the guy who called nine one
15:46
Speaker 1: one doesn't believe Max was ever at the park, and
15:51
Speaker 1: that the dad did not act concerned. And why did
15:54
Speaker 1: they try to cover up that the dad was with
15:56
Speaker 1: his girlfriend? And answer you definitely have to question that
15:59
Speaker 1: because the dad was for to his girlfriend as a friend,
16:02
Speaker 1: and I always questioned why the dad didn't call nine
16:06
Speaker 1: one after minutes close to an hour. You have this
16:10
Speaker 1: park worker calling nine who says the dad did not
16:14
Speaker 1: seem too concern that little Maddox was missing. You still
16:17
Speaker 1: have to you have to question that. And again where
16:21
Speaker 1: all these witnesses that were supposedly in this park? Nancy
16:24
Speaker 1: In a very long Facebook post just last night, Maddox's
16:29
Speaker 1: dad in thanked investigators, and I'm quoting what he said today.
16:35
Speaker 1: I found out I'm not a dad anymore. I would
16:37
Speaker 1: give anything to go back and save him. That is
16:42
Speaker 1: heart breaking, heart breaking to Joe Scott Morgan, forensics professor
16:49
Speaker 1: Jacksonville State University and author of Blood Beneath My Feet
16:53
Speaker 1: Death Investigator. When you look at a body, when you
16:57
Speaker 1: perform the autopsy, how is it that pathologists can tell
17:02
Speaker 1: the difference between someone that was drowned versus someone that
17:07
Speaker 1: was asphyxiated. Uh? Well, specifically, what they're going to be
17:11
Speaker 1: looking for is, uh, is the weight of the lungs
17:15
Speaker 1: when the internal examination is done relative to drowning to
17:19
Speaker 1: see because if if the lungs, Nancy, are containing our
17:23
Speaker 1: effuse with water. That means the individual was breathing or
17:28
Speaker 1: inhalating when they went under and began to take in water. Now, Uh,
17:33
Speaker 1: if you're talking about an asphyxial death, Uh, one of
17:36
Speaker 1: the things that we would look for would be signs
17:38
Speaker 1: of trauma around the neck and even uh in cases
17:42
Speaker 1: of smothering um, where someone places their hand over somebody's
17:46
Speaker 1: we can see some trauma in the mouth relative to that.
17:49
Speaker 1: But there's one thing that we're not thinking about here.
17:51
Speaker 1: Water is also a modality of of intentional uh asphyxiation
17:58
Speaker 1: where an individual can beheld beneath the surface of the water.
18:02
Speaker 1: So all of those factors have to be taken into
18:05
Speaker 1: account relative to that. Now, if an individual struggling against
18:10
Speaker 1: someone holding them underwater, uh, then that would mean that
18:14
Speaker 1: we would look for other trauma and on the body
18:18
Speaker 1: and also on the body or on the person of
18:21
Speaker 1: the individual that might be a suspect. But this child
18:24
Speaker 1: wasn't found at the park either. This child was nowhere
18:27
Speaker 1: even remotely closed to the ranking Lake park. He was
18:31
Speaker 1: across highway when they found his body. Okay, See, when
18:36
Speaker 1: when you're saying that to the listeners. What does that
18:38
Speaker 1: mean though, Kathleen, It means that a little six year
18:41
Speaker 1: old boy, if he was wandering around. Vincent said, there
18:46
Speaker 1: were no stop There were stop gaps in place to
18:49
Speaker 1: prevent the body floating to where it would be found. Correct.
18:54
Speaker 1: So if this child it was in the location where
18:58
Speaker 1: he was found, he would have had to walk across
19:02
Speaker 1: a major highway, Highway three one, past all of these
19:06
Speaker 1: businesses that were out there to be in the location
19:10
Speaker 1: where he was found. Needless to say, the investigation is
19:13
Speaker 1: going on. The mother and father heart broken. The baby's
19:21
Speaker 1: body has been found in a waterway there at Rankin Park.
19:25
Speaker 1: No suggestion of foul play has emerged at this time,
19:29
Speaker 1: and for now I think what we should be doing
19:32
Speaker 1: is praying for Maddox and for his family. The two
19:36
Speaker 1: year old from Grand Island, whom investigators alleged was injured
19:39
Speaker 1: by a woman caring for that child earlier this month,
19:42
Speaker 1: has died. The girl had been in the intensive care
19:45
Speaker 1: unit at O'shi Children's Hospital for twelve days before she
19:48
Speaker 1: succumbed to her injuries. Savage revealed the Valenti, whom is
19:52
Speaker 1: described as an acquaintance of the girl's father, told police.
19:55
Speaker 1: She believed the child had some sort of allergic reaction
19:57
Speaker 1: which caused her to have difficulty breathing, and we were
20:00
Speaker 1: then notified by the hospital that there appeared that there
20:03
Speaker 1: may have been some type of injuries inflicted on a child,
20:06
Speaker 1: and that's when our detectives went over there and that's
20:08
Speaker 1: when the investigation began. You're hearing our friend reporter Dave
20:12
Speaker 1: McKinley at w g r Z and the Erie County
20:16
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Captain Greg Savage, a mommy blogger who describes parenting
20:22
Speaker 1: as they quote blessing, is now suspected in the shaking
20:28
Speaker 1: death of her boyfriend's two year old little girl. Her
20:33
Speaker 1: name Brianna Valenti of Grand Island. What this would be,
20:38
Speaker 1: if it's true, is a victim, a child victim of
20:41
Speaker 1: shaken baby syndrome. And we're going to be joined by
20:45
Speaker 1: pathologist Dr Michelle Dupree on what that means. The problem
20:50
Speaker 1: with shaking baby syndrome is you look at the baby
20:52
Speaker 1: and you don't see anything wrong and is a closed
20:55
Speaker 1: head injury, like when you fall down the steps you
20:59
Speaker 1: have book blow to the head and you can't see
21:02
Speaker 1: on the outside what's wrong. But very slowly, the brain
21:05
Speaker 1: is swelling and the child dies. Joining me. Dr Brian Russell,
21:10
Speaker 1: host of the hit series Fatal Vows. Dr Michelle du Pre, Pathologists,
21:14
Speaker 1: medical examiner, Vincent Hill, Coop turned p I, Kathleen Murphy,
21:18
Speaker 1: North Carolina family lawyer, and special guests. Joining me right
21:22
Speaker 1: now from daily mail dot Com and Daily Mail TV.
21:25
Speaker 1: Sean Walsh mommy blogger. Exactly what is a mommy blogger?
21:30
Speaker 1: Because when I was working and raising the twins in
21:34
Speaker 1: their infancy, I would literally see stars. I was so tired, Sean,
21:39
Speaker 1: What you have time to blog about the mommy experience?
21:42
Speaker 1: Is that? What that is? It is? But I if
21:44
Speaker 1: I had suggested to my wife to be a mommy
21:46
Speaker 1: blogger when she was home with both of my boys,
21:48
Speaker 1: I think she would have beaten me to death with
21:50
Speaker 1: a bottle of baby's milk because there was no time
21:53
Speaker 1: and you're not kidding, and really forget about it. If
21:56
Speaker 1: you're pumping breast milk and adding it in there, oh yeah,
21:59
Speaker 1: I'm fall asleep during that process. I was so tired.
22:02
Speaker 1: But that's a whole another can ORMs. Mommy blogger shakes
22:05
Speaker 1: baby dad starting and Nancy like, I'll give you the
22:10
Speaker 1: money the mommy blogger thing. According to her Facebook page,
22:13
Speaker 1: Ms Valenti enjoys writing about her experiences as a mother.
22:17
Speaker 1: But I mean her blog was called Weird, Wicked and
22:20
Speaker 1: Wild and she was listened as its head parenting blog blogger,
22:24
Speaker 1: where she talked about her experiences raising her daughter. But
22:28
Speaker 1: I mean the blog tiede. Wait right there, that's just
22:32
Speaker 1: putting my teeth on edge. This is a very this
22:35
Speaker 1: is a very very sad case. Miss Valenti of Grand
22:39
Speaker 1: Island in New York. She faces humerous charges in connection
22:41
Speaker 1: to the death of Raylian Rose Fuller, aged two, including
22:45
Speaker 1: reckless assault of a child. Don't just rattle it off
22:49
Speaker 1: like that, Sean. Have you seen the picture. Beautiful little girl.
22:53
Speaker 1: She's got on this little pink sun Jess. Look at
22:55
Speaker 1: this jackie and she's sitting on it looks like a
22:58
Speaker 1: big pink foot one. And she's got a little pink
23:02
Speaker 1: headbad with a little pink bow one. And she's all
23:06
Speaker 1: decked out perfectly matching, with a cute little smile on
23:10
Speaker 1: her face. She's got a little front to teeth in.
23:13
Speaker 1: I remember I tried to put her headband like that
23:15
Speaker 1: on Lucy. That last about twenty seconds. Anyway, My point
23:19
Speaker 1: is somebody spent a lot of time getting this little
23:22
Speaker 1: girl totally dressed, a totally dis precious so let's just
23:28
Speaker 1: not rush through the facts. Railian Rose Fuller and she
23:34
Speaker 1: was two years old. Okay, now go ahead, hung it's
23:37
Speaker 1: a beautiful little baby. Like beautiful little baby Nancy um.
23:40
Speaker 1: So apparently miss Valenti had been looking after a little
23:44
Speaker 1: Raylan Rose that day along with her own daughter, five
23:47
Speaker 1: year old, when the alleged assault unfolded. She reportedly called
23:52
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, saying that his daughter had passed out and
23:55
Speaker 1: was having trouble breathing. Paramedics were called and the little
23:58
Speaker 1: girl was rushed to the Children's while spital with injuries
24:01
Speaker 1: resulting in her being unresponsive. Police said she was admitted
24:04
Speaker 1: to the intensive care unit, and deputies with the Erie
24:07
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office were contacted by the Erie County Child
24:10
Speaker 1: Protective Services Soon afterwards, on September eleven, authorities arrested Valenti
24:15
Speaker 1: and charged her um that she's still being held at
24:18
Speaker 1: the Erie County Holding Center. Police would not save shell
24:21
Speaker 1: face further charges. Following the death of Fuller's daughter on Saturday.
24:24
Speaker 1: You know I'm looking and apparently she has given a
24:29
Speaker 1: statement on her blog which will make prosecutors dance in glee. Um,
24:35
Speaker 1: I really do not know where to start with this
24:37
Speaker 1: right now. I am in shock, I am horrified. I
24:41
Speaker 1: feel sick. It is incredibly difficult for me. That seems
24:48
Speaker 1: to be all about her. She talked to Michelle Dupree
24:50
Speaker 1: before I go back to Sean, explain the shaking baby syndrome. Please,
24:54
Speaker 1: when Anthew shaking baby syndrome. Of course, when a baby
24:57
Speaker 1: is shaken forcibly, and you know their their neck muscles
25:01
Speaker 1: and their heads don't develop until some time later. What
25:05
Speaker 1: happens is the head, the brain bounces back and forth
25:08
Speaker 1: between the skull, causing coup and counter coup. Injuries can
25:11
Speaker 1: even cause bruising, can cause brain swelling, can even cause death.
25:15
Speaker 1: It can certainly cause impairment, lifelong impairment. So Sean Walsh,
25:19
Speaker 1: let me understand this was her boyfriend's child, correct, that's correct, Nancy,
25:24
Speaker 1: and she was what she was looking after her boyfriend's
25:26
Speaker 1: child as well as her own daughter that day. So
25:29
Speaker 1: something has happened Nancy in that house that has resulted
25:33
Speaker 1: in this, and that's why I find that statement on
25:35
Speaker 1: the blog extraordinary. That wouldn't it be about how tragic
25:39
Speaker 1: it is what happened to that baby, not what's happening
25:42
Speaker 1: to you? Yeah. That that's that was impressed me at
25:45
Speaker 1: the very beginning, that it was not about the baby,
25:48
Speaker 1: it was about the blog. I want to understand how
25:52
Speaker 1: they're saying it was an allergic reaction. Is that what
25:54
Speaker 1: they first said when they went to the hospital, there's
25:57
Speaker 1: been some reaction, and that the child had passed out
26:00
Speaker 1: and she didn't know what had gone on. But when
26:02
Speaker 1: further investigations were done, this is when it came up
26:05
Speaker 1: that it looks like this is shaking baby syndrome. Wow,
26:08
Speaker 1: the baby dies in the hospital and they said that
26:12
Speaker 1: she apparently couldn't breathe. Dr Michelle Dubrie. If the father
26:17
Speaker 1: saw the baby not being able to breathe, he may
26:20
Speaker 1: have thought it was an allergic reaction. Nancy, that's true. Um,
26:23
Speaker 1: I guess the concerning point here is, you know, has
26:27
Speaker 1: she been allergic to something out where there's probably are
26:30
Speaker 1: bruises on her arms from being held and shaken. Um,
26:33
Speaker 1: there are all kinds of questions here that must be answered.
26:36
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at W U K
26:39
Speaker 1: b W. This is Ali Tooey, always happy and so loving.
26:44
Speaker 1: That's how Cody Fuller is remembering his daughter, Raylan Rose.
26:47
Speaker 1: Fuller had custody of the tyler, and he says he
26:50
Speaker 1: was at work back on September ten when all of
26:52
Speaker 1: this unfolded. His girlfriend, Brianna Valenti, was watching Raylan and
26:56
Speaker 1: her own five year old daughter when Fuller says she
26:59
Speaker 1: called him saying Raylan was having trouble breathing. He says
27:03
Speaker 1: he later learned from doctors that they believe Raylan had
27:06
Speaker 1: been shaken and that's what caused her injuries. Prior to
27:09
Speaker 1: Raylan's death, Valenti faced several felonies, including reckless assault and
27:13
Speaker 1: a misdemeanor child endangerment charge. It's unclear whether investigators will
27:17
Speaker 1: increase those charges. Fuller tells me he like her charged
27:21
Speaker 1: with his daughter's death. He says he hasn't spoken with
27:24
Speaker 1: Valenti since her arrest. The Sherif's office allegies twenty six
27:28
Speaker 1: year old Brianna Valenti assaulted the child on September ten.
27:32
Speaker 1: Valenti was already jailed after her arraignment on charges of
27:35
Speaker 1: assault and held onto dollars bail. Now charges may be upgraded,
27:40
Speaker 1: possibly to murder. It comes down to evidentiary questions within
27:44
Speaker 1: the case. You know, what exactly did she do or
27:47
Speaker 1: not do? What exactly are the baby's injuries and uh
27:50
Speaker 1: and what was her intent? And more. Investigations were still
27:54
Speaker 1: in interviewing people who may have information. We've gotten some
27:57
Speaker 1: phone calls from some different people who are familiar with
28:01
Speaker 1: the case giving us information and we're trying to sort
28:04
Speaker 1: through all that and make sure that we do everything
28:07
Speaker 1: properly because it's a very serious case. We are talking
28:10
Speaker 1: about a little girl now dead, just two years old.
28:14
Speaker 1: She was in the care of her father's girlfriend, a mommy,
28:19
Speaker 1: a blogger who describes being a parent as a blessing.
28:23
Speaker 1: Out to Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer, you were
28:28
Speaker 1: bringing up the case of Lucas Hernandez. Why there's so
28:31
Speaker 1: many similarities, And Nancy, I have to put this out
28:34
Speaker 1: there to all your listeners. If you're single parents, don't
28:39
Speaker 1: leave your children with your significant other, even if you
28:44
Speaker 1: think you can trust them, because this is happening over
28:49
Speaker 1: and over again. And if I represented the mother in
28:53
Speaker 1: this case who didn't have custody, I would certainly have
28:56
Speaker 1: asked on a regular basis for the court not to
28:59
Speaker 1: allow third party him the person is romantically involved with,
29:04
Speaker 1: to be a primary caregiver of the children. We understand
29:07
Speaker 1: that funeral arrangements are being made for the child, but
29:11
Speaker 1: they are private. I'm looking at Valenti's bio, Brianna Valenti,
29:15
Speaker 1: the Mummy blogger. She encourages readers to reach out to
29:19
Speaker 1: her and says, if you need advice, to laugh or
29:22
Speaker 1: someone who understands what you're going through, call me. Well,
29:25
Speaker 1: I don't understand what you're going through. What does that mean?
29:29
Speaker 1: Like it's a bad thing raising children? Yes, it's exhausting.
29:33
Speaker 1: I mean, Sean Walsh, you have two children. Dr Brian Russell,
29:36
Speaker 1: I'm waiting on you to have children because you get busy.
29:39
Speaker 1: Sean Walsh, it's exhausting, that's true. But I'm not quite
29:43
Speaker 1: sure what she means by that. Sean Nancy, I don't
29:46
Speaker 1: know what she means, but I don't said it is
29:49
Speaker 1: exhausting and having kids is the toughest job that any
29:51
Speaker 1: parent will ever have. But here's where I'm always stunned
29:55
Speaker 1: by this is that I know when my children have
29:57
Speaker 1: a friend over for a sleepover. You have like an
30:00
Speaker 1: extra layer of protection to make sure that those children
30:03
Speaker 1: are safe and that they have a good time, and
30:05
Speaker 1: they go back to their parents just as they were
30:07
Speaker 1: dropped off at your home. This is what I'll never
30:10
Speaker 1: understand with how people who are related to a child
30:13
Speaker 1: that have them in their care can hurt them. I'll
30:16
Speaker 1: never understand that Nancy no online Valenti Rights glowingly of
30:20
Speaker 1: her relationship with the baby, her boyfriend's daughter and her
30:26
Speaker 1: own five year old girl. Quote, It's a blessing to
30:29
Speaker 1: wake up every day to Litta Fit running down the
30:31
Speaker 1: hallway yelling good morning, Valenty Rights, even if the day
30:35
Speaker 1: does start as you waking up to her messing with
30:39
Speaker 1: her little sister in her crib. Patience is a virtue. Parents.
30:43
Speaker 1: Life doesn't get easier, we just get better at handling it. Now,
30:50
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. I don't trying to
30:52
Speaker 1: decipher and apply logic to an illogical situation. Now we
30:57
Speaker 1: know that she is the one that call nine one one.
31:00
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at w i VB TV.
31:04
Speaker 1: That's just Shannon Smith. Captain Greg Savage with the Erie
31:07
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office says Valenti was the one who called
31:11
Speaker 1: nine around four pm September t on Grand Island that
31:15
Speaker 1: the child she had an unresponsive baby suffering from a
31:18
Speaker 1: possible allergic reaction. Savage says that toddler was taken to
31:22
Speaker 1: Oshie Children's Hospital after she reportedly had trouble breathing and
31:27
Speaker 1: passed out. They say the child suffered injuries that led
31:30
Speaker 1: to her being unresponsive. It's not clear what those injuries were.
31:34
Speaker 1: You're then notified by the hospital that if there appeared
31:37
Speaker 1: that there may have been some type of injuries inflicted
31:40
Speaker 1: on the child, and that's when architectives went over there
31:43
Speaker 1: and that's when the investigation began. So to you saw
31:46
Speaker 1: wilsh Where does it stand now, Well, investigations continue um.
31:50
Speaker 1: She is currently being held and we wait to see
31:54
Speaker 1: what happens, but I think it's going to be over
31:56
Speaker 1: the next couple of months will work out if in
31:59
Speaker 1: fact this was shaking baby when we hear what evidence
32:01
Speaker 1: is provided, but it sounds that way, And how would
32:04
Speaker 1: that be proved or disproved? Dr Michelle Dupree, Well, basically
32:08
Speaker 1: you would look for signs where the um person had
32:11
Speaker 1: been holding the child, such as bruises, around the shoulders.
32:14
Speaker 1: You can also look at the swelling in the brain
32:16
Speaker 1: um it is a magnetic to approve that. You you
32:20
Speaker 1: approve that, you would look at things like that under
32:22
Speaker 1: the microscope, you know to Vincent Hill, cop turned private investigator,
32:26
Speaker 1: how do you go about proving this because it's a
32:30
Speaker 1: circumstantial case of Vincent, Yeah, and Nancy, it's all circumstantial.
32:33
Speaker 1: But I think the autopsy will be able to tell. Listen,
32:36
Speaker 1: I responded to a call where the baby was unresponsive.
32:39
Speaker 1: There's no visible signs that you can see off the bat,
32:43
Speaker 1: but once at autopsy has done, it will be able
32:45
Speaker 1: to spot out that brain injury that is consistent with
32:49
Speaker 1: shaking baby. Since well, I guess the point I'm making
32:52
Speaker 1: is that, yes, they may be able to tell the
32:54
Speaker 1: cause of death, but how do they know who did it?
32:58
Speaker 1: Who is the last person the house other than the
33:01
Speaker 1: mommy blogger? Had the father been there, had a neighbor
33:04
Speaker 1: been there, had somebody else baby sat the baby? How
33:06
Speaker 1: do you go about proving those details back to you?
33:09
Speaker 1: Dr Michelle Dupree, what about a time interval in in
33:13
Speaker 1: showing when the incident occurred? Can you place the time
33:17
Speaker 1: of the shaking Nancy. That is always a significant question
33:20
Speaker 1: and often times that's difficulture do. But typically we can
33:23
Speaker 1: piece together a time frame when the baby died, approximate
33:27
Speaker 1: time of death, and who was with the child at
33:29
Speaker 1: that point in time. But it is difficult to Dr
33:32
Speaker 1: Brian Russell. So how do you pick a partner? You've
33:36
Speaker 1: got somebody it seems perfectly normal, just like in Lucas
33:40
Speaker 1: Hernandez Emily Glass seemed perfectly normal to the father, and
33:45
Speaker 1: then you find out they've mistreated your child. What do
33:48
Speaker 1: you look for? Well, my advice is for single parents
33:52
Speaker 1: of minor children, single or divorced parents of minor children,
33:56
Speaker 1: that your children don't meet anyone who is a significant
34:02
Speaker 1: other a dating partner of yours until they're eighteen plus
34:06
Speaker 1: years old. And I know people are shocked by that
34:08
Speaker 1: and they're going, I'm supposed to not have a love
34:11
Speaker 1: life until my kids are eight Yeah, that's right, because
34:14
Speaker 1: in my entire career the yeah, of course most step
34:19
Speaker 1: parents are or step parent figures. Significant others of parents
34:23
Speaker 1: are not going to come in and murder the kid.
34:26
Speaker 1: But in my career, the percentage of the time that
34:30
Speaker 1: that happens is about the same as the percentage of
34:33
Speaker 1: the time that the step figure comes in and is
34:35
Speaker 1: a real, big, huge benefit to that child. The vast
34:39
Speaker 1: majority of the time what I see is transient significant
34:44
Speaker 1: others of the parents coming in, coming out of the
34:48
Speaker 1: kids lives, making attachments, breaking attachments, getting the kids excited,
34:52
Speaker 1: and then disappointed or complicating the kids lives because they
34:55
Speaker 1: don't like them, but the parent does. And so most
34:59
Speaker 1: of the time it just becomes this mess that doesn't
35:02
Speaker 1: do any good for the kids. And I'm sorry, but
35:05
Speaker 1: once you become a parent, every decision that you make
35:08
Speaker 1: has to be primarily about what isn't the best interests
35:12
Speaker 1: of my children? And yeah, that might mean putting off
35:15
Speaker 1: your own love life. Do you want to if your
35:17
Speaker 1: kids go back and forth between your house and the
35:19
Speaker 1: other parents house and you want to date somebody while
35:21
Speaker 1: your kids are not with you, knock yourself out. But
35:24
Speaker 1: when they're there, you ought to not be splitting their
35:27
Speaker 1: time between you and anybody else. In my never to
35:32
Speaker 1: be humble professional opinion, can I weigh in here, Nancy,
35:35
Speaker 1: because this if I I couldn't agree more. And I mean,
35:37
Speaker 1: people are required to have a license to have a pet,
35:40
Speaker 1: yet anyone can go and have a child, Your children
35:43
Speaker 1: have to be your first responsibility. I couldn't agree more.
35:47
Speaker 1: I think the keyword nancy is transient. If these step
35:50
Speaker 1: parents are not actually married, parents are not married, and
35:54
Speaker 1: there's drama and there's a lot of transient in those relationships,
35:58
Speaker 1: those are not good. But step parents can be wonderful
36:02
Speaker 1: addition to children's lives. And it's just a matter, Uh,
36:07
Speaker 1: is that person you're bringing the other parents into the
36:09
Speaker 1: home a transient decision maker who's not legitimately thinking through
36:16
Speaker 1: all of these aspects before somebody else comes into the
36:19
Speaker 1: relations Stepparents can be wonderful additions to children's lives about
36:22
Speaker 1: one percent of the time. And those so those odds
36:26
Speaker 1: are not in anybody's favor. If you've got a chance
36:30
Speaker 1: of doing something that's gonna screw up your kid, uh,
36:34
Speaker 1: and a one percent chance of doing something that's gonna
36:37
Speaker 1: help him, you air on the side of not doing
36:39
Speaker 1: it right now. Brianna Valenti Mommy blog are being held
36:42
Speaker 1: on a dredfty dollars bond as we wait to determine
36:46
Speaker 1: whether charges will be increased. Fancy Grace Crime Stories signing off,
36:51
Speaker 1: goodbye friend. If you have heard about The Murder of
36:55
Speaker 1: Jessica Chambers. Do not miss the new Doctorseries on Oxygen.
36:59
Speaker 1: It's this true story of a teen girl, a cheerleader
37:02
Speaker 1: in Mississippi who is burned alive and the story of
37:07
Speaker 1: the man accused of this heinous crime. Is that the
37:12
Speaker 1: right guy on trial? Who is he? And who is
37:15
Speaker 1: Jessica Chambers? And how does such a horrific crime occur?
37:21
Speaker 1: With more questions than answers, this is the case that
37:25
Speaker 1: has captured national headlines, taken over social media, and leaves
37:30
Speaker 1: a small town divided. This is a must see TV event.
37:35
Speaker 1: It features exclusive interviews that take you inside the investigation
37:40
Speaker 1: as a search for answers and justice goes on. Unspeakable
37:45
Speaker 1: crime The Killing of Jessica Chambers Saturdays at seven six
37:49
Speaker 1: Central on Oxygen, the new network for Crime