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Rebirth _ Connell Watkins _ Julie Ponder · This is monsters

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome back to This is Monsters. I'm your narrator,
0:04
Speaker 1: Giles with a J. I just want to take a
0:06
Speaker 1: quick moment to let you know that we're on season
0:09
Speaker 1: 21 and the theme is strange and unusual. I feel
0:13
Speaker 1: like I might have been a little too aggressive in
0:15
Speaker 1: my previous intro and I want to make things a
0:18
Speaker 1: little more positive, so I'm going to encourage you to
0:21
Speaker 1: caress the like button and maybe hug the subscribe button.
0:26
Speaker 1: Show it some love.
0:27
Speaker 2: Don't hate.
0:29
Speaker 1: Save your hate for the monsters. On with the show.
0:34
Speaker 1: Candace Newmaker was a broken child. At least that's what
0:38
Speaker 1: she was made to believe. She was also told that
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Speaker 1: therapy could fix her and unlock the kind of love
0:44
Speaker 1: she had never experienced. All it would take was a
0:48
Speaker 1: little trust to finally become the daughter she was meant
0:51
Speaker 1: to be. In the end, though, all she would become
0:54
Speaker 1: was dead. This is Monsters.
1:02
Speaker 2: Candace Tiara Elmore was born on November 19, 1989 in
1:10
Speaker 2: Lincoln County, North Carolina.
1:31
Speaker 1: Her mother, Angela Elmore, was 18 years old and her father, Todd,
1:35
Speaker 1: was 23. Angela had been raised in foster care and
1:39
Speaker 1: at the age of 16, she gave birth to her
1:41
Speaker 1: first child while still a ward of the state. Without
1:45
Speaker 1: anyone to support her, Angela was forced to give her
1:48
Speaker 1: child up for adoption. Because Angela had been labeled as
1:52
Speaker 1: an emotionally disturbed child with violent tendencies, she was designated
1:57
Speaker 1: to remain in social services beyond the typical cut-off age
2:00
Speaker 1: of 18. Being forced to give up her first child
2:05
Speaker 1: shattered Angela. The loss left a deep emotional void, and
2:09
Speaker 1: in her grief, she told her social workers that she
2:11
Speaker 1: wanted to replace the child with another. At the age
2:15
Speaker 1: of 17, she married Todd Elmore and almost immediately became
2:19
Speaker 1: pregnant for the second time. During her pregnancy with Candace,
2:24
Speaker 1: Angela played classical music and read books to her unborn child.
2:29
Speaker 1: After her daughter was born, Angela and Todd had two
2:32
Speaker 1: more children. By then, Angela's mother Mary was back in
2:36
Speaker 1: her life and she helped out with the kids in
2:38
Speaker 1: between work. But things were tough. There was never enough
2:42
Speaker 1: money and rarely any stability in the family. They constantly
2:46
Speaker 1: moved between trailer parks and housing projects, and Todd and
2:49
Speaker 1: Angela struggled to hold down jobs. On top of that,
2:54
Speaker 1: Todd was often violent towards Angela. There were several domestic
2:58
Speaker 1: violence complaints recorded with the police, but Angela never pressed charges.
3:03
Speaker 1: Given that Candace was the oldest child in the family,
3:06
Speaker 1: she took on the role of little mother. She helped
3:09
Speaker 1: her mother with the younger kids and tried to separate
3:12
Speaker 1: her parents when they fought. After a particularly bad incident
3:17
Speaker 1: in 1992, Angela decided enough was enough and she packed
3:21
Speaker 1: the children up and moved into a women's shelter, but
3:24
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before she was back under the same
3:26
Speaker 1: roof as Todd. A few weeks later, one of the
3:30
Speaker 1: children's teachers noticed scratches on their back and informed social services.
3:35
Speaker 1: Angela's explanation of an innocent accident didn't sit well with
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Speaker 1: the social worker. When Todd and Angela caught wind that
3:43
Speaker 1: they were about to be investigated, they packed up their
3:46
Speaker 1: home and disappeared in the middle of the night. When
3:49
Speaker 1: social services tracked them down, the children were temporarily placed
3:53
Speaker 1: in foster care. Candace was just four years old. Angela
3:59
Speaker 1: didn't give up easily and she fought to get her
4:01
Speaker 1: kids back. She agreed to attend counseling and she accepted
4:06
Speaker 1: every condition the social workers proposed. But just when things
4:10
Speaker 1: were looking up, Angela had a fight with her mother.
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Speaker 1: Mary drove off in the only car the family owned,
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Speaker 1: which meant Angela had no way of picking the kids
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Speaker 1: up from daycare. She also didn't own a phone to
4:22
Speaker 1: call and tell them she was held up or to
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Speaker 1: ask anyone to help her out. When social services were
4:28
Speaker 1: contacted by the teachers at the daycare about the kids
4:31
Speaker 1: who hadn't been collected, they called Mary. She told them
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Speaker 1: to pick up Candace and hold her overnight. Mary didn't
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Speaker 1: realize that that action would be interpreted as Angela abandoning
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Speaker 1: her children and being unfit to care for them. As
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Speaker 1: a result, the three Elmore children were permanently placed in
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Speaker 1: foster care. When Angela went to court to get them back,
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Speaker 1: she was told that Candace was misbehaving and having temper tantrums.
4:57
Speaker 1: The judge refused to return the kids to Angela because
5:00
Speaker 1: he saw her as the cause of the children's behavioral issues.
5:05
Speaker 1: Within a few months, Angela and Todd's parental rights were
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Speaker 1: terminated and all the children were available for adoption. It's
5:12
Speaker 1: hard not to compare the inhumanity of the human adoption
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Speaker 1: process to that of a pet shelter. Children waiting like
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Speaker 1: dogs or cats in foster home cages, hoping someone would
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Speaker 1: deem them worthy of adoption. Candace was a third-generation foster child.
5:29
Speaker 1: Angela's mother Mary was abandoned by her teenage parents before
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Speaker 1: she started school. By the time she aged out of
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Speaker 1: the system, she had lived in 17 foster homes. She
5:40
Speaker 1: gave birth to Angela when she was 16. Angela was
5:44
Speaker 1: taken into foster care as a young child and forced
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Speaker 1: to grow up within the same system that had failed
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Speaker 1: her mother. As a teenager, she became a mother herself,
5:53
Speaker 1: only to have her own children removed and placed into
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Speaker 1: foster care before they turned five. And so Candace became
6:00
Speaker 1: another girl in a long line of women born into
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Speaker 1: instability and handed over to a system that was never
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Speaker 1: equipped to give her what she needed most. It is
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Speaker 1: notoriously difficult to find adoptive families for children who are
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Speaker 1: no longer babies. Most prospective parents prefer an infant they
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Speaker 1: can shape and mold from the very beginning rather than
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Speaker 1: one who arrives with trauma and behaviors they don't like.
6:24
Speaker 1: Candace wasn't a newborn, which meant the pathway to adoption
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Speaker 1: would be long and disruptive. She spent the next year
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Speaker 1: of her life being passed between a series of foster homes,
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Speaker 1: with some carers describing her as withdrawn and others calling
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Speaker 1: her defiant. One foster parent said Candace's behavior was responsible
6:43
Speaker 1: for her having asthma attacks. Social services knew that unless
6:48
Speaker 1: something changed, Candace was likely to remain in care for
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Speaker 1: the long term. Her only real chance at finding a
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Speaker 1: permanent home would be if a family stepped forward that
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Speaker 1: didn't fit the usual mold for adoptive parents. They might
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Speaker 1: be a same-sex couple, or a single woman, or someone
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Speaker 1: the system typically viewed as less desirable. Those were the
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Speaker 1: types of people who might be more open to a
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Speaker 1: child who came with a bit of history. Enter Jean Newmaker.
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Speaker 1: Jean was a registered pediatric nurse practitioner at Duke University
7:21
Speaker 1: Medical Center. She came from a well-known family in a
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Speaker 1: small town in Pennsylvania and, on the surface, she appeared
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Speaker 1: to be perfectly placed to offer a stable and supportive
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Speaker 1: home for an unwanted child. But Jean's childhood had also
7:35
Speaker 1: been touched by dysfunction. Her father was an alcoholic who
7:40
Speaker 1: was eventually ordered into psychiatric care. While there, he met
7:44
Speaker 1: another patient and divorced Jean's mother to marry her. In 1986,
7:50
Speaker 1: Jean cared for her mother through end-stage cancer. Just a
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Speaker 1: year later, her father died. The loss of both parents
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Speaker 1: in such a short period took a toll on Jean.
8:01
Speaker 1: She sought treatment for depression and poured all her energy
8:05
Speaker 1: into her career. She earned a master's degree in nursing,
8:08
Speaker 1: which enabled her to train as a pediatric nurse practitioner.
8:13
Speaker 1: Nurse practitioners typically undergo advanced training in a specific field
8:17
Speaker 1: of interest. For Jean, it was pediatrics. In modern programs,
8:23
Speaker 1: that training would include education on childhood psychological and behavioral health,
8:28
Speaker 1: as well as how parenting and attachment relationships influence a
8:31
Speaker 1: child's well-being. But Jean completed her training in the late 1980s,
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Speaker 1: and it's unclear whether her training would have covered those topics.
8:41
Speaker 1: Thanks to a trust fund, Jean lived in a five-bedroom
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Speaker 1: home bordering on a golf course in Durham, North Carolina.
8:48
Speaker 1: She had never married and didn't have children of her own.
8:52
Speaker 1: When Jean was 41, she decided she wanted to provide
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Speaker 1: a healthy, loving, and nurturing home for an unloved child.
9:00
Speaker 1: She was financially secure, professionally respected, and lived in a
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Speaker 1: large house with more than enough space to create her
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Speaker 1: own family. Given her professional background, it's likely she was
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Speaker 1: viewed as someone who would understand a child's needs and
9:14
Speaker 1: provide a stable, healthy environment. On paper, she was the
9:18
Speaker 1: ideal candidate. While most prospective adoptive parents are required to
9:23
Speaker 1: complete extensive training, home visits, and psychological assessments before being
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Speaker 1: matched with a child, it's unclear whether Jean underwent the
9:32
Speaker 1: same level of scrutiny. Her professional status may have fast-tracked
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Speaker 1: the process, and maybe people assumed she knew what she
9:39
Speaker 1: was doing. But even if there were concerns at that stage,
9:43
Speaker 1: something else about Jean set her apart. Unlike most adoptive parents,
9:48
Speaker 1: she didn't want an infant. She wanted a school-aged child.
9:53
Speaker 1: When Jean and Candace were first introduced, everything went smoothly.
9:58
Speaker 1: They spent time together under a formal veil. visitation plan,
10:01
Speaker 1: starting with short visits. After a couple of weeks, they
10:04
Speaker 1: progressed to overnight and weekend stays. Their match seemed promising.
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Speaker 1: Candace responded well to Jean, and by June of 1966,
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Speaker 1: Jean was sure Candace was the child for her. She
10:18
Speaker 1: was not too young or too damaged, just the right
10:21
Speaker 1: mix of vulnerable and compliant, someone she could shape into
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Speaker 1: the daughter she'd imagined. Candace's feelings about the situation weren't considered.
10:31
Speaker 1: As Jean formalized the adoption papers, she took a leave
10:35
Speaker 1: of absence from her work for two months. She wanted
10:38
Speaker 1: to have undisturbed time with Candace before she was enrolled
10:42
Speaker 1: in school the next year. In December of 1996, Jean
10:47
Speaker 1: and Candace enjoyed their first Christmas together. They celebrated again
10:51
Speaker 1: when the finalized adoption paperwork came through in early 1997,
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Speaker 1: right before Candace was sent to enter the first grade.
11:00
Speaker 1: At six years old, she was a year older than
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Speaker 1: her peers, but it didn't seem to bother her. Her
11:05
Speaker 1: teachers described her as quiet and obedient, and while she
11:08
Speaker 1: wasn't an exceptional student, she didn't act out or disrupt
11:11
Speaker 1: her peers. At home, Jean helped with Candace's homework and
11:16
Speaker 1: kept things structured. There were routines, expectations, and rules, particularly
11:21
Speaker 1: when it came to Jean's Catholic beliefs. Candace had no
11:25
Speaker 1: experience with religion, but she dutifully prayed for forgiveness each
11:29
Speaker 1: night before bed. At church, she was taught that she
11:33
Speaker 1: was innately damaged and that the only way to fix
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Speaker 1: her brokenness was to confess, apologize, and try harder to
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Speaker 1: be good. On the surface, the adoption was a success,
11:43
Speaker 1: and Jean congratulated herself for saving this poor abandoned child.
11:48
Speaker 1: But the honeymoon period would soon be over. In mid-1997,
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Speaker 1: Jean told a colleague that she felt Candace had picked
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Speaker 1: up some negative behaviors. She was experiencing mood swings, she
12:01
Speaker 1: had become withdrawn, and she lashed out when Jean disciplined her.
12:06
Speaker 1: Not long after, Jean became convinced that Candace was showing
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Speaker 1: signs of depression, and she signed her up to see
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Speaker 1: a psychiatrist. Despite her experience working with children, Jean failed
12:18
Speaker 1: to recognize something fundamental. Children who've been removed from their
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Speaker 1: birth families need time to adjust. It's easy to assume
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Speaker 1: that once a child is placed into a more stable environment,
12:30
Speaker 1: things should start to improve. But that view doesn't account
12:33
Speaker 1: for how a child's brain works. No matter how unsafe
12:38
Speaker 1: or unstable those environments were, their sense of safety doesn't
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Speaker 1: just reset because they've been moved to a home that
12:45
Speaker 1: would be viewed as better. What was happening for Candace
12:49
Speaker 1: was likely completely normal given what she had been through,
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Speaker 1: but Jean saw it as a problem that needed fixing.
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Speaker 1: It was becoming clear that Jean hadn't got into adopting
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Speaker 1: to become a better person or offer a child a
13:01
Speaker 1: second chance. She wanted the world to think she had
13:04
Speaker 1: crafted a perfect child, one that was obedient and grateful
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Speaker 1: for her saving them. She also wanted that child to
13:12
Speaker 1: be a mirror image of her. Almost as soon as
13:15
Speaker 1: Jean adopted Candace, she changed her last name to match
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Speaker 1: her own. She also changed Candace's middle name to match
13:23
Speaker 1: her own. Candace Tiara Elmore became Candace Elizabeth Newmaker. By
13:30
Speaker 1: early 1998, Jean told Candace's psychiatrist that her adopted daughter
13:35
Speaker 1: had become a, quote, really negative, disruptive, and enraged child.
13:41
Speaker 1: She complained that that wasn't what she had signed up for.
13:44
Speaker 1: She wanted a child she could pour her love into,
13:47
Speaker 1: but they were constantly arguing. Jean also complained that Candace
13:51
Speaker 1: was struggling in school and that she was becoming a
13:54
Speaker 1: distraction to her classmates. At Jean's workplace, a psychiatrist assessed
14:00
Speaker 1: Candice and diagnosed her with attention deficit disorder. ADD can
14:04
Speaker 1: affect a child's ability to concentrate, stay organized, and control impulses.
14:10
Speaker 1: She was prescribed Ritalin, which is a stimulant used to
14:13
Speaker 1: help children manage their ADD symptoms. But instead of making
14:17
Speaker 1: Candice more compliant, which is what Jean was looking for,
14:21
Speaker 1: the Ritalin made it difficult for her to sleep. She
14:24
Speaker 1: was alert at school, but exhausted and irritable everywhere else.
14:28
Speaker 1: After a few weeks of insomnia, her behavior deteriorated even further.
14:33
Speaker 1: Because obviously none of us are at our best when
14:36
Speaker 1: we haven't slept for weeks. But that wasn't a good
14:39
Speaker 1: enough excuse for Jane. She took Candace back to the
14:42
Speaker 1: psychiatrist and he changed her medication to another drug called Dexedrine.
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Speaker 1: That is also a stimulant, but it's much stronger and
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Speaker 1: longer lasting than Ritalin. It also comes with a higher
14:54
Speaker 1: risk of side effects, especially in children. In fact, the
14:58
Speaker 1: drug comes with a warning that it should not be
15:00
Speaker 1: used by children with inattentive psychotic disorders as it can
15:04
Speaker 1: worsen symptoms like aggression, anxiety, or paranoia. Candice was also
15:09
Speaker 1: given the antidepressant Prozac. In just a few months, Candice
15:13
Speaker 1: went from being a six-year-old adjusting to a new home
15:17
Speaker 1: to a heavily medicated child on two powerful psychiatric drugs.
15:21
Speaker 1: The combination of a stimulant and an antidepressant did not
15:25
Speaker 1: have the desired effect, at least not in Jean's perspective.
15:28
Speaker 1: At the next psychiatric visit, Jean said that Candace's behavior
15:34
Speaker 1: had deteriorated rather than improving. She referred to her as
15:39
Speaker 1: unlovable and complained that the more Jean tried to fix her,
15:42
Speaker 1: the less lovable Candace became. By the next summer, Candace
15:47
Speaker 1: was showing physical side effects from her medication regimen. She
15:51
Speaker 1: lost weight, and Gene was told to cycle her through
15:54
Speaker 1: time on and off the medication to help increase her
15:57
Speaker 1: appetite and weight. Gene also took Candace to see a
16:00
Speaker 1: researcher at Duke who was studying ADD in children. He
16:05
Speaker 1: assessed Candace and found that although her behavior might have
16:08
Speaker 1: been challenging to manage at times, it was what he
16:11
Speaker 1: would expect from a child who had been through so
16:13
Speaker 1: much instability. The researcher also spoke to Candace's teacher, who
16:18
Speaker 1: said that she was the type of kid who tried
16:20
Speaker 1: really hard in class and was focused on doing better
16:23
Speaker 1: each time she attempted something new. They didn't report any
16:26
Speaker 1: concerns about her behavior, but Jean said they fought about
16:30
Speaker 1: homework almost every day. When Jean started attending a support
16:35
Speaker 1: group for adoptive parents, she felt judged by others who
16:38
Speaker 1: said she shouldn't put up with Candace's behavior, like she
16:42
Speaker 1: could just return the broken thing and get a new one.
16:45
Speaker 1: Over the next 12 months, Jean continued to complain about
16:49
Speaker 1: Candace's behavior. She reiterated that the child was unlovable and problematic,
16:55
Speaker 1: even though her teachers and her psychiatrist felt that everything
16:58
Speaker 1: she was doing was in the realm of normal behavior
17:00
Speaker 1: for a child with her history. One of Candace's teachers
17:04
Speaker 1: called her a little angel, while Jean described her as evil.
17:08
Speaker 1: Jean felt that the doctors weren't taking her perspective seriously,
17:12
Speaker 1: and so she began to look for someone who would.
17:16
Speaker 1: On May 26th, 1999, Candice was assessed by a doctor
17:20
Speaker 1: who backed up the initial diagnosis of ADD, but he
17:23
Speaker 1: also added ODD, which is Oppositional Defiant Disorder. ADD is
17:29
Speaker 1: typically assessed through behavioral evaluations like testing attention span, focus,
17:34
Speaker 1: and impulse control. However, the ODD diagnosis was based almost
17:38
Speaker 1: entirely on genes reports of Candice's behavior at home. The
17:43
Speaker 1: symptoms of ODD include excessive arguing, refusing to follow rules,
17:48
Speaker 1: deliberately annoying others, and using mean or spiteful language. According
17:54
Speaker 1: to Jean, Candace ticked every box. She was a liar,
17:58
Speaker 1: a thief, and couldn't make meaningful relationships with people. This
18:03
Speaker 1: doctor also diagnosed Candace with PTSD and added the antidepressant
18:07
Speaker 1: drug Zoloft to Candace's regimen. Jean agreed with the new
18:12
Speaker 1: diagnoses and put them all down to Candace's early experiences
18:16
Speaker 1: of being neglected and apparently abandoned by her birth parents.
18:20
Speaker 1: In her mind, Candace was behaving so negatively because she
18:23
Speaker 1: had a fear of abandonment. A month later, she took
18:27
Speaker 1: Candace to see a psychotherapist. It's important to mention the
18:31
Speaker 1: difference between psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists. In general terms, a
18:38
Speaker 1: psychiatrist is a medical doctor. They've been to medical school,
18:42
Speaker 1: they can prescribe medication, and they often focus on diagnosing
18:46
Speaker 1: and treating mental illnesses using a combination of medication and
18:49
Speaker 1: medical-based approaches. If a child has a serious condition like
18:54
Speaker 1: bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or depression that might need medication, a
18:59
Speaker 1: psychiatrist is usually involved. Then there are psychologists. They may
19:04
Speaker 1: have a doctoral degree, like a PhD, but they aren't
19:07
Speaker 1: medical doctors. They're trained to assess and treat emotional and
19:11
Speaker 1: behavioral issues using talk therapy and psychological testing. They don't
19:16
Speaker 1: prescribe medication, but they often work closely with psychiatrists for
19:20
Speaker 1: clients who need therapeutic treatments alongside their medication. And then
19:25
Speaker 1: there are psychotherapists. This is a general label that can
19:29
Speaker 1: be used by social workers, counselors, or even people without
19:32
Speaker 1: qualifications depending on the laws in their country or state.
19:37
Speaker 1: Unlike psychologists or psychiatrists, there isn't a strict standard for
19:41
Speaker 1: who can call themselves a therapist, and there's no governing
19:44
Speaker 1: body to make sure they're properly trained or supervised or
19:47
Speaker 1: even licensed. In fact, there aren't even any guidelines about
19:51
Speaker 1: what exactly a psychotherapist session involves. Jean would have known
19:56
Speaker 1: all of that, and yet she signed Candice up for
19:58
Speaker 1: treatment anyway. The psychotherapist agreed with Candice's diagnoses, but believed
20:04
Speaker 1: that her PTSD was the blame of her behavior. They
20:08
Speaker 1: advised switching up her medication and started Candace on 10X,
20:12
Speaker 1: which is not approved for children under 12. Candace was
20:16
Speaker 1: 9 at the time, so Jean had one of her
20:18
Speaker 1: colleagues prescribe the drug. When it didn't help fix Candace's insomnia,
20:23
Speaker 1: it was switched to Effexor, which is used to treat
20:26
Speaker 1: anxiety and depression. A couple of months later, the psychotherapist
20:31
Speaker 1: decided Candace was probably bipolar and she was prescribed an
20:35
Speaker 1: antipsychotic drug. The drug gave Candice nightmares on top of
20:39
Speaker 1: the insomnia. So when she did finally get to sleep,
20:43
Speaker 1: she had nightmares. Brilliant. It's important also to mention that
20:47
Speaker 1: in the notes from the licensed doctors that saw Candice,
20:51
Speaker 1: she was described as talkative, cheerful, compliant, and affectionate. Candice
20:57
Speaker 1: had started off strong at school. In her first year,
21:00
Speaker 1: she picked up reading quickly and even helped classmates who
21:03
Speaker 1: were struggling. Since she was six when she started, she
21:07
Speaker 1: stood out for her maturity. Her grades were mostly A's
21:11
Speaker 1: and B's, and she seemed to enjoy learning. But things
21:14
Speaker 1: began to shift in her second year, after she started
21:17
Speaker 1: on medication. Teachers noticed that she was having trouble staying
21:21
Speaker 1: awake in class, and she couldn't focus or finish tasks.
21:25
Speaker 1: Perhaps most telling, her reading ability stalled. By her third year,
21:30
Speaker 1: Candice was becoming more withdrawn. There were signs of emotional distress,
21:35
Speaker 1: including a lack of motivation and difficulty keeping up. But
21:38
Speaker 1: even then, her teachers described her as gentle, kind, and affectionate,
21:43
Speaker 1: especially with the younger students. She made friends easily, had
21:47
Speaker 1: regular sleepovers, and never caused problems in class. There was
21:51
Speaker 1: no sign of the angry or aggressive child Jean described
21:55
Speaker 1: at home. That year, as her grades continued to slip,
21:59
Speaker 1: the school recommended an assessment to see if she qualified
22:03
Speaker 1: for extra help. The assessment found that Candice had a
22:06
Speaker 1: learning disorder related to auditory processing difficulties. That meant it
22:11
Speaker 1: was hard for her to take in and process spoken instructions.
22:15
Speaker 1: The diagnosis explained a lot about what our teachers had
22:18
Speaker 1: been seeing, and there was hope that with some extra
22:21
Speaker 1: support she would get back on track. The diagnosis made
22:24
Speaker 1: her eligible for full-time, one-on-one support with a special teacher
22:28
Speaker 1: who could adapt lessons to her needs. But Jean declined
22:32
Speaker 1: the support. She didn't want Candace pulled out of her
22:35
Speaker 1: mainstream classroom. She had expectations for who Candace was supposed
22:40
Speaker 1: to be, and she opted for in-class support, which was
22:42
Speaker 1: only funded for one hour per week. By the end
22:47
Speaker 1: of that year, Candace was getting C's and D's in
22:49
Speaker 1: most subjects. The only exceptions were creative subjects like art
22:54
Speaker 1: and storytelling, which she seemed to enjoy. Throughout all of that,
22:59
Speaker 1: Jean never told the school that Candace was on medication
23:02
Speaker 1: or that she had been diagnosed with any condition. She
23:06
Speaker 1: also didn't mention the insomnia, the daily fights over homework,
23:10
Speaker 1: or her view that Candace was unlovable. And none of
23:13
Speaker 1: the professionals involved in Candace's care asked for information from
23:17
Speaker 1: her school. Usually, in adoption cases, there is a caseworker
23:22
Speaker 1: who liaises with family and professionals to manage the child's care.
23:27
Speaker 1: They will also spend time with the child one-on-one to
23:30
Speaker 1: identify what support they need. That person operates as a
23:34
Speaker 1: child advocate with an unbiased view of their situation, and
23:37
Speaker 1: they will share appropriate information between services to ensure everyone
23:41
Speaker 1: knows what's going on with the child. But for Candace,
23:45
Speaker 1: Jean was effectively her case manager. It was most likely that,
23:49
Speaker 1: because she was a nurse and some of the professionals
23:52
Speaker 1: she took Candace to were her colleagues, she was trusted
23:55
Speaker 1: with far more than another adoptive parent in similar circumstances.
24:00
Speaker 1: Because of that, Jean was the only one who knew
24:02
Speaker 1: everything that was going on with Candace. She controlled the
24:06
Speaker 1: flow of information and the narrative surrounding what challenges Candace
24:10
Speaker 1: was going through. Everything she told to the school or
24:13
Speaker 1: professionals came from her own deeply involved and therefore biased perspective.
24:19
Speaker 1: So there was Candace, a nine-year-old child who had experienced
24:22
Speaker 1: dysfunction from an early age. Her mother was young and
24:26
Speaker 1: overwhelmed and she was forced to give her kids up
24:29
Speaker 1: for adoption. Then Candace was moved between foster homes for
24:33
Speaker 1: a year before being adopted by a person who was
24:35
Speaker 1: supposed to give her a better life. Instead, her caregiver
24:39
Speaker 1: became convinced that she was unlovable and evil and put
24:43
Speaker 1: her on a cocktail of psychiatric medications, including some which
24:46
Speaker 1: were not approved for children. All of that was done
24:50
Speaker 1: based on Jean's own reports of Candace's behavior. Candace couldn't
24:55
Speaker 1: sleep and couldn't eat properly, which would wear down any adult,
24:59
Speaker 1: let alone a child. Her body and mind were breaking
25:02
Speaker 1: down under the weight of her physical condition and the
25:05
Speaker 1: absence of love and affection. But rather than recognizing those
25:08
Speaker 1: changes as signs that something wasn't right, they were interpreted
25:12
Speaker 1: as more evidence that Candace was broken. She was stuck
25:16
Speaker 1: in a vicious cycle with no one to advocate for her.
25:19
Speaker 1: But things only got worse. Jean became convinced that Candace
25:24
Speaker 1: somehow misled her medical practitioners into thinking she was doing
25:28
Speaker 1: well and that Jean was lying about her condition. That
25:31
Speaker 1: made them go easy on her and let her avoid
25:34
Speaker 1: addressing the root cause of her issues. In other words,
25:38
Speaker 1: Jean felt the health professionals were going too easy on Candace.
25:43
Speaker 1: By the end of year three, Jean was actively seeking
25:46
Speaker 1: information about alternative treatments she could force Candace to go
25:50
Speaker 1: through in order to address her perception of negative behaviors.
25:54
Speaker 1: She felt that the medical professionals weren't taking her concerns
25:57
Speaker 1: seriously enough and that something less mainstream would provide the
26:01
Speaker 1: solution she was looking for. What she really wanted was
26:05
Speaker 1: to make Candace a compliant and emotionally dependent child. She
26:10
Speaker 1: wanted Candace to think of Jean as her real mother
26:12
Speaker 1: and the only one she could be attached to. No
26:16
Speaker 1: medical professionals had diagnosed Candace with an attachment disorder, but
26:20
Speaker 1: after Jean attended a presentation about attachment therapy in December
26:24
Speaker 1: of 1998, she became convinced it was the answer she
26:27
Speaker 1: had been looking for. Attachment therapy sounds harmless enough. Maybe
26:33
Speaker 1: it gives the impression of a type of treatment that
26:36
Speaker 1: will be warm, healing, and bring people closer together. But
26:39
Speaker 1: the truth of what happens behind closed doors under the
26:43
Speaker 1: label of attachment therapy has little to do with empathy
26:46
Speaker 1: or emotional bonding. Instead, many of the techniques used in
26:50
Speaker 1: AT are abusive and coercive. Attachment therapy is aimed at
26:55
Speaker 1: children who are believed to suffer from Reactive Attachment Disorder,
26:59
Speaker 1: or RAD. That is a real and serious condition where
27:03
Speaker 1: children have trouble forming healthy emotional bonds. In many cases,
27:08
Speaker 1: that may be because they have experienced neglect or trauma
27:11
Speaker 1: in their earlier years. As the child matures, they might
27:15
Speaker 1: appear to be withdrawn, deviant, or aggressive towards their caregivers
27:19
Speaker 1: or their peers. Many children in these circumstances will reject
27:24
Speaker 1: affection or struggle with trust no matter how attentive their
27:27
Speaker 1: caregiver is. For adoptive or foster parents, those behaviors can
27:32
Speaker 1: be particularly heartbreaking and exhausting. As they try to prove
27:36
Speaker 1: they are better than their child's previous caregivers, they may
27:39
Speaker 1: actually reinforce the child's fear that love is conditional or unsafe.
27:45
Speaker 1: In those cases, the more the parent tries to get close,
27:48
Speaker 1: the more the child pulls away. That's where attachment therapy
27:52
Speaker 1: comes in. That pseudoscience-based therapy preys on desperate parents who
27:57
Speaker 1: feel they have tried everything to correct their child's broken
28:00
Speaker 1: attachment to them. The people offering the therapy often market
28:04
Speaker 1: it as a last resort and they promote the idea
28:07
Speaker 1: that traditional therapy won't work for kids with RAD. From
28:12
Speaker 1: their perspective, what those kids really need is something more
28:15
Speaker 1: intense which will force a breakthrough. To achieve that, attachment
28:20
Speaker 1: therapy often uses physical force, emotional manipulation, and fear to
28:25
Speaker 1: break the child down. One of the most disturbing techniques
28:29
Speaker 1: is called holding therapy. In a typical holding session, a
28:34
Speaker 1: therapist or sometimes the parent is encouraged to physically hold
28:38
Speaker 1: down the child using restraints or body weight. The idea
28:42
Speaker 1: is to trigger a release of pent-up rage and grief,
28:45
Speaker 1: which will supposedly clear the way for emotional bonding. The
28:49
Speaker 1: adult restraining the child might provoke them verbally, yell at
28:53
Speaker 1: them to express their pain, or accuse them of not
28:55
Speaker 1: loving their parents. Sometimes the child is told they won't
28:59
Speaker 1: let go until they give in or apologize for their
29:02
Speaker 1: bad behavior and say I love you. Another practice is
29:06
Speaker 1: known as rebirthing. As the name suggests, it's a process
29:10
Speaker 1: which is intended to replicate the experience of being born.
29:14
Speaker 1: In a rebirthing session, the child is wrapped tightly in
29:18
Speaker 1: blankets or covered from head to toe with pillows with
29:21
Speaker 1: adults pressing down on them from the outside to simulate
29:24
Speaker 1: the environment of the womb. The child is told they
29:28
Speaker 1: have to fight their way out like a newborn during childbirth.
29:32
Speaker 1: Therapists believe that immediately after being rebirthed, the child will
29:36
Speaker 1: see their foster or adoptive parent as their real parent
29:39
Speaker 1: and forefather. a tight and unbreakable bond. The process of
29:43
Speaker 1: rebirthing is meant to symbolize a fresh start and a
29:46
Speaker 1: second chance to be born into the family that loves them,
29:50
Speaker 1: but the process is literally suffocating. The child may be
29:54
Speaker 1: denied oxygen, shouted at, told they're worthless, or that their
29:58
Speaker 1: real mother didn't want them. They may be pushed to
30:02
Speaker 1: the edge of panic or exhaustion, and their natural instincts
30:05
Speaker 1: will make them literally fight for their lives. But according
30:09
Speaker 1: to believers in attachment therapy, that psychological warfare is the
30:13
Speaker 1: only guaranteed way to create a meaningful bond between the
30:16
Speaker 1: broken child and their perfect parents. What makes all of
30:20
Speaker 1: that even more disturbing is that the underlying belief system
30:23
Speaker 1: of that so-called treatment is that the child is to
30:26
Speaker 1: blame for their condition. According to the logic of attachment therapy,
30:30
Speaker 1: these kids are manipulative, resistant to love, and full of
30:34
Speaker 1: rage because of early trauma. They're seen as dangerous or broken,
30:39
Speaker 1: and the solution is to break down their defenses which
30:42
Speaker 1: force them to become lovable. But AT is not just
30:46
Speaker 1: based on physical treatment sessions. The general philosophy of attachment
30:51
Speaker 1: therapy encourages strict behavior control, emotional blackmail, and isolation. Parents
30:57
Speaker 1: are encouraged to withhold affection, food, or privileges until the
31:02
Speaker 1: child does as they're told. Some parents will force the
31:05
Speaker 1: child to maintain eye contact for long periods or sit
31:09
Speaker 1: in a fixed position for hours at a time. That
31:12
Speaker 1: means that the child's entire environment becomes a place where
31:16
Speaker 1: love is something they must earn through obedience and surrender.
31:20
Speaker 1: One of the more disturbing aspects of attachment therapy is
31:23
Speaker 1: that when a child asks or begs for a treatment
31:26
Speaker 1: to stop, it's seen as resistance. That indicates that the
31:31
Speaker 1: therapy is working. In the warped logic of attachment therapy, crying, pleading,
31:36
Speaker 1: and expressions of physical pain are interpreted as manipulative behavior.
31:41
Speaker 1: If they cry, it means they're finally releasing their inner rage.
31:46
Speaker 1: If they scream, they're getting it out. If they beg
31:49
Speaker 1: the session to stop, it's viewed as manipulation. When that happens,
31:54
Speaker 1: AT practitioners are trained to double down and push harder
31:57
Speaker 1: because the child is finally being broken open, which is
32:00
Speaker 1: the only way for them to let go of their
32:02
Speaker 1: bad behavior and form a new bond with their caregiver.
32:06
Speaker 1: That mindset strips children of their humanity. Their words, their tears,
32:11
Speaker 1: and their screams are dismissed as attempts to coerce and
32:15
Speaker 1: control their parents. The more they fight back or cry out,
32:19
Speaker 1: the more that behavior is labeled as proof of deep
32:22
Speaker 1: psychological damage that needs to be forcibly fixed through AT.
32:27
Speaker 1: And remember, these are often children who have legitimately been
32:30
Speaker 1: through serious trauma, including abuse, neglect, and abandonment. They're children
32:36
Speaker 1: whose trust in adults has already been shattered and who
32:38
Speaker 1: have learned early on that the world isn't safe. Instead
32:42
Speaker 1: of helping them rebuild that trust, attachment therapy reinforces that
32:47
Speaker 1: their pain doesn't matter and that they're broken. There is
32:50
Speaker 1: no credible psychological evidence that AT methods work and mainstream
32:55
Speaker 1: psychology strongly condemns the practice. That said, attachment therapy should
33:00
Speaker 1: not be confused with attachment-based therapy, which is a legitimate
33:04
Speaker 1: evidence-based practice. When a child who has already lived through
33:09
Speaker 1: chaos and loss is placed in a setting where their
33:11
Speaker 1: pain is ignored and used against them, it's inevitable that
33:15
Speaker 1: they'll be re-traumatized by the experience, but that's only if
33:18
Speaker 1: they survive. On April 10, 2000, Jean and Candace arrived
33:24
Speaker 1: at a clinic run by Connell Watkins for two weeks
33:27
Speaker 1: of attachment therapy treatments. Connell was a Colorado-based social worker
33:32
Speaker 1: who was permitted to practice without a license on the
33:34
Speaker 1: condition that she pay a registration fee to the state,
33:38
Speaker 1: attend workshops on relevant legal issues related to the therapy,
33:41
Speaker 1: and work under the supervision of a licensed social worker.
33:45
Speaker 1: Of course, none of those things had happened. And because
33:49
Speaker 1: Connell's clinic was located inside her own home, no one
33:52
Speaker 1: had any eyes on what went on there. With no
33:55
Speaker 1: checks and balances, Candace was taken right into a den
33:58
Speaker 1: of monsters. Gene and Connell had met at the Guilford
34:02
Speaker 1: Attachment Center conference in December of 1998. At the conference,
34:07
Speaker 1: Gene attended a workshop about R.A.D. To be diagnosed with R.A.D.,
34:13
Speaker 1: a child must have experienced serious disruptions during the first
34:16
Speaker 1: few years of their life. That diagnosis isn't based on
34:20
Speaker 1: a single experience, but persistent early relational trauma that interferes
34:25
Speaker 1: with the child's ability to form secure attachments. According to
34:29
Speaker 1: speakers at the conference, 95% of adopted children have RAD,
34:34
Speaker 1: which means they cannot give or accept love. Jean had
34:38
Speaker 1: finally found her answer for why Candace was so unlovable.
34:42
Speaker 1: At the end of the workshop, she was handed a
34:45
Speaker 1: one-page checklist by a self-proclaimed doctor who held a PhD
34:49
Speaker 1: from an uncredited university. It described a bunch of undesirable
34:53
Speaker 1: characteristics of kids with RAD. After ticking several items on
34:58
Speaker 1: the list, she confirmed her belief that Candace had one
35:01
Speaker 1: of the more severe cases. The unaccredited doctor recommended Jean
35:06
Speaker 1: waste no time getting Candice enrolled in intensive treatment with
35:10
Speaker 1: Connell at her home clinic in Evergreen, Colorado, but it
35:13
Speaker 1: would take time to complete the application and wait for
35:16
Speaker 1: an available spot. In the meantime, Jean spoke to colleagues
35:20
Speaker 1: and professionals about RAD. Even though the condition appeared in
35:25
Speaker 1: the DSM-IV, no one had heard of it or felt
35:27
Speaker 1: experienced enough to diagnose Candice with the condition, but Jean
35:32
Speaker 1: was not dismayed. She signed up for group sessions at
35:35
Speaker 1: the Attachment Center and began speaking to other parents who
35:38
Speaker 1: shared their experiences of challenging behavior with their children. At
35:43
Speaker 1: the center, she was introduced to Norma Beheller and to
35:46
Speaker 1: holding therapy. Within a couple of weeks, Candice was forced
35:51
Speaker 1: into her first holding sessions. Norma and a colleague who
35:54
Speaker 1: was apparently trained in AT held Candace across their laps
35:58
Speaker 1: with her arms and legs restrained by their bodies. Then
36:02
Speaker 1: they grabbed her face, shouted at her, and told her
36:05
Speaker 1: she had to obey every word and instruction they gave her. Naturally,
36:09
Speaker 1: Candace reacted physically to the sessions. She would headbutt, pinch,
36:14
Speaker 1: and spit as she tried to get free from the therapists.
36:17
Speaker 1: It was only after a fixed period of time had
36:20
Speaker 1: passed that they would let her go. At her second
36:23
Speaker 1: and third treatments, Candace sensed what was about to happen
36:26
Speaker 1: to her and she became increasingly resistant, which made her
36:29
Speaker 1: physical reactions even stronger. After one session, the therapists told
36:34
Speaker 1: Jean that she couldn't take Candace home with her that
36:37
Speaker 1: night because they were worried she would try to harm
36:39
Speaker 1: her adoptive mother. They told Jean that Candace needed more
36:43
Speaker 1: aggressive treatment and they encouraged her to try to bring
36:46
Speaker 1: the trip to Colorado forward. While that was going on,
36:50
Speaker 1: Candace was still seeing her regular psychiatrist. On March 13, 2000,
36:56
Speaker 1: his notes stated that she was making good progress and
36:59
Speaker 1: beginning to open up about some of the trauma she
37:01
Speaker 1: had experienced as a child. That was on the back
37:04
Speaker 1: of consistent progress he had documented in his notes over
37:07
Speaker 1: the previous six months. But when the doctor saw her
37:11
Speaker 1: just four days later, he noted a clear setback in
37:14
Speaker 1: her behavior. He didn't know that in between those two dates,
37:18
Speaker 1: she had been forced into another holding session. A month later,
37:22
Speaker 1: Jean and Candace made the trip to Evergreen. At the clinic,
37:27
Speaker 1: Connell introduced the pair to another unlicensed therapist named Julie
37:31
Speaker 1: Ponder and two staff members, Britta St. Clair and Jack McDaniel.
37:37
Speaker 1: Britta worked with Connell and Jack was Britta's husband, who
37:40
Speaker 1: had recently been laid off from his construction job. Neither
37:44
Speaker 1: had any background in mental health, child health, or anything
37:48
Speaker 1: even vaguely related to the torture disguised as therapy that
37:51
Speaker 1: they were about to put Candace through. Almost as soon
37:55
Speaker 1: as Candace and Jean arrived at Evergreen, they were separated.
37:59
Speaker 1: Candace was taken to stay with Britta and Jack, who
38:03
Speaker 1: she referred to as her therapeutic foster parents. On day one,
38:08
Speaker 1: Candace was seen by a psychiatrist friend of Connell's. He
38:12
Speaker 1: never requested her previous notes and had no background information
38:16
Speaker 1: on her, but apparently 10 minutes was enough time to
38:19
Speaker 1: diagnose her as bipolar, moderate to severe with psychotic features.
38:24
Speaker 1: He dismissed any possibility that she had ADD or ODD
38:28
Speaker 1: and took her off every medication except for Risperdal. After
38:32
Speaker 1: the assessment, Connell told Jean that she had come to
38:35
Speaker 1: the clinic in the nick of time. If she had
38:37
Speaker 1: waited any longer, she might have had a Charles Manson
38:40
Speaker 1: on her hands. Wow, how convenient, huh? After that, Candice
38:46
Speaker 1: was put through long daily sessions of holding therapy. She
38:50
Speaker 1: was also forced to sit immobile and silent for hours
38:53
Speaker 1: at a time in between rounds. At other times, she
38:56
Speaker 1: underwent compression therapy, which involved Candice lying on a mat
39:00
Speaker 1: wrapped in a sheet with only her head exposed. Cushions
39:03
Speaker 1: were placed on either side, and Jean was told to
39:06
Speaker 1: lie on top, bracing herself on the cushions to avoid
39:10
Speaker 1: full pressure. When Candace was unwrapped, Jean sat in a
39:14
Speaker 1: chair while Candace was told to crawl into her lap
39:17
Speaker 1: and lie quietly in her arms. Jean was handed a
39:20
Speaker 1: plate of food and instructed to feed Candace as if
39:23
Speaker 1: she were a baby. Candace was also made to role-play
39:27
Speaker 1: a character in a story who rejected her birth mother
39:30
Speaker 1: and formed a loving bond with her adoptive mother. Many
39:34
Speaker 1: of those scenes included the fake birth mother threatening to
39:37
Speaker 1: abandon Candace and telling her she was not loved. By
39:42
Speaker 1: the end of day seven, Connell told Jean that Candace
39:45
Speaker 1: hadn't responded enough to the changes in her medication. It's
39:49
Speaker 1: important to note that psychiatric drugs can take weeks or
39:52
Speaker 1: months to get to a therapeutic level. But Connell also
39:55
Speaker 1: felt that Candace wasn't trying hard enough during their sessions
39:59
Speaker 1: and they needed to take the therapy to the next level.
40:03
Speaker 1: On April 18, 2000, Jean was asked to participate in
40:06
Speaker 1: Candace's first rebirthing. At 9.04 a.m., Connell set up a
40:12
Speaker 1: camera to record the session. Candace was told that she
40:16
Speaker 1: was going to be wrapped up like a newborn baby
40:18
Speaker 1: and she needed to work hard to be born. She
40:21
Speaker 1: was told that when she was free, she needed to
40:23
Speaker 1: reach out for her new mother. When she was asked
40:27
Speaker 1: if she had a good sleep the night before, Candace
40:29
Speaker 1: replied that she had had a nightmare. In it, she
40:33
Speaker 1: was being murdered and she woke up feeling like she
40:35
Speaker 1: was going to die. At 9.44 a.m., Candace was wrapped
40:40
Speaker 1: tightly in a queen-sized flannel sheet. Then, Julie, Jean, Britta, Jack,
40:46
Speaker 1: and Connell placed pillows from the sofa over her body
40:50
Speaker 1: until she was completely covered. Jean watched from the side
40:54
Speaker 1: of the room as the so-called therapist pressed rhythmically against
40:57
Speaker 1: the pillows to simulate labor contractions. Candace had been told
41:02
Speaker 1: before the session that she needed to wiggle out of
41:04
Speaker 1: a small hole at the top of the sheet, but
41:07
Speaker 1: when they started pressing on her, she was unable to move.
41:11
Speaker 1: Ten minutes in, Candace said she couldn't get out and
41:14
Speaker 1: that she needed to go to the bathroom. She said, quote,
41:18
Speaker 1: Whoever is pushing on my head, it's not helping. Please
41:21
Speaker 1: quit pushing on me. I can't do it. At 11
41:25
Speaker 1: minutes and 35 seconds, she said, quote, I'm gonna die.
41:29
Speaker 1: A minute later, she said, quote, I'm gonna die now. No,
41:34
Speaker 1: I don't wanna die, but I'm about to. For 40 minutes,
41:38
Speaker 1: Candace begged to be let out. She screamed that she
41:41
Speaker 1: couldn't breathe and she choked as she gasped for air,
41:44
Speaker 1: but the adults didn't listen. All they heard was the
41:47
Speaker 1: sound of trauma and disobedience being released from Candace and
41:51
Speaker 1: when she said she was giving up, they all pushed
41:54
Speaker 1: even harder. At around the 40-minute mark, Candace stopped making
41:58
Speaker 1: any sound at all. Twenty minutes later, Julie reached in
42:02
Speaker 1: and said, quote, She's pretty sweaty, which is good. It's
42:06
Speaker 1: wet inside there. I touched her face and it's just sweaty.
42:10
Speaker 1: She's not answered. We could do this forever. Just stay here.
42:15
Speaker 1: It took another ten minutes for any of the adults
42:18
Speaker 1: to consider checking on her visually. When they unwrapped the sheet,
42:22
Speaker 1: Candace was unresponsive. She was not breathing, her heart had stopped,
42:26
Speaker 1: and she was blue. Less than ten minutes later, paramedics
42:30
Speaker 1: arrived at the clinic and found Jean attempting CPR on
42:33
Speaker 1: the child. They inserted a tube into Candace's throat, and
42:37
Speaker 1: they were able to establish a pulse before she was
42:40
Speaker 1: airlifted to Denver's Children's Hospital. However, as soon as she arrived,
42:45
Speaker 1: it was clear that her brain had spent too long
42:47
Speaker 1: without oxygen, and there was no chance of recovery. A
42:51
Speaker 1: couple of hours after Candace was brought to the hospital,
42:54
Speaker 1: Jean arrived. When she was told Candace was brain dead,
42:58
Speaker 1: she had no reaction. Instead, she immediately requested that her
43:02
Speaker 1: daughter's organs be donated. It was around that time that
43:06
Speaker 1: the police became involved in the case. The circumstances surrounding
43:11
Speaker 1: Candace's condition were too suspicious to ignore and medical staff
43:14
Speaker 1: had notified authorities that something wasn't adding up. The injuries
43:19
Speaker 1: didn't align with any kind of accident or natural cause,
43:23
Speaker 1: and the explanations given by the adults present were vague
43:26
Speaker 1: and inconsistent. There was simply no reasonable explanation for how
43:30
Speaker 1: a healthy 10-year-old had ended up unconscious, unresponsive, and now
43:35
Speaker 1: brain dead. When sheriff's deputies arrived at the hospital, they
43:39
Speaker 1: requested an autopsy be carried out once Candace's life support
43:43
Speaker 1: was turned off. Unfortunately, that process would interfere with the
43:47
Speaker 1: possibility of organ transplant. For several hours, there was a
43:51
Speaker 1: standoff between what Jean wanted and what the law demanded.
43:56
Speaker 1: In the end, a machine kept Candace breathing for 20 hours.
44:00
Speaker 1: When it was stopped on April 19th, her organs were
44:03
Speaker 1: removed for donation. Her lungs, heart, and stomach were unable
44:08
Speaker 1: to be used as they had all been damaged during
44:10
Speaker 1: the process of her death. Once the organs were removed,
44:14
Speaker 1: Candace underwent an autopsy. Her brain was swollen and although
44:19
Speaker 1: there were no drugs in her blood, her stomach contained
44:22
Speaker 1: an undissolved Effexor tablet. Her cause of death was recorded
44:26
Speaker 1: as cerebral edema and herniation caused by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.
44:32
Speaker 1: In other words, she died from lack of oxygen. After
44:37
Speaker 1: the autopsy, Candace's remains were cremated and the investigation into
44:41
Speaker 1: her death began. The coroner began the investigation by viewing
44:46
Speaker 1: the recording of Candace's rebirthing treatment. He saw a perfectly
44:50
Speaker 1: healthy 10-year-old being wrapped in a tight sheet and covered
44:53
Speaker 1: in cushions. Then, at least four adults rhythmically gyrated against
44:59
Speaker 1: her for 70 minutes. At the end of the tape,
45:02
Speaker 1: the perfectly healthy little girl was blue and unresponsive. In
45:07
Speaker 1: the background of the video, Jean watched on. She never
45:11
Speaker 1: intervened or expressed any concern as Candace fought for her
45:14
Speaker 1: life or suffocated to death in front of her. On
45:18
Speaker 1: May 18, 2000, Britta, Julie, and Jack were indicted on
45:23
Speaker 1: a single charge of reckless child abuse resulting in death.
45:27
Speaker 1: That carried a term of 16 to 48 years in prison.
45:32
Speaker 1: Connell was indicted on the same charge, but she had
45:34
Speaker 1: fled to Hawaii immediately after Candace's murder. In time, she
45:39
Speaker 1: was also charged with criminal impersonation, obtaining a signature by deception,
45:44
Speaker 1: and unlawful practice of psychotherapy. After returning to Colorado to
45:49
Speaker 1: face up to the charges, she posted online that Candace's
45:53
Speaker 1: death was inexplicable and that the therapists were not responsible.
45:58
Speaker 1: She also published a website urging supporters to call for
46:01
Speaker 1: a total dismissal of all charges against her. Perhaps most
46:06
Speaker 1: concerning of all, she warned about the ramifications of AT
46:09
Speaker 1: being dismissed as a treatment option. She wrote, quote, How
46:14
Speaker 1: many more juvenile delinquents will we have? How many of
46:17
Speaker 1: these untreated children will kill another child? How many more
46:21
Speaker 1: Columbine incidents do we need? Jean was charged with criminally
46:26
Speaker 1: negligent child abuse resulting in death. Although it was a
46:30
Speaker 1: lesser charge than the therapists who had physically smothered Candace
46:34
Speaker 1: to death, she was the person with the most responsibility
46:38
Speaker 1: to keep Candace safe. She was the one who found
46:41
Speaker 1: her daughter's behavior so distasteful and unsatisfactory that she transported
46:46
Speaker 1: Candace across the country, paid $ 7, 000 to random unlicensed practitioners,
46:52
Speaker 1: and placed her in the hands of monsters. And when
46:55
Speaker 1: Candace cried out and begged to be released, Jean patted
46:59
Speaker 1: herself on the back for once again demonstrating how much
47:02
Speaker 1: of a savior she really was. At the time of
47:05
Speaker 1: Candace's death, there were no laws regulating or forbidding attachment
47:10
Speaker 1: therapy or rebirthing in the state of Colorado. That may
47:14
Speaker 1: have been part of the reason why the adults involved
47:16
Speaker 1: were never charged with manslaughter or murder. In April of 2001,
47:22
Speaker 1: Connell and Julie stood trial. Jean took a plea deal
47:26
Speaker 1: to reduce her charges in exchange for testifying against the women.
47:30
Speaker 1: Britta also testified against the pair. The prosecution's case centered
47:35
Speaker 1: around the 90-minute videotape of the session. There were no
47:39
Speaker 1: clinical notes or treatment records about Candace's time at Evergreen.
47:44
Speaker 1: There was just the recording which captured Candace's final moments.
47:48
Speaker 1: Over the course of 70 minutes, the 10-year-old said she
47:52
Speaker 1: couldn't breathe seven times, said she was going to die
47:55
Speaker 1: six times, and said she wanted to live at least
47:58
Speaker 1: 40 times. She also vomited and defecated during the session. Eventually,
48:04
Speaker 1: she stopped making any noise or movement. At one point,
48:09
Speaker 1: when Candace said she was going to die, Julie replied,
48:13
Speaker 1: go ahead, die right now, for real, for real. When
48:18
Speaker 1: Candace said she didn't want to be reborn, Julie said, Quitter, quitter, quitter, quitter, quit, quit, quit, quit.
48:24
Speaker 1: She's a quitter. The prosecution argued that the adults in
48:28
Speaker 1: the room should have stopped the session as soon as
48:30
Speaker 1: Candace showed signs of serious distress. At the very least,
48:34
Speaker 1: they should have checked when she went limp and became unresponsive.
48:38
Speaker 1: They pointed out that most rebirthing sessions were supposed to
48:41
Speaker 1: last only a few minutes, not over an hour like Candace's.
48:46
Speaker 1: The combined weight of the adults was 673 pounds, or 305.2 kilograms.
48:53
Speaker 1: Candace weighed 70 pounds, or 31 kilograms. The jury were
48:58
Speaker 1: also shown more than 10 hours of footage from the
49:01
Speaker 1: other treatments Candace had been forced to go through during
49:04
Speaker 1: her time at Evergreen. The defense claimed the session had
49:08
Speaker 1: followed standard rebirthing procedures. Connell and Julie testified that phrases like,
49:15
Speaker 1: I can't breathe, or I'm dying, were typical things children
49:19
Speaker 1: said during this kind of therapy, and there was no
49:21
Speaker 1: reason for alarm. Okay, first it was already pointed out
49:26
Speaker 1: that a 70-minute rebirthing session was not standard. But something
49:30
Speaker 1: that's not medically regulated doesn't have confirmed safe standard procedures.
49:36
Speaker 1: You just making up a procedure for some bullshit therapy
49:39
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're not guilty when that procedure kills someone.
49:44
Speaker 1: Doctors perform risky procedures all the time, but those doctors
49:48
Speaker 1: have been trained and licensed to perform those procedures to
49:51
Speaker 1: have the best outcome. The patient and their family are
49:54
Speaker 1: also well informed of the dangers of that procedure, which
49:58
Speaker 1: has become common and accepted as an effective treatment for
50:01
Speaker 1: a medical condition. Rebirthing was just made up. There's zero
50:06
Speaker 1: proof that it does any good for a patient and
50:09
Speaker 1: none of the people involved were trained or licensed. Then,
50:13
Speaker 1: after that, anything where a patient cries out that they
50:16
Speaker 1: can't breathe or they feel like they're dying and it's
50:19
Speaker 1: acceptable to ignore them should never be legally performed. That's
50:23
Speaker 1: just fucking stupid. Those people might as well say playing
50:27
Speaker 1: Russian roulette is an effective treatment. The defense explained that
50:32
Speaker 1: they didn't believe Candace was actually in danger, and they
50:35
Speaker 1: argued that her death was unintentional, and that the video
50:38
Speaker 1: showed they didn't act with malice or intent to harm.
50:42
Speaker 1: Connell and Julie argued that they couldn't have known Candace
50:45
Speaker 1: was suffering, and the video proved that they didn't intend
50:48
Speaker 1: for Candace to be hurt. You know, because how could
50:51
Speaker 1: you ever figure out that someone screaming they can't breathe
50:55
Speaker 1: and are gonna die might be suffering? They claimed that,
50:58
Speaker 1: in their view, she died during treatment, not because of it.
51:03
Speaker 1: The defense also twisted the autopsy findings to suit her narrative.
51:08
Speaker 1: According to the medical examiner, Candace's heart had been damaged
51:12
Speaker 1: by the long period of time her body went without oxygen.
51:15
Speaker 1: That was why it couldn't be donated after her death.
51:19
Speaker 1: But the defense claimed that the damage to her heart
51:21
Speaker 1: was because of an underlying heart condition and that it
51:24
Speaker 1: was the real reason it couldn't be donated. And the
51:27
Speaker 1: real reason why Candace died. Which it wasn't. The jury
51:32
Speaker 1: was also shown the sheet that Candace had been wrapped
51:35
Speaker 1: in at the time of her rebirthing session. It showed
51:38
Speaker 1: a large rip down one side from the girl struggling
51:41
Speaker 1: to get free as she fought for her life. If
51:44
Speaker 1: you've ever tried to rip a sheet from the middle
51:46
Speaker 1: and not the edge, you'll know how difficult that is.
51:50
Speaker 1: When Jean testified, she stated that when Candace stopped responding,
51:53
Speaker 1: she felt concerned. Not because she was worried about her,
51:57
Speaker 1: but because she felt let down that Candace had given
52:00
Speaker 1: up on the treatment and refused to be reborn. Near
52:04
Speaker 1: the end of the session, she left the room to
52:06
Speaker 1: cry over how disappointed she was. After three weeks of
52:11
Speaker 1: evidence and just five hours of deliberation, Connell Watkins and
52:15
Speaker 1: Julie Ponder were found guilty on all counts. They were
52:19
Speaker 1: each sentenced to 16 years in prison, which was the
52:21
Speaker 1: minimum term available. Their convictions led to a legal review
52:26
Speaker 1: of attachment therapy practices. Not long after the verdicts, Colorado
52:31
Speaker 1: passed Candace's Law, which banned rebirthing therapy. Britta St. Clair
52:37
Speaker 1: and Jack McDaniel pleaded guilty to criminally negligent child abuse
52:41
Speaker 1: and were given 10 years of probation and 1,000 hours
52:44
Speaker 1: of community service. Jean was given a four-year suspended sentence.
52:50
Speaker 1: She never served a day in prison. As part of
52:53
Speaker 1: her plea deal, her conviction was expunged after four years.
52:58
Speaker 1: Connell was paroled in 2008 after serving seven years of
53:01
Speaker 1: her sentence. Julie would have also been released by now
53:05
Speaker 1: no matter what. No single person was solely responsible for
53:10
Speaker 1: Candace's death. It's true that Jean pushed for attachment therapy
53:14
Speaker 1: and placed her adoptive child in the care of unlicensed practitioners,
53:18
Speaker 1: but the path that led to that decision was long entangled.
53:22
Speaker 1: To start with, Jean had unrealistic expectations for what Candace's
53:27
Speaker 1: behavior should look like. She entered adoption hoping to become
53:31
Speaker 1: a kind of savior figure, but found herself deeply frustrated
53:34
Speaker 1: by a child who didn't respond the way she imagined.
53:38
Speaker 1: Candace didn't fall easily into the role of the grateful
53:41
Speaker 1: and adoring daughter Jean wanted. But rather than adjust her expectations,
53:46
Speaker 1: Jean looked for a diagnosis to explain why Candace was
53:49
Speaker 1: broken and what needed to be done to fix her.
53:53
Speaker 1: When mainstream treatments didn't produce quick or dramatic results, she
53:57
Speaker 1: turned to more extreme solutions. Because there was no case
54:01
Speaker 1: manager coordinating Candace's care, each of the professionals Jean came
54:06
Speaker 1: into contact with did their own thing without considering what
54:09
Speaker 1: else was happening for Candace at the same time. None
54:13
Speaker 1: of them seemed to notice when Jean began referring to
54:15
Speaker 1: her child as unlovable. That should have been a red
54:19
Speaker 1: flag that indicated it was Jean who was struggling and
54:22
Speaker 1: not Candace. They took Jean's word about Candace's behavior at
54:26
Speaker 1: face value, and many of them never assessed Candace in person,
54:30
Speaker 1: and they didn't speak directly to the people who saw
54:33
Speaker 1: her every day, like her teachers. If they had, they
54:37
Speaker 1: might have seen a different picture. She wasn't out of
54:40
Speaker 1: control or unreachable. She was trapped in the middle of
54:43
Speaker 1: Jean's unrealistic expectations. Candace didn't need to be fixed, and
54:48
Speaker 1: she didn't need to be saved. She needed consistency and
54:51
Speaker 1: love and a safe place to call home. Instead, she
54:55
Speaker 1: got someone who was chasing an idealized version of adoptive motherhood.
55:00
Speaker 1: There were multiple points along the way where intervention could
55:02
Speaker 1: have prevented Candace's death. The first goes back to before
55:06
Speaker 1: she was adopted. Jean was approved to adopt Candace without
55:10
Speaker 1: any long-term assessment of whether she was equipped to care
55:14
Speaker 1: for a child with a traumatic history. There was no
55:17
Speaker 1: indication that she had extensive training in attachment or behavioral issues,
55:22
Speaker 1: and no structured support system was put in place after
55:25
Speaker 1: the adoption. Once the papers were signed, Jean was left
55:29
Speaker 1: to figure things out on her own. She bounced between
55:32
Speaker 1: providers without anyone noticing how desperate she had become or
55:36
Speaker 1: how much she was struggling to accept her daughter for
55:38
Speaker 1: who she was. By the time Jean came across A.T.,
55:43
Speaker 1: she was convinced that Candace needed radical help, and once
55:46
Speaker 1: she was there, no regulations were in place to stop
55:49
Speaker 1: what happened next. Those failures cost Candace her life. The
55:54
Speaker 1: burden of responsibility for her death is shared equally by
55:57
Speaker 1: many adults and systems that should have protected her but didn't.
56:02
Speaker 1: Then there were the so-called therapists that believed they could
56:05
Speaker 1: torture a child into changing her behavior. That was the
56:09
Speaker 1: point when they stopped being therapists and started being monsters.
56:32
Speaker 1: Thanks again, and be safe.