Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Evil babysitter disguises dead infant bundled in car seat & hands him to mommy

Transcript

Evil babysitter disguises dead infant bundled in car seat & hands him to mommy · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Do you know another parent or expecting parent. Are you
0:03
Speaker 1: wondering what can I give them as a gift. Don't
0:06
Speaker 1: give them another onesie. Don't give them a plastic toy
0:11
Speaker 1: or god forbid, a toy gun that's just going to
0:13
Speaker 1: end up in the garage. Give them something that matters,
0:16
Speaker 1: and what matters the most is protecting their child. What
0:20
Speaker 1: do you love most in the world your children? What
0:23
Speaker 1: will you do to protect them anything. I sat down
0:27
Speaker 1: with these smartest people I know in the world on
0:31
Speaker 1: matters of child's safety, finding missing children, fighting back against predators,
0:36
Speaker 1: and what I learned is so important, powerful and information
0:40
Speaker 1: so critical. I want you to have it. I want
0:43
Speaker 1: them to have it. Go to crimestops here dot com
0:47
Speaker 1: for a five part series with action information that you
0:51
Speaker 1: can use to change your life and protect your child.
0:55
Speaker 1: Give that as a gift, not another onesie. Find out
0:59
Speaker 1: how to protect at your child when you're out at
1:01
Speaker 1: the mall or the store, or the grocery, in the
1:03
Speaker 1: parking lot at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters,
1:07
Speaker 1: in daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day
1:12
Speaker 1: of the week than a plastic toy or god forbid,
1:17
Speaker 1: a toy gun. Join Justice Nation. Go to crime stops
1:22
Speaker 1: here dot com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Police are
1:35
Speaker 1: investigating the death of a two month old baby in Wassau.
1:38
Speaker 1: Police say they were called to North Third Avenue on
1:40
Speaker 1: reports of an unresponsive child. They say the dermant the
1:44
Speaker 1: baby died while in the care of the babysitter. Imagine
1:47
Speaker 1: working all day long, then stopping off at your babysitter's
1:51
Speaker 1: house to pick up your baby, and the little guy's
1:54
Speaker 1: already asleep, just in a snowsuit and strapped into his carcia,
2:00
Speaker 1: ready to go, his little hat pulled down over his
2:03
Speaker 1: eyes to protect him against the snow outside. Mommy stops
2:09
Speaker 1: by a laundry mat on her way home with her
2:12
Speaker 1: other children in tow and when she takes the baby
2:17
Speaker 1: to unpack him out of the car seat, his legs
2:23
Speaker 1: won't bend. He's frozen hard as a rock. The baby
2:32
Speaker 1: is dead. I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank
2:36
Speaker 1: you for being with us. We want justice. A working
2:42
Speaker 1: mom stops to pick up her baby, gets him all
2:44
Speaker 1: the way to the laundry mat with the other children,
2:47
Speaker 1: when she realizes he is rock hard. But how is it?
2:52
Speaker 1: How could he have been alive just ten minutes before,
2:56
Speaker 1: sleeping peacefully and then suddenly the baby is dead. Joining
3:02
Speaker 1: me Karen Smith, forensics expert out off Florida. Ashley Wilcot,
3:06
Speaker 1: judge lawyer. You can find her at Ashley Wilcot dot com. Psychologist,
3:11
Speaker 1: doctor William July at doctor William July dot com, and
3:14
Speaker 1: now joining me, syndicated talk show host Dave Matt Dave
3:19
Speaker 1: what Happened Well actually mentioned Nancy. The mom dropped off
3:23
Speaker 1: her two month old baby and an older son with
3:26
Speaker 1: the babysitter. When the mom returns to pick up her
3:30
Speaker 1: two month old baby son and her older son, the
3:33
Speaker 1: baby is already in his car seat. He's already got
3:35
Speaker 1: his winter parka on and a hat is pulled down
3:38
Speaker 1: over his eyes, and the babysitter says he's asleep, So
3:41
Speaker 1: mom puts the baby in the car and with her
3:43
Speaker 1: sister heads to the laundromat. It's only after they get
3:46
Speaker 1: to the laundromat when mom takes the baby out of
3:49
Speaker 1: the car seat and realizes he's perfectly stiff. His legs
3:52
Speaker 1: are bent in the shape of the car seat. She
3:55
Speaker 1: immediately looks at him and finds that he's not breathing.
3:58
Speaker 1: Their sister calls nine one one, and the mom immediately
4:01
Speaker 1: begins CPR, but it's much too late. The baby's already
4:04
Speaker 1: dead by the time rescue workers arrive, and they declare
4:07
Speaker 1: him dead at the laundromat. When police arrive, the scene
4:11
Speaker 1: is frantic. The mom has yanked the baby out of
4:14
Speaker 1: the car seat, is trying her best to perform CPR.
4:18
Speaker 1: She's stunned, she's crying. She doesn't understand it. How can
4:22
Speaker 1: the baby obviously have rigor mortis set in? Karen Smith,
4:29
Speaker 1: The mom couldn't believe that the baby had been fine
4:33
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes before and now his limbs were hard as
4:37
Speaker 1: a rock. Explain what happened, Well, it's called rigor mortis,
4:43
Speaker 1: and it's one of the pathological changes that happens after death.
4:47
Speaker 1: And there's a timeline that can be worked backwards to
4:50
Speaker 1: figure out how long that infant had been deceased. And
4:54
Speaker 1: when you have stiffening of the limbs like that, generally
4:56
Speaker 1: it sets in around two hours your death. Now, infants
5:01
Speaker 1: have a smaller surface area to their body, so it's
5:04
Speaker 1: a little It can be one hour up to three hours.
5:07
Speaker 1: But regardless, this happened a long time prior to the
5:12
Speaker 1: mother picking up the infant in that car seat, the
5:15
Speaker 1: mom said the first thing that she noticed that she
5:17
Speaker 1: thought was ah, but didn't think anything of it. Ashley
5:20
Speaker 1: Wilcot not only judge, lawyer and anchor at Ashley Wilcot
5:25
Speaker 1: dot Com, but also mom was that the baby's lips
5:29
Speaker 1: seem to be sticking together. That's the first thing she noticed.
5:34
Speaker 1: I'm horrified, Nancy. And the thing I have to say
5:38
Speaker 1: to you as a mother to a mother, when I
5:41
Speaker 1: pick up my child from anywhere, even at their current ages,
5:45
Speaker 1: which is much much older, I still kind of do
5:48
Speaker 1: a once over. I still look at them. I make
5:50
Speaker 1: sure they're breathing. I make sure that everything's okay, they
5:53
Speaker 1: seem okay. I cannot imagine as a mother just putting
5:57
Speaker 1: them in the car and thinking everything's okay, and then
6:00
Speaker 1: getting somewhere and realizing the child's lips are stuck together.
6:06
Speaker 1: I just remember. It's having flashbacks because I remember that
6:12
Speaker 1: our washer broke and at the time we started using
6:20
Speaker 1: a laundry mat, and I guess my parents couldn't get
6:27
Speaker 1: a washer at that time. So we would go usually
6:31
Speaker 1: on Sundays, we would drive to the laundry mat before
6:37
Speaker 1: evening church services, put the laundry in, go back for
6:42
Speaker 1: myf Methodist youth fellowship, and between youth fellowship in church,
6:49
Speaker 1: my mom would speed over there, take the clothes out
6:52
Speaker 1: of the washer, stick him in the dryer, come back
6:55
Speaker 1: for church. Then after church would all go pick him up,
7:00
Speaker 1: ring them back home and fill them up. And I
7:03
Speaker 1: remember that coin operated laundry. I think it's actually still there,
7:07
Speaker 1: and I'm just imagining the mom yanking the baby up
7:12
Speaker 1: out of the chair, out of the little car seat,
7:17
Speaker 1: taking off his snowsuit and trying to perform CPR. I
7:22
Speaker 1: mean doctor William July psychologists joining me. You can find
7:26
Speaker 1: him at doctor William July dot com. It's always been
7:32
Speaker 1: an oddity to me that the things I remember out of,
7:37
Speaker 1: for instance, my fiancee's murder, or all the murder cases
7:41
Speaker 1: I've tried, are these obscure details. Just for instance, for instance,
7:47
Speaker 1: I remember the first carjack murder case I ever tried,
7:52
Speaker 1: and what sticks out to me in that case is
7:54
Speaker 1: that the neighbor of the victim saw him get shot
8:01
Speaker 1: and his car taken, and the neighbor ran out and
8:06
Speaker 1: the victim, a teen boy, was dying or dead already,
8:11
Speaker 1: and the neighbor, not knowing what to do, ran back
8:15
Speaker 1: inside and got a pillow from his bed and put
8:18
Speaker 1: it under the victim's head, the victim, who was already dead.
8:23
Speaker 1: Just obscure details like that. In this case, I'm just
8:29
Speaker 1: imagining the mom in a coin operated laundry. She's got
8:34
Speaker 1: her other child with her. What goes through your mind?
8:40
Speaker 1: How do you ever ever get that scenario out of
8:45
Speaker 1: your head? Yes, that's the true, Nancy. When we when
8:48
Speaker 1: we are faced with situations that are traumatizing, what the
8:53
Speaker 1: bio physical process that takes place in the brain. Anytime
8:57
Speaker 1: there's a memory that's being encoded, let's say a memory
9:00
Speaker 1: that's being stored into our from our short term memory
9:03
Speaker 1: into our long term memory. All the brain would would
9:06
Speaker 1: treat all memories the same, unless there's something unusual happening
9:11
Speaker 1: that the brain wants you to remember. The brains just you, Nancy,
9:14
Speaker 1: remember this horrible situation, So it releases a special stress hormone,
9:19
Speaker 1: and that stress hormone is the reason that you are
9:21
Speaker 1: recalling very specific details. And if you, as you were
9:25
Speaker 1: to ask everybody on the panel of some trauma that
9:27
Speaker 1: they were in that happened to them, they would do
9:30
Speaker 1: the same thing. There's something to remember because your brain
9:32
Speaker 1: releases a special hormone to encode that in, to burn
9:35
Speaker 1: that in and say, hey, if this ever happens again,
9:40
Speaker 1: this is terrible. I want you to remember this is horrible.
9:43
Speaker 1: Otherwise all memories would be put into your brain the
9:46
Speaker 1: same way. So the way that that is treated if
9:50
Speaker 1: a person were, for example, in therapy, is what we
9:52
Speaker 1: call exposure therapy, which is a method of exposing a
9:56
Speaker 1: person under control circumstance exposure. I don't like something that
10:03
Speaker 1: would happen in a castle with a dungeon, but it's
10:05
Speaker 1: it's not. It's actually a very constructive way to help
10:09
Speaker 1: a person to go back through trauma, and has to
10:12
Speaker 1: be done with the person, not just any therapist, but
10:14
Speaker 1: someone trained and can I ask a question, why do
10:17
Speaker 1: you want to go back through trauma? No, you don't
10:20
Speaker 1: want to. You don't want to go you don't want
10:22
Speaker 1: to if the trauma. That's a good question because there
10:24
Speaker 1: was an old belief that people always have to go
10:26
Speaker 1: back through You don't need to do that unless it
10:28
Speaker 1: is re traumatizing you, so then it's bothering you. If
10:31
Speaker 1: it's really actually traumatizing you at present. But like, for example,
10:36
Speaker 1: if you've compartmentalized that memory and it's not traumatic to you,
10:39
Speaker 1: not affecting your functioning in a significant way, no, there's
10:43
Speaker 1: no reason to go back through it at all. Leave it,
10:46
Speaker 1: Leave it like it is the person has put it
10:48
Speaker 1: into a place. But if it's a person who this
10:50
Speaker 1: is affecting their functioning that you know, then you start
10:53
Speaker 1: having substance abuse issues, or you start having inability to
10:56
Speaker 1: to to do things that are normal daily funding or
11:00
Speaker 1: high levels of the stress. Then you take the person
11:03
Speaker 1: back through. You retrain the brain by doing relaxation techniques slowly,
11:08
Speaker 1: but I mean very slowly. Sometimes they can take a
11:10
Speaker 1: year or more to get them to where they can.
11:14
Speaker 1: They may not get to where they never respond to it.
11:16
Speaker 1: That wouldn't be human, but you get them to where
11:19
Speaker 1: it's not debilitating. When we got to the laundrom I
11:22
Speaker 1: started unpacking Benson and I'm like, why are his lips
11:25
Speaker 1: like they were like stuck together like kind of you know,
11:28
Speaker 1: like so I was like, oh my god, and I
11:31
Speaker 1: zipped to snow Soon I took out and I'm like,
11:33
Speaker 1: he's like hard, you know, they're like the two month old,
11:39
Speaker 1: likely dead for at least two hours, according to court records.
11:43
Speaker 1: So I was yelling at her to call nine one one,
11:45
Speaker 1: and I didn't know what to do. Lay them down
11:47
Speaker 1: on the table, and then I was like telling me
11:49
Speaker 1: how to CPR over the phone, and I'm like, I
11:55
Speaker 1: can't do this. Please hope that was the last time
12:00
Speaker 1: did a babysitter kill a tiny boy and then dress
12:06
Speaker 1: him fully in a snowsuit, pack him into a car seat,
12:11
Speaker 1: pull a cat down over his eyes, and let his
12:15
Speaker 1: mother pick the boy up disguised as if he were alive.
12:20
Speaker 1: To Ashy Wilcott, judge lawyer Anchor, actually, that is a
12:25
Speaker 1: lot of premeditation, and it's hard to take in that
12:28
Speaker 1: someone could do all that because I know for a fact,
12:30
Speaker 1: after her studying the case very carefully, that as soon
12:33
Speaker 1: as the mom picked the baby up, the babysitter took off,
12:36
Speaker 1: went out to McDonald's with her boyfriend and went swimming
12:39
Speaker 1: at an indoor pool on a date. Yeah, it is premeditation,
12:42
Speaker 1: completely premeditated, and no remorse, no compulsion, no anything to
12:48
Speaker 1: be concerned about the fact she knew this child was dead.
12:50
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't see any other way around it.
12:53
Speaker 1: Karen Smith, you're the forensics expert. There's no way around it.
12:57
Speaker 1: Unless no, there's actually no way around I was trying
13:01
Speaker 1: to think of a way to somehow exonerate Marissa Teetzert,
13:07
Speaker 1: the babysitter in this case. But if you look at
13:10
Speaker 1: the timeline, I mean, the police say when they arrived
13:14
Speaker 1: at the scene, the baby was already rock hard. If
13:18
Speaker 1: you look at even the babysitters analysis, the time mom
13:23
Speaker 1: got off from work, the baby, based on what the
13:27
Speaker 1: medical examiner said, had already been dead for at least
13:31
Speaker 1: two hours. That's correct, So there's no way the mom
13:35
Speaker 1: could have done this. Now, explain, how would they know
13:39
Speaker 1: the baby at the time of the police raised to
13:43
Speaker 1: the scene, Had the laundry man had already been dead
13:46
Speaker 1: for two hours? How do they know that? Well, we
13:48
Speaker 1: talked about rigamortis a little earlier, and honestly that that
13:50
Speaker 1: starts from the extremities and works inward toward the core
13:55
Speaker 1: of the body. So it starts in the fingers, the eyes,
13:58
Speaker 1: the mouth, as we talk about earlier, and honestly, I'm
14:01
Speaker 1: trying to contain my anger as I talk about this.
14:05
Speaker 1: You know, the child's legs were stiff and bent in
14:08
Speaker 1: the same manner as he was sitting in the car seat.
14:11
Speaker 1: So that told the medical examiner that there was a
14:13
Speaker 1: timeline two hours. That's the onset of rigor mortis. You
14:17
Speaker 1: also have two other parts of the pathology, which is
14:20
Speaker 1: alger mortis, the temperature the child was told to the touch.
14:24
Speaker 1: That's another clue. You also have liver mortis, which is
14:27
Speaker 1: the blood settling in the body, and it leaves distinct
14:30
Speaker 1: patterns behind. I don't see any reports of the liver
14:33
Speaker 1: mortis and what the patterns were. It also it can
14:35
Speaker 1: tell us as forensic investigators if a body had been
14:38
Speaker 1: moved after death, if the patterns don't match how that
14:41
Speaker 1: body was found. So all of those are going to
14:43
Speaker 1: tie together and give the medical examiner all of the
14:46
Speaker 1: information that he or she needs. YEA. At this point,
14:49
Speaker 1: they determined that that child had been dead at least
14:51
Speaker 1: two hours, possibly even more. Rigor mortis is Latin. I'll
14:56
Speaker 1: learned all this, you know, from prosecuting. I'm certainly not
15:00
Speaker 1: a medical doctor, just a trial lawyer. Its Latin for
15:03
Speaker 1: stiffness is rigor mortis means death in Latin post mortem rigidity,
15:12
Speaker 1: and that is the third stage of death and as
15:16
Speaker 1: a sign of death. And it is caused by chemical
15:20
Speaker 1: changes within your muscles post mortem after death. And what
15:26
Speaker 1: that does is it means your limbs, your arms, and
15:29
Speaker 1: your legs begin to stiffen. Now, this occurs as early
15:36
Speaker 1: as an hour or so after death, usually around four
15:43
Speaker 1: hours after death. But the degree of rigor will tell
15:48
Speaker 1: you how long the person has been death. After death,
15:53
Speaker 1: you stop breathing and that depletes your oxygen. Your oxygen
15:58
Speaker 1: makes ATP and that's required to keep your muscles moving. So,
16:05
Speaker 1: long story short, Once rigor mortis has set in, it's
16:10
Speaker 1: very easy for a medical examiner to tell to determine
16:13
Speaker 1: how long the baby has been dead. But I just
16:17
Speaker 1: keep thinking about it. Ashley willcot to discover the baby
16:22
Speaker 1: dead and then lay the baby down in the hallway
16:27
Speaker 1: of the home, redress the baby in the snowsuit. The
16:33
Speaker 1: baby's dead. Now, often I would argue to a jury, Ashley,
16:37
Speaker 1: you know, we can spout these words off and they
16:40
Speaker 1: just fly off the tip of our tongue. But let's
16:42
Speaker 1: think about it. Let's follow through what we're saying. Think
16:48
Speaker 1: about what we're saying. Taking a baby, lying the baby
16:54
Speaker 1: down on the floor, getting the dead baby, wrestling it
17:00
Speaker 1: into a snowsuit, zipping up the snowsuit, picking up the
17:06
Speaker 1: dead baby, putting the dead baby into a car seat,
17:10
Speaker 1: arranging the baby as if it's alive. You know how
17:14
Speaker 1: a car seat works. You've got plenty of kids like me.
17:16
Speaker 1: And you put on the shoulder straps. You put the baby,
17:20
Speaker 1: the dead baby, into the shoulder straps. Then you strip,
17:24
Speaker 1: click them together. Then take a height and put that
17:28
Speaker 1: on the baby's head and pull it down over the
17:31
Speaker 1: baby's eyes. Baby, even put a blanket over the dead baby,
17:35
Speaker 1: and then let the dead baby sit at the door
17:39
Speaker 1: waiting for mommy to show up. And then when mommy
17:43
Speaker 1: shows up, you hand heard the dead baby and say
17:48
Speaker 1: he's sleeping. Then go out to eat dinner and go
17:52
Speaker 1: swimming there. What do you think of that? Ash Nancy.
17:55
Speaker 1: That's why you're a good prosecutor. You were a good
17:58
Speaker 1: prosecutor because that's exactly what you do in building your
18:01
Speaker 1: case to convince the jury. You show them every step
18:04
Speaker 1: and think about everything you said was willful, was conscious,
18:09
Speaker 1: was deliberate. All of that amounts to the premeditation. And
18:14
Speaker 1: then after the fact goes to the fact, there's no
18:17
Speaker 1: remorse Honestly, this person deserves the stiffest punishment a possible
18:23
Speaker 1: because she will do it again. Take a listen to
18:26
Speaker 1: what mom Heather Gardner tells Waow, he was a very
18:30
Speaker 1: happy baby, love to smile. This is baby Benson was
18:34
Speaker 1: just starting to laugh and love, just love to be
18:38
Speaker 1: held a two month old surrounded by family and love.
18:42
Speaker 1: Grandma mostly watched them while I was at work, and
18:44
Speaker 1: then she went to California. Heather Gardner, a working mom
18:47
Speaker 1: of two in desperate need of someone to watch her kids,
18:51
Speaker 1: finding Marissa teet Sort through a coworker. Well she's from
18:54
Speaker 1: the town that I'm originally from. In just weeks after
18:57
Speaker 1: trusting tet Sort with her children, Heather saying, she started
19:00
Speaker 1: seeing red flax and I noticed that maybe he had
19:03
Speaker 1: a scratch with something in his mouth as well. So
19:05
Speaker 1: I had took him to the ear that Saturday, and
19:07
Speaker 1: I told the doctors, you know, I don't know if
19:09
Speaker 1: he's being abused to the babysitter, Heather says, doctors told
19:12
Speaker 1: her not to worry, and she sent baby Benson back
19:15
Speaker 1: to teeth Sort a decision. She'll always regret. You as
19:19
Speaker 1: a parent know your child the most, So if you
19:22
Speaker 1: think that something's wrong. Nobody else is going to know
19:25
Speaker 1: any better than you would, and if something doesn't seem right,
19:28
Speaker 1: there's no harm in going to the doctor or calling
19:32
Speaker 1: the police and having it be nothing rather than something serious.
19:35
Speaker 1: Just a few days later, Heather would pick up her
19:38
Speaker 1: baby from teeth Sort for the very last time. So
19:42
Speaker 1: the mom, Heather Gardner, noticed a cut in the baby's
19:45
Speaker 1: mouth and took him to the ear. That doctor said,
19:49
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. It's fine. You're overreacting now, Baby Benson,
19:57
Speaker 1: he's dead. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Baby Benson was
20:17
Speaker 1: just two months old when he passed away. Benson's mom
20:22
Speaker 1: picked him up from the babysitter's apartment on North sixth
20:25
Speaker 1: Street last Thursday and noticed he was unresponsive. After calling authorities,
20:30
Speaker 1: they pronounced him dead. Whilst the police say they believe
20:33
Speaker 1: this woman, Marissa teeth Sort, is to blame for his death,
20:37
Speaker 1: investigating it is a homicide. Well, she hasn't been charged
20:41
Speaker 1: in Baby Benson's death a yet, she has now been
20:44
Speaker 1: charged with child abuse of another infant. Rewind to August,
20:48
Speaker 1: parents of an eight month old called police when the
20:51
Speaker 1: baby came home from Teeth Sorts with injuries on its face.
20:55
Speaker 1: She claimed the child fell off the couch onto the carpet,
20:58
Speaker 1: but doctors say that does seemed to be the case.
21:01
Speaker 1: The injuries are far worse than just a simple faull in.
21:05
Speaker 1: Court records show. In June twenty seventeen, another family accused
21:09
Speaker 1: her of abuse, saying their child suffered a skull fracture
21:12
Speaker 1: in Teetzert's care. Once again, the story of what she
21:15
Speaker 1: said happened not matching up with the injuries. No charges
21:19
Speaker 1: were ever filed in that case. It's been heartbreak and
21:23
Speaker 1: devastation for the parents of the children. They say they
21:27
Speaker 1: just don't want any other parent to go through what
21:30
Speaker 1: they've had to endure. We are talking about Marissa Teetzert,
21:34
Speaker 1: a babysitter who, according to police, returns a dead infant
21:39
Speaker 1: to his mother, disguised as living in a car seat,
21:45
Speaker 1: dressed in a snowsuit, hat pulled down over his eyes,
21:49
Speaker 1: and the mom is none the wiser. When police speed
21:53
Speaker 1: to a little coin laundromat they're in Wausau, Wisconsin, the
21:59
Speaker 1: mom's nightmare is coming true, we learned. The cop gets
22:05
Speaker 1: there and the mom, Heather Gardener, is working working on
22:10
Speaker 1: the chest of her two month old baby boy, who
22:13
Speaker 1: was now lying on one of those big tables they
22:15
Speaker 1: have for you to fold your laundry. The little boy
22:18
Speaker 1: was motionless, His mouth was clenched shut. He was cold
22:24
Speaker 1: to the touch. His legs were frozen into the position
22:28
Speaker 1: they had been in a car seat just before the
22:32
Speaker 1: mom realized her son wasn't breathing, but just minutes before
22:38
Speaker 1: she had picked the baby up from babysitter Marissa, a
22:41
Speaker 1: twenty eight year old mother of five then pregnant with
22:46
Speaker 1: her sixth child, The baby was already snapped in a
22:51
Speaker 1: car seat asleep. What the mom, Heather Gardner, didn't know
22:58
Speaker 1: is that Marissa teits Her had already been charged in
23:02
Speaker 1: other child related incidents and had had her own children
23:09
Speaker 1: taken away to Dave Max and a kid A talk
23:13
Speaker 1: show host. What do we know about Marissa Teetzer Nancy had?
23:17
Speaker 1: Even if it can be worse, it is Teetzert actually
23:20
Speaker 1: told police she knew the baby was dead, and it
23:23
Speaker 1: was when her boyfriend got home that they went to
23:26
Speaker 1: McDonald's with the dead baby in the car. When they
23:29
Speaker 1: got back and she gave the dead baby, telling the
23:32
Speaker 1: mom the baby was asleep. That's when Teetzer and her
23:35
Speaker 1: boyfriend and their son went to a swimming pool and
23:37
Speaker 1: went swimming. Now we know that about two hours into
23:41
Speaker 1: this day, this babysitting event, Teetzer sent a text to
23:46
Speaker 1: Benson's mom saying, Hey, I was charged in an assault
23:50
Speaker 1: on a child I was taking care of and it's
23:52
Speaker 1: going to be in the public today. Please don't tell
23:54
Speaker 1: anybody I'm watching your kids because I'm not allowed to
23:57
Speaker 1: be talking. I'm not allowed to see kids right now.
24:00
Speaker 1: It up, back, back, back it up, back it up.
24:02
Speaker 1: So teacher texts Heather at work and says, Hey, don't
24:09
Speaker 1: tell anybody I'm babysitting because I'm actually on a court
24:12
Speaker 1: order not to be around children. Exactly what, And of
24:16
Speaker 1: course mommy gets right in her car and goes to
24:19
Speaker 1: pick up the baby. So what can you tell me
24:22
Speaker 1: about marissa criminal history? We know that we have the
24:27
Speaker 1: charge from back in August where she's accused of assaulting
24:30
Speaker 1: an eleven month old child that was in her care.
24:34
Speaker 1: We also know that she was charged in June of
24:36
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen in a similar incident where a child once
24:40
Speaker 1: again was hurt in her care, and her story of
24:42
Speaker 1: how the child was hurt didn't match the actual wounds,
24:46
Speaker 1: so they're looking at additional charges there. But the charges
24:48
Speaker 1: that are pinning on her right now date back to
24:51
Speaker 1: the eleven month old in August and now the current
24:54
Speaker 1: obvious complaint. What's amazing is she loads up the dead baby.
24:58
Speaker 1: The boyfriend gets home before where the mom can get there.
25:01
Speaker 1: She doesn't tell the boyfriend the baby is dead. She
25:05
Speaker 1: loads the dead baby into the boyfriend's car. She has
25:12
Speaker 1: two other children with her. They all go in McDonald's.
25:14
Speaker 1: She's got the dead baby and they eat like nothing's wrong.
25:20
Speaker 1: Then the mom gets the baby and the babysitter goes
25:24
Speaker 1: swimming in an indoor pool on a date. I mean,
25:28
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to take it all in, Doctor Williams. July.
25:32
Speaker 1: You gotta help me out on this. You know, the
25:36
Speaker 1: things that strike me on the story, the state of
25:38
Speaker 1: mind that she had to be in to calm, to
25:41
Speaker 1: go and eat. You know, there's certain humans functions that
25:44
Speaker 1: you do, like eating these these this is something that
25:48
Speaker 1: requires you to be in a state of a certain
25:50
Speaker 1: state of mind, you know, to go out and spend
25:52
Speaker 1: time with her boyfriend, it sounds like, and to eat
25:56
Speaker 1: and then to take the baby. And they give this
26:00
Speaker 1: this is. This is in the kids too, and you
26:02
Speaker 1: swimming and swimming, you know these these these these I
26:07
Speaker 1: mean think about it into the changing room and take
26:11
Speaker 1: off her clothes and put on her swimsuit. All the
26:13
Speaker 1: time she knows you just hand it off a dead baby.
26:16
Speaker 1: So this is exactly, and this is not something you
26:18
Speaker 1: do when you're in a panic state of mind or
26:21
Speaker 1: in a in a in an altered state of mind.
26:23
Speaker 1: So you know they're gonna have a very difficult time
26:26
Speaker 1: with any kind of discussion about her not being a
26:28
Speaker 1: right friend of mine. And I want to say this
26:30
Speaker 1: to your listeners. Unfortunately we don't have a file, I
26:35
Speaker 1: guess fortunately in our society, we don't have a file
26:37
Speaker 1: on everybody and everything they've always done in their lives.
26:39
Speaker 1: But I call it the assumption of normalness. Be careful
26:43
Speaker 1: with the assumption of normalness when you're selecting babysitters or
26:47
Speaker 1: people to come into your home to do repairs or whatever.
26:49
Speaker 1: Check these people out and see if there's anything you
26:52
Speaker 1: can find, and if you have any kind of question
26:54
Speaker 1: in your mind, don't hire those those folks, because this
26:58
Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that can happen. Hold On,
27:00
Speaker 1: hold On, Ashley, Willcott, as I recall a coach mom
27:05
Speaker 1: needed a babysitter, and the a co worker gave her
27:08
Speaker 1: this name of Marissa Teacher. See that's my understanding as well.
27:12
Speaker 1: And here's what I was talking about earlier. And it
27:14
Speaker 1: makes me so angry I can barely see straight. This
27:18
Speaker 1: woman has been reported for other incidents, for other concerns
27:22
Speaker 1: about she abused my child and guess what, no charges
27:25
Speaker 1: were pressed. Had they been pressed, this could have been prevented. Well,
27:29
Speaker 1: not only that, had there been other issues with the
27:32
Speaker 1: cops regarding child abuse involving an eleven month old girl
27:36
Speaker 1: who was in her care that was injured, she was
27:39
Speaker 1: already facing a felony child abuse charge. We also know
27:44
Speaker 1: that she had her own children removed from her care
27:48
Speaker 1: for alleged child abuse and that yeah, officials were unaware
27:55
Speaker 1: she had given birth to a fifth child. She had
27:57
Speaker 1: the four removed, okay, four children removed from her care.
28:02
Speaker 1: They didn't know she had given birth to a fifth child,
28:05
Speaker 1: and that at the time this baby died, she was
28:09
Speaker 1: pregnant with a sixth child. So as she Wilcott, you're
28:13
Speaker 1: the juvenile judge, You're intimately familiar with a defacts Department,
28:18
Speaker 1: Family Children's Services, CPS, Child Protective Services. How Come they
28:22
Speaker 1: don't keep tabs on her? How come they don't know
28:25
Speaker 1: she's got another baby and pregnant with the sixth baby?
28:30
Speaker 1: So they totally should What should have happened as they
28:33
Speaker 1: should have a learned hospitals in the area to say,
28:36
Speaker 1: if this person comes in to have a baby, then
28:38
Speaker 1: defects has to be called immediately. They can do that,
28:41
Speaker 1: and they do that in these kinds of cases, so
28:43
Speaker 1: that they're aware when a baby's born, so the baby's
28:45
Speaker 1: not released to an unsafe situation or a risk that
28:48
Speaker 1: could hurt the child. Why they didn't, I don't know,
28:51
Speaker 1: but that's completely plausible that they should have. How were
28:55
Speaker 1: Baby Benson's parents not aware? Because there are no law
29:01
Speaker 1: or statute insisting that child care providers handover their criminal
29:07
Speaker 1: histories or their private histories. No, you hire a babysitter,
29:13
Speaker 1: It's basically like buying a used car. You buy it
29:16
Speaker 1: as is, and unless you ask the questions or you
29:20
Speaker 1: have reason to be suspicious, you never know. And remember
29:24
Speaker 1: this mom, Heather Gardner had asked around. I've given people
29:28
Speaker 1: plenty of names. Hey, here's a babysitter. Here's somebody I use.
29:32
Speaker 1: She's awesome, blah blah, and they trust me. They take
29:37
Speaker 1: the name. That's what happened with Heather. A co worker
29:40
Speaker 1: gave her the name. She needed a babysitter, and that
29:44
Speaker 1: was that. Marissa Teetzort is being accused of child abuse
29:47
Speaker 1: by three different families, and now one of those families
29:51
Speaker 1: is speaking out. I had to use Marissa for two
29:54
Speaker 1: weeks as a babysitter. Megan and her fiance, Dylan new
29:57
Speaker 1: Teetsort for a year before she became the babysitter. I
30:01
Speaker 1: figured she would never arm my daughter, she would hurt
30:04
Speaker 1: my family. Megan says she panicked when she picked up
30:07
Speaker 1: her then eight month old daughter Riley from teeth Sorts apartment.
30:11
Speaker 1: Bruises covered her face. She told me she was nappy,
30:14
Speaker 1: and she rolled over and fell off the couch, and
30:17
Speaker 1: when I went to go get her, I expected maybe
30:20
Speaker 1: a bump on her head. You know, every baby falls
30:23
Speaker 1: at some point, and it came to be that the
30:26
Speaker 1: bruises were already said in her face. She knew she
30:29
Speaker 1: had to bring Riley straight to the hospital. Doctor said
30:32
Speaker 1: the bruising was more extensive than would have been expected
30:35
Speaker 1: from a simple fall. She has no remorse for it.
30:38
Speaker 1: She has not once apologized. Megan says she now plans
30:42
Speaker 1: to check any future babysitters on SEACAP. She's frustrated that
30:45
Speaker 1: the process to charge teeth Sort took so long and
30:48
Speaker 1: that she was caring for other kids even after what
30:51
Speaker 1: happened to Riley. Most recently, a parent found her two
30:55
Speaker 1: months son unresponsive at teeth Sorts. Police believe the baby
30:59
Speaker 1: died while in the care of Teetzer. That's our friend
31:01
Speaker 1: at WAOW, Sarah McGrew. What's amazing to me is even
31:06
Speaker 1: after all this, Teezer says, quote, I'm not a threat
31:10
Speaker 1: to society. I'm a great mom. I'm a great mom.
31:16
Speaker 1: Talk about denial. She said, all of her children taken
31:19
Speaker 1: out of her care. She's charged with multiple counts of
31:22
Speaker 1: child abuse, now murder, and it goes on and on.
31:27
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, let's just be clear on this.
31:30
Speaker 1: To Dave Max, indicated talk show host joining us, this
31:34
Speaker 1: is not a case of SID sudden infant death syndrome.
31:36
Speaker 1: When I say she is charged with homicide, explain what
31:41
Speaker 1: we learned about Heather Gardner's little taughts injuries. We know
31:46
Speaker 1: that according to the autopsy, they were at least three
31:50
Speaker 1: blunt force trauma injuries to this two month old baby's head,
31:54
Speaker 1: and we also know that the force of the blow
31:56
Speaker 1: was so forceful that the babies tell tailbone was broken
32:02
Speaker 1: and separated. Take a listen to another mom, Megan roy
32:05
Speaker 1: speaking to our friends at wsa W after she did
32:08
Speaker 1: hurt her. I couldn't leave my house for about a
32:10
Speaker 1: good two weeks because of the bruising on her face.
32:13
Speaker 1: Megan Royce and Dylan Baum had previously known teeth Sort
32:16
Speaker 1: for over a year before allowing her to watch their children.
32:19
Speaker 1: I had used Marissa for two weeks as a babysitter,
32:23
Speaker 1: and I never once thought to see kapp her or
32:29
Speaker 1: look her up because she was a friend of a
32:31
Speaker 1: friend and she had a baby as well, so I
32:34
Speaker 1: figured it was safe. After she talked to police, Megan
32:37
Speaker 1: roy started receiving threatening messages from other people who blamed
32:41
Speaker 1: her for the attack. It was hard because I had
32:43
Speaker 1: to tell people that my babysitter had done it. I've
32:45
Speaker 1: been getting messages that people think I could have prevented
32:48
Speaker 1: it when I was just trying to help my daughter's
32:51
Speaker 1: case and make sure she did get put away. And
32:53
Speaker 1: she did get charged for what she did. Even after
32:56
Speaker 1: the charges, teeth Sort still hasn't admitted to anything, and
32:59
Speaker 1: it's because she keeps lying about it and she's not
33:02
Speaker 1: once told me the truth about what happened. Riley. The
33:05
Speaker 1: message is that Megan and Dylan half for the parents.
33:07
Speaker 1: Looking into babysitters. You can't be too careful about the
33:10
Speaker 1: people that watch your children. Look them up, see if
33:13
Speaker 1: anything pops up for kild abuse, kyld and ne Glack,
33:17
Speaker 1: anything like that, even if you've known them for over
33:20
Speaker 1: a year like we did, Even if you've known them
33:22
Speaker 1: for that long, there's still being left alone with your
33:25
Speaker 1: child now. And I never would have thought to ever
33:29
Speaker 1: really do it before until now. You wouldn't think it.
33:32
Speaker 1: Three separate blunt force injuries to his head the tailbone.
33:37
Speaker 1: The baby's tailbone had been completely broken off. Quote indicating
33:44
Speaker 1: a significant amount of forced force was used. That is
33:49
Speaker 1: in the medical examiner's report. Kiaren Smith, I'm incensed. You
33:57
Speaker 1: were talking about a minimum of four separate contentional acts.
34:03
Speaker 1: Four separate blows to this baby, three to the head
34:08
Speaker 1: minimum and the amount of force that it takes to
34:11
Speaker 1: break off someone's a baby's tailbone is enormous. You are
34:17
Speaker 1: not talking about a cap, You're not talking about a fall.
34:20
Speaker 1: This is an intentional slam onto an object or the floor,
34:26
Speaker 1: and you're talking about three separate blunt force trauma injuries
34:30
Speaker 1: to this baby's head. This was premeditated, This was intentional.
34:35
Speaker 1: This was disgusting, and I hope she gets stuff full
34:38
Speaker 1: on front of the criminal justice system, plus analyze. I
34:41
Speaker 1: did a flow chart for this, Ashley Wilcott, you're the
34:44
Speaker 1: juvenile judge. You deal with defects every single day. Okay.
34:47
Speaker 1: First of all, there were weeks before baby Benson, the
34:51
Speaker 1: two months old in the current case we're discussing mom
34:53
Speaker 1: Heather Gardner. Weeks before his death, teacher was babysitting the
34:58
Speaker 1: eleven month old little Riley. Now teacher told that mom
35:03
Speaker 1: Megan Riley, fell off a couch and injured her face.
35:07
Speaker 1: Doctors say those injuries could not have happened from a fall,
35:11
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why. She says she fell off
35:13
Speaker 1: a sofa. But there were multiple bruises. One bruise from
35:17
Speaker 1: falling off a sofa. I mean, how do you fall off?
35:19
Speaker 1: And then what fall off? Again and again and again
35:21
Speaker 1: and again and again. To get all these multiple bruises.
35:23
Speaker 1: That's how they knew that it's not rocket science. So
35:26
Speaker 1: felony charges were filed against teas hurt, the same charges
35:31
Speaker 1: that teacher was talking about when she called baby Benson's
35:34
Speaker 1: mom to say, hey, don't tell anybody I'm taking care
35:37
Speaker 1: of your your baby because I caught some charges and
35:39
Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to be around children. Well, the mom
35:42
Speaker 1: of course nut it up and went straight over there
35:44
Speaker 1: to get the baby. A year before that, a year
35:48
Speaker 1: before that, a three month old child teacher was babysitting
35:53
Speaker 1: was also injured while with Teaser suffering a skull fracture.
36:00
Speaker 1: No charges were ever brought. In two ten, her then boyfriend,
36:06
Speaker 1: he wisely took off, filed a t r O against
36:09
Speaker 1: teacher for allegedly abusing their two sons. Now it was
36:14
Speaker 1: reported social workers removed all of Teacher's four children. Then
36:19
Speaker 1: that's when they were removed, So this goes all the
36:23
Speaker 1: way back to twenty and ten. Her boyfriend then has
36:26
Speaker 1: to go file a t r against her for abusing
36:29
Speaker 1: their two sons. He alleges at that time defects takes
36:33
Speaker 1: all four children away from the home. The state workers
36:37
Speaker 1: not doing their job, don't know she's had a fifth child,
36:40
Speaker 1: or that at the time Baby Benson was killed, she
36:43
Speaker 1: was pregnant with her six Then we have the three
36:45
Speaker 1: month old with the skull fracture, no charges. Then you
36:49
Speaker 1: have eleven month old Riley covered in bruises from quote falling.
36:54
Speaker 1: Now i'm too Baby Benson Ashley. How how was she
37:00
Speaker 1: still taking care of children? Where we're all the charges.
37:04
Speaker 1: So that's the problem, that's the system fail in this case.
37:07
Speaker 1: There should have been charges years ago. Now let me
37:10
Speaker 1: suggest this, and that is our child welfare system of
37:13
Speaker 1: defacts is separate from law enforcement excuse me, system of
37:17
Speaker 1: investigating and charging and then going to criminal court, and
37:21
Speaker 1: so too frequently those two systems have two different goals
37:24
Speaker 1: to different purposes. One is to protect children, the other
37:27
Speaker 1: is to prosecute. And too often people whose children have
37:31
Speaker 1: been taken away in the system work to protect those children.
37:34
Speaker 1: That doesn't line up with the legal criminal aspect of
37:39
Speaker 1: But they've heard a child, they need to be charged,
37:41
Speaker 1: and that's the system fail in this part. She should
37:43
Speaker 1: have been charged years ago. There's no excuse, there's no
37:46
Speaker 1: reason why not. That should have happened. These other crimes
37:49
Speaker 1: then would have been prevented. Listen the babies that are
37:52
Speaker 1: charged with first degree intentional homicide. She is a monster.
37:56
Speaker 1: While police continue to investigate, we are confidence that we'll
38:01
Speaker 1: get justice for Benson when that is concluded. Heather missing
38:06
Speaker 1: out on those cherished milestones. Here's first word, see us
38:10
Speaker 1: first steps. We'll never get her baby Benson back. Push
38:14
Speaker 1: I could just hold them. For tips on how to
38:18
Speaker 1: hire and locate a babysitter, go to crime online dot com.
38:25
Speaker 1: We wait as justice and folds. Nancy Grace Crime Story
38:29
Speaker 1: signing off, Goodbye, Fred