Latest / Martin Animations / The school nurse said _Your daughter_s seizures aren_t real_ your wife is causing them

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The school nurse said _Your daughter_s seizures aren_t real_ your wife is causing them · Martin Animations

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Speaker 1: The school nurse locked the door and said, Your daughter's
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Speaker 1: seizures aren't real. Your wife is causing them. I was
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Speaker 1: picking up coffee at the drive-thru when my phone exploded
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Speaker 1: with texts from the school. Mr. Whitmore urgent. Come to
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Speaker 1: nurse's office now. Don't call, just come. My daughter Lily
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Speaker 1: had been having violent seizures for eight months, the kind
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Speaker 1: where she'd drop to the ground convulsing and I'd have
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Speaker 1: to hold her head so she wouldn't crack it open
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Speaker 1: on the floor. We'd spent thousands on specialists who couldn't
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Speaker 1: find anything wrong with her brain. I threw the coffee
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Speaker 1: out the window and ran every red light getting to
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Speaker 1: that school. The seizures were getting worse each month, and
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Speaker 1: last week, Lily stopped breathing for almost a minute before
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Speaker 1: the paramedics got her back. My hands were shaking so
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Speaker 1: badly on the steering wheel, I almost crashed twice. When
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Speaker 1: I burst through the nurse's office door, I expected to
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Speaker 1: find my daughter on the floor dying. Instead, Lily was
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Speaker 1: sitting on the exam table eating an apple and swinging
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Speaker 1: her legs like nothing was wrong. Nurse Patricia Voss didn't
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Speaker 1: say a word. She walked past me, locked the office
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Speaker 1: door from the inside, and pulled down all the blinds
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Speaker 1: so nobody could see in from the hallway. My confusion
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Speaker 1: lasted about two seconds before pure terror took over, because
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Speaker 1: her face looked like she'd just witnessed a murder. Patricia
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Speaker 1: pulled out her phone and held it up to show
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Speaker 1: me security footage from the school parking lot. The timestamp
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Speaker 1: said Monday morning at 7.42. I watched my wife Vanessa
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Speaker 1: lean into the passenger side of our car where Lily
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Speaker 1: was sitting, and Vanessa's body blocked the camera view for
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Speaker 1: maybe 15 seconds. When she stepped back, everything looked completely normal.
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Speaker 1: Vanessa walked Lily into the school building holding her hand,
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Speaker 1: both of them smiling. Patricia fast-forwarded the video exactly 38 minutes,
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Speaker 1: and I watched my daughter collapse in the hallway like
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Speaker 1: someone had shot her. Her body hit the tile floor
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Speaker 1: and started convulsing so violently that two teachers had to
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Speaker 1: hold her down. Patricia played four more videos from different days.
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Speaker 1: Every single one showed the exact same pattern. Vanessa, leaning
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Speaker 1: into the car doing something I couldn't see, then Lily
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Speaker 1: seizing less than an hour later. Always after Vanessa dropped
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Speaker 1: her off. Never after I dropped her off. Never on
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Speaker 1: weekends when Vanessa wasn't doing the morning routine. Patricia's voice
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Speaker 1: came out flat and cold when she finally spoke. Your
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Speaker 1: wife is inducing these seizures. I don't know what she's
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Speaker 1: giving Lily but she's doing it in the car right
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Speaker 1: before school. I've been documenting this for six weeks and
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Speaker 1: the pattern is perfect. Too perfect. I started laughing because
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Speaker 1: this had to be some kind of sick joke. Vanessa
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Speaker 1: was the one who stayed up all night when Lily seized.
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Speaker 1: She was the one who researched every possible treatment and
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Speaker 1: took her to every specialist. She'd started a whole blog
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Speaker 1: about our journey that had 20,000 followers. People sent us
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Speaker 1: money to help with medical bills. Churches prayed for us.
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Speaker 1: How could the person fighting hardest to save our daughter
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Speaker 1: be the one killing her? But then Patricia showed me
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Speaker 1: something that made my blood stop moving. She pulled up
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Speaker 1: Vanessa's blog on her computer and scrolled to a post
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Speaker 1: from three days ago. The post had photos of Lily
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Speaker 1: in the hospital after her worst seizure yet, the one
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Speaker 1: where she stopped breathing. Vanessa had written this long emotional
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Speaker 1: piece about almost losing her baby and not knowing how
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Speaker 1: much longer she could handle watching her daughter suffer. The
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Speaker 1: post had 800 comments, all of them offering support and
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Speaker 1: prayers and money. Patricia pointed at the timestamp. She posted
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Speaker 1: this four hours after Lily was released from the hospital.
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Speaker 1: Four hours. Most mothers would be too destroyed to think
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Speaker 1: about social media. Your wife went home and crafted a
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Speaker 1: perfect narrative with professional quality photos while Lily was sleeping
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Speaker 1: off the trauma. I stared at those photos and realized
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Speaker 1: Vanessa had posed Lily for them, adjusting her hospital gown
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Speaker 1: and the IV line to get the right angle. What
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Speaker 1: kind of mother does that? Patricia opened a folder on
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Speaker 1: her desk that was at least three inches thick. I've
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Speaker 1: been a school nurse for 19 years. I worked pediatric
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Speaker 1: ICU before this. I've seen Munchausen syndrome by proxy exactly
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Speaker 1: three times, and every single case followed this exact pattern.
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Speaker 1: The mother is always medical or has medical knowledge. Always
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Speaker 1: very involved and appears devoted. Always thrives on the attention
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Speaker 1: and sympathy. Always escalates the abuse when they're not getting
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Speaker 1: enough response. She pulled out a printed spreadsheet showing every
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Speaker 1: seizure Lily had experienced in the past eight months. The dates, times, locations, witnesses,
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Speaker 1: and who had dropped Lily off that morning. Every single
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Speaker 1: seizure happened after Vanessa's drop-offs. The statistical probability of that
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Speaker 1: being coincidence was basically zero. I felt my reality splitting
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Speaker 1: in half because this meant the woman I'd been married
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Speaker 1: to for nine years... was systematically poisoning our daughter for
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Speaker 1: attention on the internet. This meant every crying phone call,
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Speaker 1: every late night hospital visit, every desperate prayer, was just
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Speaker 1: Vanessa playing a role while she murdered Lily slowly. I
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Speaker 1: asked Patricia why she was telling me this instead of
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Speaker 1: calling the police, and her answer made everything worse. I
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Speaker 1: already called CPS and filed a mandatory report two hours ago.
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Speaker 1: I called you in because you need to get Lily
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Speaker 1: away from your wife immediately. Today. Right now. Don't go home.
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Speaker 1: Don't tell Vanessa what you know. Don't give her any
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Speaker 1: warning that we're onto her. She leaned forward and grabbed
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Speaker 1: my arm hard enough to hurt. These women kill their kids, Mr. Whitmore.
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Speaker 1: When they realize they're about to be caught, they go
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Speaker 1: for the final act. The ultimate sympathy play. I've seen
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Speaker 1: it happen, and I will not let it happen to Lily.
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Speaker 1: My phone started buzzing with texts from Vanessa. How's Lily?
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Speaker 1: School said you picked her up? Everything okay? Call me?
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Speaker 1: I stared at those messages and felt nauseous because I
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Speaker 1: could hear Vanessa's concerned voice in my head. That perfect
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Speaker 1: worried mother tone that I now realized was completely fake.
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Speaker 1: Patricia grabbed my phone and turned it off. Don't respond.
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Speaker 1: Don't engage. Take Lily and go somewhere Vanessa can't find
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Speaker 1: you until CPS and police finish their investigation. I looked
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Speaker 1: at Lily sitting on that exam table, and she smiled
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Speaker 1: at me with apple stuck in her teeth. She had
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Speaker 1: no idea her mother had been killing her for eight months.
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Speaker 1: No idea that every seizure that left her terrified and
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Speaker 1: confused was deliberately caused by the person she trusted most
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Speaker 1: in the world. Patricia must have seen something in my
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Speaker 1: face because she suddenly said, There's more. I need to
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Speaker 1: show you something else before you leave. She pulled up
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Speaker 1: another video on her computer, this one from inside the
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Speaker 1: school hallway. The footage showed Vanessa arriving unannounced last Thursday
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Speaker 1: during lunch period, claiming she forgot to give Lily her
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Speaker 1: medication that morning. The front desk called Lily down from class,
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Speaker 1: and the camera caught Vanessa kneeling beside her in the hallway.
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Speaker 1: Vanessa pulled out a small bottle and gave Lily what
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Speaker 1: looked like a vitamin or pill, making sure Lily swallowed
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Speaker 1: it right there in front of her. Twenty minutes later,
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Speaker 1: Lily had the worst seizure she'd ever experienced at school.
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Speaker 1: The one where she stopped breathing and turned blue before
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Speaker 1: the paramedics arrived. Patricia paused the video on Vanessa's face
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Speaker 1: right after Lily swallowed that pill. Look at her expression.
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Speaker 1: Really look at it. I stared at the frozen image
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Speaker 1: and felt my stomach drop because Vanessa was smiling. Not
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Speaker 1: a concerned mother smile. A satisfied smile. The smile of
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Speaker 1: someone who just accomplished exactly what they set out to do.
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Speaker 1: Patricia closed her laptop and stood up. Whatever she gave
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Speaker 1: Lily that day almost killed her. The paramedics said another
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Speaker 1: minute without oxygen and your daughter would have brain damage.
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Speaker 1: Your wife knew exactly how much to give her, and
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Speaker 1: she pushed it right to the edge. I couldn't process
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Speaker 1: what I was hearing because it was too enormous. Too evil.
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Speaker 1: Too impossible. But the evidence was right there in front
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Speaker 1: of me. The videos, the patterns, the statistics, the expression
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Speaker 1: on Vanessa's face. My wife was a monster, and I'd
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Speaker 1: been sleeping next to her for nine years without knowing it.
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Speaker 1: Patricia handed me a business card for a lawyer who
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Speaker 1: specialized in emergency custody cases. Call her right now. Get
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Speaker 1: temporary custody before Vanessa knows what's happening. CPS caseworker Francine
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Speaker 1: Howard will be at your house in three hours to
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Speaker 1: remove any medications or supplements Vanessa's been giving Lily. The
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Speaker 1: police are getting a warrant to search your home and
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Speaker 1: seize Vanessa's computer and phone records. This is happening fast,
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Speaker 1: and you need to be ready. I asked what I
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Speaker 1: was supposed to tell Lily, and Patricia knelt down in
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Speaker 1: front of my daughter. Sweetheart, you're going to go stay
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Speaker 1: with your dad for a while in a fun new place,
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Speaker 1: like a special daddy-daughter adventure. Would you like that? Lily
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Speaker 1: nodded enthusiastically because she loved adventures, completely unaware that her
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Speaker 1: entire life was about to explode. Patricia handed me Lily's
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Speaker 1: backpack and walked us out through the back entrance so
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Speaker 1: we wouldn't be seen leaving together. Don't go home. Don't
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Speaker 1: contact Vanessa. Call that lawyer immediately and do exactly what
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Speaker 1: she tells you. I drove Lily straight to my brother's
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Speaker 1: house 40 minutes away. the only place I could think
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Speaker 1: of where Vanessa wouldn't immediately look for us. The whole drive,
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Speaker 1: Lily was asking why we were going on an adventure
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Speaker 1: without Mommy, and I kept making up stupid answers that
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Speaker 1: didn't make sense. My brother Isaac opened the door and
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Speaker 1: immediately knew something was catastrophically wrong from the look on
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Speaker 1: my face. I got Lily set up watching cartoons in
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Speaker 1: his living room and then pulled him into the garage
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Speaker 1: where she couldn't hear us. When I told him what
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Speaker 1: Patricia had discovered, Isaac's face went white and then red
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Speaker 1: with rage. That psycho has been poisoning Lily for eight months?
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Speaker 1: For a fucking blog? For internet attention? He started pacing,
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Speaker 1: and I had to grab his shoulders to calm him
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Speaker 1: down because I needed him focused. I called the lawyer
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Speaker 1: Patricia had recommended, and she answered on the second ring.
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Speaker 1: Her name was Veronica Ashford, and she didn't waste time
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Speaker 1: with pleasantries. Veronica asked me rapid-fire questions for 15 minutes
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Speaker 1: while taking notes. Had Vanessa ever been diagnosed with any
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Speaker 1: mental health conditions? Did she have any history of attention-seeking
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Speaker 1: behavior before Lily's seizures started? What medications or supplements did
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Speaker 1: I know about? Did Vanessa work or have medical training?
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Speaker 1: When I told her Vanessa used to be a pharmacy
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Speaker 1: technician before Lily was born, Veronica swore under her breath.
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Speaker 1: That's how she knows exactly what to use. Pharmacy techs
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Speaker 1: have access to information about drug interactions and dosing. She
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Speaker 1: would know what causes seizures, what doesn't show up on
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Speaker 1: standard tox screens, what can kill versus what just makes
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Speaker 1: someone sick. Veronica said she'd file for emergency custody within
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Speaker 1: the hour, and we'd have a hearing tomorrow morning. She
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Speaker 1: told me not to contact Vanessa, not to go home,
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Speaker 1: not to post anything on social media. Your wife is
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Speaker 1: going to lose her mind when she realizes Lily is
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Speaker 1: gone and you're not responding. She will call everyone you know.
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Speaker 1: She will try to make you look like the unstable one.
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Speaker 1: Do not engage. Right on cue, my phone started ringing. Vanessa.
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Speaker 1: I let it go to voicemail. She called again immediately.
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Speaker 1: Then again. Then again. After the sixth call, she left
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Speaker 1: a voicemail, and I made the mistake of listening to it.
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Speaker 1: Her voice was frantic and crying. Where are you? Where's Lily?
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Speaker 1: The school said you took her and nobody will tell
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Speaker 1: me what's going on. Please call me back. I'm scared
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Speaker 1: something happened. Please. I need to know our baby is okay.
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Speaker 1: She sounded exactly like a terrified mother. And for a
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Speaker 1: brief second, I wondered if Patricia had made a mistake.
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Speaker 1: But then I remembered that smile on Vanessa's face in
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Speaker 1: the hallway video right before Lily stopped breathing. That wasn't
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Speaker 1: the face of someone who loved our daughter. That was
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Speaker 1: the face of someone who enjoyed watching her suffer. I
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Speaker 1: turned off my phone completely so I wouldn't be tempted
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Speaker 1: to answer. And Isaac did the same when Vanessa started
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Speaker 1: calling him too. Francine from CPS called Isaac's landline around
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Speaker 1: five that evening. She'd just left our house after serving
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Speaker 1: Vanessa with notice of the investigation and removing all medications
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Speaker 1: and supplements from the home. Your wife did not take
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Speaker 1: it well, Mr. Whitmore. She became extremely emotional and accused
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Speaker 1: the school nurse of lying and claimed this was all
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Speaker 1: a misunderstanding. She insisted on calling you repeatedly during my visit,
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Speaker 1: and when you didn't answer, she began having what appeared
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Speaker 1: to be a panic attack. I had to call a
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Speaker 1: crisis counselor to the home. Francine said they'd seized 43
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Speaker 1: different bottles of supplements, vitamins, and over-the-counter medications from the house.
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Speaker 1: That's an unusually large amount for a family of three.
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Speaker 1: We're sending everything to the lab for analysis, but I
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Speaker 1: noticed several bottles had handwritten labels instead of original packaging.
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Speaker 1: That's a red flag. She asked if I knew what
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Speaker 1: was in those bottles and I didn't. Vanessa always handled
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Speaker 1: all the supplements and vitamins for the family. She said
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Speaker 1: it was because she used to work in pharmacy and
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Speaker 1: knew what was safe. Francine told me the police had
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Speaker 1: also served a warrant and taken Vanessa's laptop, phone, and
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Speaker 1: tablet for forensic analysis. We'll be looking at her blog posts,
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Speaker 1: private messages, search history, everything. If there's evidence of premeditation
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Speaker 1: or her discussing this with anyone else online, we'll find it.
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Speaker 1: She said Vanessa had been informed she was not allowed
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Speaker 1: to contact me or Lily, and any violation would result
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Speaker 1: in immediate arrest. A judge had signed an emergency protective
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Speaker 1: order based on the evidence Patricia provided. Francine warned me
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Speaker 1: that Vanessa would likely try to reach out through friends
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Speaker 1: or family, and I should not respond under any circumstances.
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Speaker 1: These cases are extremely volatile. The perpetrator often escalates when
10:58
Speaker 1: their control is threatened. Do not underestimate what she might do.
11:01
Speaker 1: After we hung up, Isaac and I just sat in
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Speaker 1: his kitchen in silence because neither of us knew what
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Speaker 1: to say. My wife of nine years was officially under
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Speaker 1: investigation for systematically abusing our daughter, and I was hiding
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Speaker 1: in my brother's house like a fugitive. That night, I
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Speaker 1: couldn't sleep at all. I lay on Isaac's guest room
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Speaker 1: floor staring at the ceiling and replaying every moment of
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Speaker 1: the past eight months. The first seizure had happened right
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Speaker 1: after Vanessa started the blog. She'd been posting about family
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Speaker 1: life and recipes and getting maybe 20 views per post.
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Speaker 1: Then Lily had her first seizure and Vanessa posted about it.
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Speaker 1: And suddenly hundreds of people were reading and commenting. The
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Speaker 1: next post got a thousand views. The one after that
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Speaker 1: got 5,000. Each time Lily had a worse seizure, Vanessa's
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Speaker 1: follower count jumped. By month six, she had 20,000 followers
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Speaker 1: and was getting sponsorship offers from medical supply companies and
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Speaker 1: CBD brands. She'd turned our daughter's suffering into a full-time
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Speaker 1: income stream. I pulled up Vanessa's blog on my phone
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Speaker 1: and started reading through posts I'd barely paid attention to before.
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Speaker 1: The writing was good, almost too good. Every post hit
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Speaker 1: the perfect emotional notes. Vanessa described Lily's seizures in vivid
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Speaker 1: detail that made readers feel like they were experiencing it.
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Speaker 1: She posted photos that looked professionally staged. She responded to
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Speaker 1: every single comment with personalized messages. One commenter had written,
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Speaker 1: you're such a strong mama, I don't know how you
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Speaker 1: do it. Vanessa's response was, some days I don't think
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Speaker 1: I can handle one more seizure, but then I look
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Speaker 1: at Lily's beautiful face, and I find the strength to
12:22
Speaker 1: keep fighting for her. Reading that now made me physically
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Speaker 1: ill because Vanessa was the one causing every seizure she
12:27
Speaker 1: claimed she couldn't handle. She was manufacturing the crisis, and
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Speaker 1: then positioning herself as the hero fighting through it. Another
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Speaker 1: commenter asked what the doctors were saying, and Vanessa replied,
12:36
Speaker 1: we've seen six specialists, and they're all baffled. It's like
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Speaker 1: Lily's body is fighting some invisible enemy. I just pray
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Speaker 1: we find answers before it's too late. The manipulation was
12:45
Speaker 1: so calculated, so perfect. Vanessa knew exactly how to make
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Speaker 1: people feel connected to her story and invested in Lily's outcome.
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Speaker 1: She'd built an entire identity around being the devoted mother
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Speaker 1: of a sick child, and she'd convinced thousands of people
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Speaker 1: it was real. The custody hearing the next morning was
13:00
Speaker 1: in front of Judge Dorothy Castellano, an older woman with
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Speaker 1: silver hair who'd apparently seen everything in her 30 years
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Speaker 1: on the bench. Vanessa showed up with her own lawyer,
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Speaker 1: looking exhausted and devastated. Her eyes were red from crying,
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Speaker 1: and she kept glancing at me like I'd betrayed her.
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Speaker 1: The hearing lasted two hours, and Veronica presented all the
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Speaker 1: evidence Patricia had gathered. The videos, the pattern analysis, the
13:20
Speaker 1: testimony from school staff, the suspicious medications seized from our home.
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Speaker 1: Vanessa's lawyer argued that this was all circumstantial, and that
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Speaker 1: Vanessa had been nothing but a devoted mother, trying desperately
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Speaker 1: to help her sick daughter. He claimed the school nurse
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Speaker 1: was biased, and had misinterpreted innocent behavior. Judge Castellano listened
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Speaker 1: to both sides without showing any emotion. And then she
13:40
Speaker 1: asked Vanessa a direct question. Mrs. Whitmore, why did your
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Speaker 1: daughter only have seizures on mornings when you dropped her
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Speaker 1: off at school? Can you explain that pattern? Vanessa's face crumpled,
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Speaker 1: and she started sobbing. I don't know, Your Honor. Maybe
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Speaker 1: she felt more anxious on those mornings? Maybe there was
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Speaker 1: something about our routine that triggered them? I've been trying
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Speaker 1: so hard to figure it out. Judge Castellano wasn't buying it.
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Speaker 1: In eight months, it never occurred to you that the
14:01
Speaker 1: pattern was concerning enough to mention to doctors? You never
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Speaker 1: thought to have your husband take her to school instead
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Speaker 1: to see if it made a difference? Vanessa hesitated just
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Speaker 1: long enough that everyone in the courtroom noticed. I …
14:12
Speaker 1: I guess I didn't think about it that way. I
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Speaker 1: was just focused on getting her help. The judge leaned forward.
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Speaker 1: Or you were focused on maintaining the pattern that generated
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Speaker 1: content for your blog and sympathy from your followers. Vanessa's
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Speaker 1: lawyer objected. But Judge Castellano shut him down. I'm granting
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Speaker 1: temporary emergency custody to Mr. Whitmore pending a full investigation. Mrs.
14:29
Speaker 1: Whitmore is prohibited from any contact with the minor child.
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Speaker 1: This court is adjourned. Vanessa screamed as the judge left
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Speaker 1: the courtroom. Actual screaming. Like someone was murdering her. You
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Speaker 1: can't take my baby from me! She needs me! I'm
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Speaker 1: her mother! Security had to restrain her while her lawyer
14:43
Speaker 1: tried to calm her down. And I watched the performance
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Speaker 1: with detached horror. This was the woman I'd married. This
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Speaker 1: was the mother of my child. And she was willing
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Speaker 1: to kill Lily slowly for internet fame and sympathy. I
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Speaker 1: walked out of that courthouse with Veronica while Vanessa's screams
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Speaker 1: echoed through the building. Veronica squeezed my shoulder and said,
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Speaker 1: That reaction right there? That's not a mother who lost
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Speaker 1: access to her child. That's a narcissist who just lost
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Speaker 1: her primary source of supply. Watch, she'll post about this
15:08
Speaker 1: within hours and frame herself as the victim of a
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Speaker 1: corrupt system. I told Veronica she was wrong, that even
15:12
Speaker 1: Vanessa wouldn't be that obvious. But when I checked Vanessa's
15:15
Speaker 1: blog that evening, there was a new post titled, When
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Speaker 1: the System Fails Mothers Who Fight. The post was a
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Speaker 1: masterpiece of manipulation. Vanessa wrote about how she dedicated her
15:25
Speaker 1: life to fighting for Lily's health, only to have her husband...
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Speaker 1: and a biased school nurse turn everyone against her with
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Speaker 1: false accusations. She claimed I'd been emotionally distant throughout Lily's
15:34
Speaker 1: illness and was now using it as an excuse to
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Speaker 1: take custody. She said the real tragedy was that Lily
15:39
Speaker 1: was being ripped away from her mother right when she
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Speaker 1: needed her most. The post had 2,000 comments within three hours,
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Speaker 1: almost all of them supporting Vanessa and demonizing me. Praying
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Speaker 1: for you mama, the system is so broken. Don't give
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Speaker 1: up fighting for your baby. Your husband sounds like a narcissist.
15:54
Speaker 1: Document everything. I watched Vanessa's narrative spread across social media
15:58
Speaker 1: in real time, and I realized she was going to
16:00
Speaker 1: fight this battle in the court of public opinion, even
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Speaker 1: if she lost in actual court. She'd built an audience
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Speaker 1: of 20,000 people who believed her version of events, and
16:08
Speaker 1: she was weaponizing them against everyone who threatened her story.
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Speaker 1: Detective Raymond Fletcher from the police department called me three
16:14
Speaker 1: days after the custody hearing with an update that made
16:16
Speaker 1: my blood run cold. The forensic analysis of Vanessa's computer
16:19
Speaker 1: had revealed search history that dated back almost a year.
16:22
Speaker 1: Your wife was researching how to induce seizures in children
16:24
Speaker 1: nine months before Lily's first seizure. She looked up dosing
16:27
Speaker 1: information for medications that cause neurological symptoms. She researched Munchausen
16:31
Speaker 1: syndrome by proxy extensively, including how perpetrators get caught and
16:35
Speaker 1: how to avoid detection. This was premeditated, Mr. Whitmore. She
16:38
Speaker 1: planned every detail. Raymond said they'd also found private messages
16:42
Speaker 1: between Vanessa and another woman, who ran a similar blog
16:44
Speaker 1: about her sick child. The two of them had been
16:46
Speaker 1: sharing tips about which symptoms generated the most engagement and
16:50
Speaker 1: which hospitals were less likely to ask questions. We're investigating
16:53
Speaker 1: the other woman now too. This might be bigger than
16:55
Speaker 1: just your wife. The lab results came back on the
16:57
Speaker 1: medication seized from our house and what they found was
17:00
Speaker 1: nightmare fuel. 17 of the 43 bottles contained medications that
17:04
Speaker 1: weren't labeled correctly. One bottle marked vitamin B complex actually
17:08
Speaker 1: contained crushed antihistamine tablets that cause sedation and can trigger
17:12
Speaker 1: seizures in high doses. Another bottle labeled immune support was
17:15
Speaker 1: full of blood pressure medication that Vanessa had no prescription for.
17:19
Speaker 1: A third bottle marked herbal sleep aid contained a mixture
17:22
Speaker 1: of medications that should never be combined and could easily
17:25
Speaker 1: cause the exact seizures Lily had been experiencing. Raymond explained
17:28
Speaker 1: that Vanessa had been using her pharmacy knowledge to create
17:31
Speaker 1: custom combinations that would cause specific symptoms without being obvious
17:34
Speaker 1: in standard medical tests. She knew exactly what she was doing.
17:38
Speaker 1: The dosing was precise enough to cause symptoms, but not kill.
17:41
Speaker 1: That takes skill and knowledge. This wasn't accidental or confused.
17:45
Speaker 1: This was methodical abuse. Francine called to schedule a forensic
17:48
Speaker 1: interview with Lily and to determine what she remembered and
17:51
Speaker 1: understood about her mother's behavior. The interview would be conducted
17:54
Speaker 1: by a child psychologist named Iris Calloway who specialized in
17:57
Speaker 1: abuse cases. I brought Lily to a child advocacy center
17:59
Speaker 1: that looked more like a playroom than an interrogation space.
18:02
Speaker 1: Iris was warm and gentle, and she spent the first
18:05
Speaker 1: 20 minutes just playing with Lily to build rapport. Then
18:07
Speaker 1: she started asking careful questions about Lily's morning routine with Mommy.
18:11
Speaker 1: Did Mommy give her special drinks or vitamins? Did Mommy
18:14
Speaker 1: ever give her medicine that tasted bad? Did Lily remember
18:16
Speaker 1: anything unusual happening before she felt sick? Lily was remarkably
18:19
Speaker 1: honest in the way only children can be. She said
18:22
Speaker 1: Mommy gave her a special smoothie every morning that was
18:24
Speaker 1: supposed to make her healthy, but it always made her
18:26
Speaker 1: tummy hurt. She said sometimes Mommy gave her extra vitamins
18:29
Speaker 1: in the car before school, and those ones made her
18:32
Speaker 1: feel sleepy and weird. Iris asked Lily if Mommy ever
18:34
Speaker 1: told her not to tell Daddy about the special smoothies
18:36
Speaker 1: or vitamins, and Lily nodded. Mommy said it was our
18:39
Speaker 1: special secret because Daddy wouldn't understand that she was helping me.
18:42
Speaker 1: My heart shattered into pieces hearing my daughter describe how
18:45
Speaker 1: Vanessa had manipulated her into keeping the abuse secret. Iris
18:49
Speaker 1: recorded everything and told me afterward that Lily's testimony was
18:52
Speaker 1: consistent with systematic poisoning, and that Lily had been psychologically
18:55
Speaker 1: manipulated to believe the poisoning was helping her. Your wife
18:58
Speaker 1: created a scenario where Lily thought the very thing making
19:01
Speaker 1: her sick was medicine. That level of psychological abuse on
19:04
Speaker 1: top of the physical abuse is going to require extensive therapy.
19:07
Speaker 1: I asked how long until Lily would be okay, and
19:10
Speaker 1: Iris was honest. Years, Mr. Whitmore. Recovering from this kind
19:13
Speaker 1: of betrayal by a primary caregiver takes years of work.
19:16
Speaker 1: But children are resilient, and with proper support, she can heal.
19:20
Speaker 1: The criminal charges against Vanessa came down two weeks after
19:22
Speaker 1: the custody hearing. She was arrested at her mother's house
19:25
Speaker 1: and charged with child abuse, reckless endangerment, assault, and fraud
19:29
Speaker 1: related to the fundraising money. The bail was set at $ 500, 000,
19:33
Speaker 1: which her family couldn't afford, so Vanessa sat in jail
19:35
Speaker 1: awaiting trial. Her blog went dark immediately, but her followers
19:39
Speaker 1: created support groups on social media claiming she was innocent
19:42
Speaker 1: and being railroaded by a corrupt system. They started a
19:44
Speaker 1: fundraiser for her legal defense that raised $ 30, 000 in three days.
19:49
Speaker 1: I watched this unfold. with amazement because Vanessa had created
19:52
Speaker 1: such a compelling narrative that people couldn't accept the truth,
19:55
Speaker 1: even when presented with evidence. They'd rather believe in a
19:58
Speaker 1: conspiracy to destroy a devoted mother than accept that the
20:00
Speaker 1: devoted mother was actually a monster. Detective Fletcher called to
20:03
Speaker 1: tell me they'd found Vanessa's burner phone hidden in her
20:06
Speaker 1: car with messages that proved everything. Vanessa had been communicating
20:09
Speaker 1: with three other women who were also making their children
20:11
Speaker 1: sick for attention. They shared tips, celebrated successful hospital visits,
20:15
Speaker 1: and encouraged each other to escalate symptoms when engagement numbers dropped.
20:19
Speaker 1: One message from Vanessa said, had to really push it
20:21
Speaker 1: this time, gave Elle double dose before school, and she
20:24
Speaker 1: seized for almost five minutes. Paramedics were called and everything.
20:27
Speaker 1: Blog post will be amazing. Another message said, doctor is
20:31
Speaker 1: starting to ask too many questions. Might need to switch
20:33
Speaker 1: hospitals soon. Anyone have recommendations for places that don't scrutinize
20:36
Speaker 1: too much? Reading these messages made me physically sick, because
20:39
Speaker 1: they proved Vanessa viewed Lily as nothing more than content
20:42
Speaker 1: for her blog. Our daughter was a prop in Vanessa's
20:45
Speaker 1: performance of motherhood. The prosecutor handling the case, Catherine Vale,
20:48
Speaker 1: was a no-nonsense woman who'd been putting away child abusers
20:51
Speaker 1: for 15 years. She met with me to discuss trial
20:53
Speaker 1: strategy and warn me about what was coming. Your wife's
20:56
Speaker 1: defense will be that she genuinely believed she was helping
20:58
Speaker 1: Lily and that the medications were legitimate treatments she researched online.
21:02
Speaker 1: They'll try to paint her as a confused, overwhelmed mother
21:05
Speaker 1: who made mistakes but never intended harm. We need to
21:07
Speaker 1: prove intent and show the jury that every action was calculated.
21:10
Speaker 1: Catherine said my testimony would be crucial, along with Patricia's
21:13
Speaker 1: evidence and the forensic analysis of Vanessa's computer. The trial
21:16
Speaker 1: was set for four months out, which meant four months
21:19
Speaker 1: of waiting while Vanessa sat in jail, spinning new narratives
21:22
Speaker 1: to anyone who would listen. Her jailhouse calls were being recorded,
21:25
Speaker 1: and Catherine said Vanessa spent every call claiming she was
21:27
Speaker 1: innocent and that I had brainwashed everyone against her. She
21:30
Speaker 1: has zero insight into what she's done. In her mind,
21:33
Speaker 1: she's the victim here. Lily's health improved dramatically once Vanessa's
21:37
Speaker 1: influence was removed completely. Within two weeks, she hadn't had
21:40
Speaker 1: a single seizure. Within a month, she'd gained weight and
21:44
Speaker 1: her energy returned. The neurologist who'd been treating her was
21:46
Speaker 1: shocked by the transformation and wrote a detailed report confirming
21:50
Speaker 1: that Lily's seizures were clearly induced by external factors and
21:53
Speaker 1: not the result of any neurological condition. He felt terrible
21:56
Speaker 1: that he hadn't caught it sooner, but Catherine explained that
21:58
Speaker 1: doctors are trained to trust parents and don't usually suspect
22:01
Speaker 1: this kind of abuse unless there are obvious red flags.
22:04
Speaker 1: Vanessa had been careful to spread the appointments across multiple specialists,
22:08
Speaker 1: so no single doctor saw the full pattern. She'd controlled
22:11
Speaker 1: all the information flow and presented herself as the ultimate advocate,
22:14
Speaker 1: which made doctors more likely to believe her narrative. The
22:17
Speaker 1: trial started on a cold morning in January, and the
22:20
Speaker 1: courtroom was packed with media and spectators. Vanessa's blog followers
22:23
Speaker 1: filled half the gallery, wearing matching t-shirts that said, Justice
22:27
Speaker 1: for Vanessa, with her face printed on them. It was
22:29
Speaker 1: surreal and disturbing watching people rally behind someone who'd systematically
22:33
Speaker 1: poisoned a child. Catherine's opening statement laid out the evidence methodically.
22:37
Speaker 1: The videos, the search history, the messages, the forensic analysis
22:41
Speaker 1: of the medications, Lily's testimony, the pattern of seizures. She
22:45
Speaker 1: painted a picture of a woman who craved attention so
22:47
Speaker 1: desperately that she was willing to sacrifice her daughter's health
22:49
Speaker 1: and safety to get it. Vanessa's lawyer, Gerald Preston, argued
22:53
Speaker 1: that Vanessa was a devoted mother who'd been trying unconventional
22:56
Speaker 1: treatments out of desperation when traditional medicine failed. He claimed
23:00
Speaker 1: the prosecution was criminalizing a mother's attempts to help her
23:03
Speaker 1: sick child. Patricia testified first, walking the jury through her
23:06
Speaker 1: months of observation and documentation. She explained how she'd noticed
23:09
Speaker 1: the pattern and started recording everything because the consistency was
23:12
Speaker 1: too perfect to be coincidental. Gerald tried to discredit her
23:15
Speaker 1: by suggesting she had a personal vendetta against Vanessa, but
23:18
Speaker 1: Patricia shut it down immediately. I have no vendetta against Mrs. Whitmore.
23:22
Speaker 1: I have a professional obligation to protect children from harm.
23:24
Speaker 1: The evidence speaks for itself. Detective Fletcher testified next about
23:28
Speaker 1: the search history and messages they'd found on Vanessa's devices.
23:31
Speaker 1: He read several messages aloud to the jury, and I
23:34
Speaker 1: watched their faces change from skeptical to horrified as they
23:37
Speaker 1: heard Vanessa discussing dosing strategies and celebrating Lily's worst seizures.
23:42
Speaker 1: One juror, an older man in the back row, actually
23:45
Speaker 1: had tears in his eyes. The forensic toxicologist explained how
23:48
Speaker 1: the medications in the mislabeled bottles were specifically chosen to
23:51
Speaker 1: cause seizures without leaving obvious traces. These combinations show sophisticated
23:56
Speaker 1: knowledge of drug interactions and neurological effects. This wasn't someone
23:59
Speaker 1: confused about supplements. This was someone deliberately creating a specific outcome.
24:03
Speaker 1: When it was my turn to testify, I walked through
24:06
Speaker 1: our marriage and Lily's illness from my perspective. I described
24:09
Speaker 1: how devoted Vanessa seemed, how I never suspected anything was
24:12
Speaker 1: wrong until Patricia showed me the evidence. Catherine asked me
24:15
Speaker 1: about Vanessa's blog, and I explained how it had grown
24:17
Speaker 1: alongside Lily's worsening condition. Every time Lily got sicker, my
24:21
Speaker 1: wife got more popular online. I didn't see the connection
24:23
Speaker 1: until Detective Fletcher pointed it out, but once I saw it,
24:26
Speaker 1: I couldn't unsee it. Gerald's cross-examination tried to paint me
24:29
Speaker 1: as an absent father who wasn't involved enough to know
24:32
Speaker 1: what was really happening, but I held my ground. I
24:34
Speaker 1: was working full-time to pay medical bills while Vanessa stayed home.
24:37
Speaker 1: I trusted her completely because she was my wife and
24:39
Speaker 1: Lily's mother. The defense's case was weak because there wasn't
24:42
Speaker 1: much they could argue against the mountain of evidence. They
24:45
Speaker 1: called a few character witnesses who testified about what a
24:47
Speaker 1: good mother Vanessa appeared to be. But Catherine destroyed them
24:50
Speaker 1: on cross by asking if they'd ever witnessed Vanessa alone
24:53
Speaker 1: with Lily during the morning routine. None of them had.
24:56
Speaker 1: Gerald put Vanessa on the stand against Catherine's expectations, and
24:59
Speaker 1: it backfired spectacularly. Vanessa started strong, crying about how much
25:03
Speaker 1: she loved Lily and how she'd only wanted to help her.
25:05
Speaker 1: But Catherine's cross-examination was brutal. She made Vanessa read her
25:09
Speaker 1: own messages aloud, the ones where she celebrated Lily's seizures
25:12
Speaker 1: and discussed dosing strategies. She made Vanessa explain why she
25:15
Speaker 1: researched Munchausen syndrome by proxy if she wasn't aware she
25:18
Speaker 1: was committing it. Vanessa fell apart on the stand, her
25:21
Speaker 1: story changing multiple times, contradicting herself. By the end, even
25:25
Speaker 1: her supporters in the gallery looked uncertain. The jury deliberated
25:28
Speaker 1: for six hours before returning with a verdict. Guilty on
25:31
Speaker 1: all counts. Child abuse, reckless endangerment, assault, fraud. Vanessa showed
25:36
Speaker 1: no emotion when the verdict was read, just stared straight
25:39
Speaker 1: ahead like she couldn't process what was happening. The sentencing
25:42
Speaker 1: hearing happened two weeks later, and Catherine asked for the
25:44
Speaker 1: maximum penalty. This defendant used her knowledge and her position
25:47
Speaker 1: as a mother, to systematically abuse her child for personal gain.
25:50
Speaker 1: She showed no remorse, no insight, and continued to claim
25:53
Speaker 1: victimhood even when confronted with overwhelming evidence. She is a
25:56
Speaker 1: danger to any child in her care. The judge agreed
25:59
Speaker 1: and sentenced Vanessa to 18 years in prison with mandatory
26:02
Speaker 1: psychiatric treatment. She'd also be required to pay restitution for
26:06
Speaker 1: all medical expenses and fraud-related costs. The blog money, nearly $ 40, 000,
26:10
Speaker 1: was seized and would go toward Lily's therapy and future
26:13
Speaker 1: medical care. Vanessa was let out of the courtroom in handcuffs,
26:16
Speaker 1: and I felt absolutely nothing watching her go. No satisfaction,
26:19
Speaker 1: no relief, just emptiness. The woman I'd married didn't exist anymore,
26:23
Speaker 1: if she ever had. Lily and I started rebuilding our
26:25
Speaker 1: lives slowly. She was in therapy twice a week with Iris,
26:28
Speaker 1: working through the trauma and learning to trust again. I
26:31
Speaker 1: had to explain in age-appropriate ways that Mommy had been
26:34
Speaker 1: sick in her brain and had done things that hurt Lily,
26:37
Speaker 1: even though she shouldn't have. Lily struggled with it, asking
26:40
Speaker 1: why Mommy would hurt her if Mommies are supposed to
26:42
Speaker 1: protect you. I didn't have good answers beyond sometimes people's
26:45
Speaker 1: brains don't work right. and make them do terrible things.
26:48
Speaker 1: Iris said Lily was processing healthily, but would carry these
26:51
Speaker 1: scars forever. The goal isn't to make her forget, it's
26:53
Speaker 1: to help her understand it wasn't her fault, and build
26:56
Speaker 1: healthy relationships despite what happened. Six months after Vanessa's sentencing,
27:00
Speaker 1: Lily had her first completely seizure-free evaluation. The neurologist declared
27:03
Speaker 1: her neurologically normal, and said there was no reason to
27:06
Speaker 1: expect any future seizures unless they were induced again. Lily
27:09
Speaker 1: was thriving in school, had friends, laughed constantly. She was
27:13
Speaker 1: everything she should have been all along before Vanessa started
27:15
Speaker 1: poisoning her. We created new routines and traditions that had
27:18
Speaker 1: nothing to do with her mother. Friday movie nights, Saturday
27:21
Speaker 1: morning pancakes, bedtime stories where Lily was always the hero.
27:25
Speaker 1: I watched my daughter become the happy, healthy kid she
27:27
Speaker 1: deserved to be, and I felt grateful we'd caught it
27:30
Speaker 1: before Vanessa killed her, because that's where it was heading.
27:32
Speaker 1: Catherine told me after the trial that based on the
27:34
Speaker 1: escalation pattern in Vanessa's messages, Lily probably had maybe three
27:38
Speaker 1: months before Vanessa pushed it too far and caused permanent
27:41
Speaker 1: brain damage or death. We'd caught it just in time.
27:43
Speaker 1: Vanessa's blog followers gradually dispersed when more details came out
27:46
Speaker 1: during the trial. Some of them apologized publicly for supporting her.
27:50
Speaker 1: Others doubled down and claimed the evidence was fabricated. A
27:53
Speaker 1: few were investigated themselves after Detective Fletcher's team found concerning
27:57
Speaker 1: patterns in their children's medical histories. Two other women were
28:00
Speaker 1: eventually arrested in connected cases, and the whole network of
28:03
Speaker 1: mothers poisoning their kids for attention began to unravel. It
28:06
Speaker 1: turned out Vanessa had been part of something much bigger.
28:09
Speaker 1: a community of women who encouraged each other's abuse and
28:11
Speaker 1: celebrated sick kids as content opportunities. The whole thing made
28:14
Speaker 1: national news, and new protocols were put in place at
28:17
Speaker 1: hospitals to catch Munchausen syndrome by proxy cases earlier. Patricia
28:21
Speaker 1: was interviewed on several news programs about how to recognize
28:23
Speaker 1: the warning signs, and she became a voice for protecting
28:26
Speaker 1: kids from this specific kind of abuse. I think about
28:28
Speaker 1: those eight months sometimes and how I missed all the signs,
28:32
Speaker 1: how I believed Vanessa's performance so completely that I never
28:35
Speaker 1: questioned anything. but I also know that's exactly how abusers
28:38
Speaker 1: like her operate. They're so good at playing the role
28:40
Speaker 1: that even people closest to them don't see through it.
28:43
Speaker 1: Vanessa fooled doctors, teachers, family members, and 20,000 blog followers.
28:48
Speaker 1: She was a master manipulator who knew exactly which emotional
28:50
Speaker 1: buttons to push. I don't blame myself for not seeing
28:52
Speaker 1: it sooner, but I do make sure I never take
28:54
Speaker 1: Lily's health for granted. Every milestone she hits now, every
28:58
Speaker 1: normal kid thing she does, feels like a victory over
29:00
Speaker 1: what Vanessa tried to do to her. Lily is nine
29:02
Speaker 1: now and doesn't remember most of the abuse, which Iris
29:05
Speaker 1: says is actually healthy. Her brain protected her by blocking
29:08
Speaker 1: out the worst parts. She knows her mother is in
29:10
Speaker 1: prison and that mommy's brain was sick, and that's enough
29:13
Speaker 1: for now. Thanks for hanging out till the end. If
29:15
Speaker 1: you want more stories, make sure to subscribe and leave
29:18
Speaker 1: your take below.