On June 26th, 2024, the Peakan Police Department received a distressing 911 call from a man reporting that a baby in the care of a babysitter was unresponsive. 911, what's the address of your emergency? Uh, 1200 Avenue. And tell me exactly what happened. Um, so my girlfriend is watching a toddler. We put her up for a nap. She is not breathing. Are you with her now? Yes, I am. Is she awake? She is not. Is she breathing? She is not. She's turning purple. All right. I'm sending the paramedics to help you now. Stay in the line. All right. Thank you. Are you right by the baby now? Yes, I am. Listen carefully. I want you to lay the baby flat on her back on the floor and remove anything from under her head and then kneel next to the baby and look in the mouth for food or vomit. Let me know when you've got that done. Look for food and uh food or vomit. Yes. Kneel next to the baby and look in the mouth for food or vomit. Is there anything in the mouth? Hold on. I'm looking. I do not see anything. Sir, I'm sorry. What? Are you there? Yeah. I do not feel I don't hear anything. I think it looks like there's vomit on her shirt. Listen carefully and I'll tell you how to do chest compressions. I want you to make sure the baby is flat on her back on the floor. I want the chest to come all the way up between pumps. Count out loud so I can count with you. Okay. Officer here. There's an officer there. Yeah. Okay. Let them take over. Okay. Who was the tunnel? Mom, but she went to go wake her up from her nap. No breathing. She's Which room? Yeah. It looks like she choked on. How long ago? I don't know nothing. Put it down for a nap about 10 p.m. over here. Not 10 p.m. 10:30 [Music] upstairs here. Yeah. So, it's going to be the far bedroom on the right. All right. I'm going to There's an officer up there and fireman up there. I'm going to stand out here and just direct the AMP guys up there. Who all who all lives here, guys? Whose place is that? Her. It's me and my girlfriend. You and your girlfriend live here? Okay. All right. All right. My girlfriend laid her down at about 10:30 for a nap. Okay. And she usually just naps and then we she comes down and eats and we went out there and nothing. Oh my gosh. Okay. All right. Yeah. It looks like she choked on her view. We got the right people here to try to fix this and take care of this. So, let's get them up there. All right. I don't know. I'm not up there. I'm I'm scared. I'm shaking really bad. Tired. I'm going to have you come out here with this officer here and just kind of tell him what you were telling me to the left and upstairs. He told me that his girlfriend put the baby down to sleep and then when they went upstairs, he was kind of choking and not really sure exactly what's going on. So, I'm just directing people upstairs. Keep talking what you're doing. Let them do their work, but these officers will probably just kind of talk and get this do their part of it and let the medical people take care of that. Okay. Who's this baby right here? That's my baby. That's your baby. Okay. Yeah. I just put her up to take a nap. Okay. Who you talking to? Her mom. Yeah. Yep. You go ahead and do what you got to I put her up there about 10:30 and she fell asleep about 11 and I just went to wake her up and let her sleep for an hour. I had her lunch in the microwave and I went up there to check on her and there was enough. Are you ventilating them? Okay. Ventilations are fine. Right. Let's get them on monitor. Get access get one rounded. Let's do a pulse check. I don't want to put words in your mouth or anything that like the sergeant has said. So, can you just kind of get explain to me the timeline of events that went? It was about 10:30. We took her my girlfriend took her up to take her to put her down for a nap. She took her down to a nap in my in my son's room. Okay. And his uh infant bed or whatever. Uh okay. Sorry. I'm just It's okay. A lot going on just to I understand. Yeah. Absolutely. So when they did that, her girlfriend just went check to check up on her. Uhhuh. Cuz we didn't hear anything. And usually she wakes up at this time. She went out there and there was she wasn't breathing nothing. Okay. Was she moving at all? No. Is this also your daughter too? No. Okay. And then are you And this is your girlfriend? Yes. Okay. So guys, she has history of collic since she was newborn. Had an episode of vomiting yesterday and several bouts of diarrhea lately. Nothing abnormal in that. She was vomited the one time after eating. She is up to date on all immunizations and medications. You guys are babysitting. Yes. Yes. What's mom's name? This is her. Yeah. Uh, yes. Oh my gosh, I'm shaking so bad. Hi. Right now, the medical personnel are upstairs working. We're going to keep you out here. We don't know exactly what's going on. That's awesome for coming here, but there was It was actually one of the uh paramedics that was getting information from you through her. So, yeah, we'll stay here. We're going to we're going to get I'm going to call my fiance. Yep. I think that's a good idea. Do they know anything right now? Is she breathing? I don't know. Nope. I got here and I sent the the superheroes upstairs to do what they got to do and I just kind of stayed down here to keep this part going all over her. Okay. Lunch in the microwave. Okay. They're they're coming out right now. They're coming. Yep. So, let's stay here right now. Yep. They're going to come out and they're going to get her to the ambulance. We'll figure out a way to get you there cuz I don't want you driving in this state. I'm not sure if you ride the ambulance or maybe or maybe or or maybe I can drive you. Maybe you can ride with me. Yeah, maybe I can drive you to get you to the hospital. That's probably the best idea. Do you want to sit in my salon car where it's air conditioned and just see her? I think that makes sense. Yep. I think that's good. I was just thinking if you were if you wanted to. I was offering that as an option. Yep. Yep. She's standing right here. Wants to see everything. We're at the end of the sidewalk. Just Hey, I want to I just want to alert you. She probably a lot of stuff going on. So, I want you to get to see her and watch, but we've got to let them do what they can to save her life. And I know I'm just just letting you know it's going to it already is alarming and distressing and everything, but Oh my Who found a little one up in the It wasn't her. She wasn't here. I just came from work. Caleb's on it. Oh, okay. Well, just want to know like she talked to Kenna positioning and everything. All right. We're going to go into the living room past the door and let him open it for us. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. With the stretcher. Oh my god. Go sit in my car. Just call the highway. Right. I got you. Oh my god. We're just going to sit in my car. I got you. You go to St. Francis. Oh my god. Able to get anything. Crib looks clean. Uh butler did really good. He took his camera. Babysitters. Yeah. Took a real good v uh video of the crib before he touched anything. Uh baby was found face down. Been sleeping like roughly 2 hours. Oh my god. I'm sorry. Do you need me to hang up on you? Are you okay? I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep it together, but I can't go to St. Francis OSF. Oh my god. Oh my god. No, dude. No. And like everything looks pretty clean. It looks like a nice kid's bedroom. Like there were some blankets in there in the I wonder if it was like rolled on his stomach and just wasn't strong enough to roll back over and smother in the blankets. So they're going to take back to an emergency room obviously. So you can either wait in the lobby, wait outside, talk to people. I'm going to get another officer here to kind of facilitate so you are, you know, kept up to speed on exactly what's going on and what's happening. But we want to give them the ability to to do what they've got to do here. So the babysitter is is terrible. Uh she said she is laid the kid down at 10 something, came up at like 12:45 and the child was blue. U babysitter's boyfriend is super calm. There's some things that are just kind of up in the air right now. Mother was not here. The child was in the care of a babysitter. That babysitter and boyfriend are on the way to the PD now. Homer's going down there for initials. Child was on his stomach. When I got there, the dude had him on his back doing CPR and then I took over. It seemed like I don't know how he was sleeping. This was all in the bedroom. Okay. But uh yeah, I mean, blue tongue, blue lips, blue skin, nothing. Was it cold or still warm? No, still warm. Tragically, just 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital, the baby was pronounced deceased. Around the same time, the couple who had been babysitting the child arrived at the police station for further questioning regarding the events leading up to the incident. Hello. Yeah. Hey, I just wanted to update you because me. We're at the police department and I'm just really scared. I just feel horrible. [Music] I just don't know what to do. She didn't make it. Huh? She didn't make it. No. Kenna, did they say was it? No. Now what? I don't know. I'm just in this room by myself and I don't like it. Oh, Kenna. I'm just really scared. Well, there was nothing you could do. Can I? I'm going to head to her house. Can you just stay on the phone with me until somebody comes in? All right. As she spoke on the phone with her mother, detectives began interviewing her boyfriend. So, had you seen Sylvie at all today? I have not. So, by the time that you woke up, woke up, she was already upstairs laid down for the day. Yeah. Okay. When you came down, did everything seem normal? Like did she seem flustered at all? Was there any issues? Everything looked fine. Had you heard cuz she said that Sylvie had been like a little bit fussy and she she screams a lot and cries cuz when Kenna first started watching her, she told me she was calicky kind of. Mhm. Who figured out that something was wrong with Sylvie or like how did that all play out? Kenna was making lunch with every uh for all the kids and she was making Sylvie's lunch cuz she usually wakes up by now. Kenna went up there and Kenna came running downstairs and goes, "I think I think she's dead." And I'm like, "What?" And so then I jumped up and I ran upstairs and I saw her and I called 911 right away. When you first walked into the bedroom, what did you see? When I seen, all I see was um I walk in, Sylvie's in the crib, and it looks like Kenna flipped her to face her up to see it to get her awake and that's what I walked into. Her face kind of purplish, but just like right there, laying face up in the crib. Okay. All righty. Let me I think I pretty much my biggest thing is just getting like your guys' base statements. No, I get you. Um let me I'm gonna talk to her then. Um and then we'll kind of go from there. Okay. All right. If you need anything though, just uh get up and either yell at the door or knock or something, but we'll get you whatever you need. Thank you. Okay. Hey. Yeah. Do you want me to end this? Yeah, if you would. You can tell you you'll be able to call her back as soon as I'm done. Just run me through like from the time that you woke up um just to the time that like we got called out. Okay. Sylvie was very fussy, so I was feeding her her bottle and trying to like calm her down. Then she started to fall asleep in my arms. So then I took her upstairs, laid her down, she was fussy, so I brought her back down. And then she played with some of her toys. She has a caddy there of toys. And then about 10:30, she was still very fussy. So I just kind of let her go. And 10:30, I took her back upstairs and laid her down. And then well, I put her in her pink sleeps sack and then laid her down. And I turned the fan on for her cuz it gets warm in there. And then I went downstairs to start making lunch for everybody, which is what I was doing whenever I went upstairs to check on her, and to wake her up because her mom only wants her to sleep for an hour. Okay. And then um that's when I noticed it. She wasn't breathing at all. So then I ran downstairs. And he went upstairs and I told him to call 911 cuz I was I was scared. So Um, and then I went over to my sisters to have her come over so I could have somebody. Okay. Who dropped Sylvie off this morning? Her mom. As soon as she left, Sylvie was crying. Okay. Yeah, she's already pretty collicky. Okay. So, I just kind of figured that's what it was. That's like the norm for her. Acid reflux. Yeah. Okay. Um, so usually fussy is is not like it's not crazy out of the normal, but it's also like as much as she was today, it wasn't like normal at all for her. Okay. She seemed more upset than normal. Yeah. I had taken her up to lay her down for a little bit. Okay. For 5 minutes, if that because I don't like listening to them cry. Was that five minute like a Cuz I I have a 2-year-old. I get like sometimes you need a mental break. Was that like a like a mental break period for you or Yeah. Okay. So, you get her upstairs cuz she's being fussy and you need a second. And normally when she's fussy, she's just tired. When you brought Sylvie back downstairs um before she started playing with her toys, where was still sleeping at that point or had he already come down? Um he came down about the same time that I had brought Sylvie down. Okay. Um so then you got you bring her down. How long um were you guys all like in the living room before nap time? We were in there from like 9:45 to 10:30 whenever I laid her down. Okay. When you brought Sylvie down the first time. Yeah. That was around the same time was getting up for the day, you said that you had at one point come upstairs and that you had had to pump. Yes. Was that before or after? No, she was still down there with him. Okay. Yeah. All righty. I don't understand. I guess after talking to both of you, he said he was sleeping like the entire time. Yeah, he was. And then came down at 9:30. Yeah, but he said like he hadn't even seen Sylvie today. He was down there with her. Do you know why he would make it sound like he didn't watch her at all and had no contact with her this morning? Maybe it's cuz he was on his Xbox. I don't know. Okay. Yeah, cuz he said like he cuz I was like, "You didn't even see her today?" And he was like, "No, I didn't even see her." And so that makes me like, you know, right concerned. Um, do you guys do like baby monitors at all or anything like that? There's one in there, but we haven't used it. Okay. Okay. Let me run and ask him then about just that one thing. All right. I'll be right back. As soon as the officer leaves the room, the woman begins texting her boyfriend, seemingly trying to align their stories. [Music] I think I pretty much have it like initial timeline and everything plotted out. Um there was like just with talking to her like trying to make sure that I understand where everybody was at at all points in time. She said that uh Sylvie was just playing with her toys by herself. The boys were on Xbox and stuff and so she just left you down there with them while she went up to Okay. Why I don't understand why like why she wouldn't I have no idea. Okay. Okay. And so you come down and then she went up to shower and pump. Yes. Okay. And you would have had all the kids then because she's not gonna take the kids up there to pump. Never saw Sylvie today. That's not You're not being fully honest with me then. I I am. I No, cuz she's not going to take the kids upstairs with her to pump. I never I never I never saw a selfie this morning. I don't understand why she would say that you were watching them when you weren't. Like I there's just no reason for her to misinterpret that or to have that wrong. I never had and I swear my grandfather's grave that is dead right now. That was a Tas County Sheriff. Mhm. I swear to God. Okay. I just I want you to understand that if anything did there isn't you made a mistake by not being fully transparent and honest with me. Yes. It makes it look like you're hiding stuff from me. I I swear if you were watching her and like an accident happened or something like that. I don't want you to just completely I can see how you would want to distance yourself from She text me and told me what she said. Okay. Can I see that text? She can't maybe. Nope. Not at this point. Okay. I've been doing these cases for a while. Yes. The cases where people are communicating on like social media and text and all that. No, that's not what I was going to say. When people are trying to get their story straight. Mhm. That's when they have something to hide. I'm only I'm I'm not going to play games. I understand. And I'm only going to give you limited amount of time where it looks like you guys are trying to cover your butts. Okay. Or where you're actually just going to be open and honest with me. Okay. Just based on the context of the text message, it looks like she accused you of doing something. What did she think you were lying about? be she wanted me to tell you that I had that I had Sylvie because she said in the text I said I told her that you had Sylvie for like 10 minutes while I pump uh pumped from what you said and I told her I said I'm not lying I'm not covering you had her I'm not I didn't see her until I went up and got her out of the crib and called 911 right there. Oh right here. Yes. So, why is it that at 2:30 you felt the need to text her that there's no me there's no text? There's no Do not even start to pretend like you're I promise. I swear. Okay. Before we even start going down this road, if there was like a text message that's deleted or anything like that, we'd be able to we'll be able to recover that. So, don't you worry. Okay. But you're lying. I can tell just based off of your reaction to that. I promise I did not see her today. She texts me. Okay. And that's it's deleted obviously. Is this through Facebook or is this That's through text message. Through text message. Yeah. If it Can we go take her phone? Tell her as evidence. Uh we're going to need your phone. Yeah. No problem. I just don't like that you want to be here. No, you're okay. So, this is going to be evidence just so you know. That's why we're taking your phone so you're aware. And my body came on. The man continued to insist that she had contacted him in an attempt to manipulate the narrative, prompting detectives to rein the woman. Some of my co-workers were watching the interviews just like while I'm talking to you guys and noticed that you guys were like texting back and forth and stuff. And so I asked him about, you know, what you guys were talking about. He like showed me the basically the text thread. Um, and there were two messages in there that it had said like wifey unscent or like my wife unscent. Yeah. It was me asking him if he was okay. Okay. Like you had sent a message and then he said like oh well I told them that I wasn't with her. I didn't see her at all. And then you sent another message to him. What were those saying? Just that she was down there with him because I told him that what I was telling you. Okay. What made you unend that message? I was just scared. Okay. Cuz I didn't know if you if I was supposed to even be texting him or not. I definitely have a lot of concern when people are like when I when I meet with a couple and they're like discussing like I'm telling the police this like what are you telling the police like it looks like you guys are trying to like get your story straight and I don't understand like in this instance why you guys would be you know trying to make sure that you're telling me the same thing if what you're telling me is the truth just because you told me that he didn't see her. So, I was asking him basically. Okay. He's claiming that when you went upstairs to like shower and pump that Sylvie must have already been upstairs in bed. No, cuz I had put her behind him. So, I don't Maybe he didn't notice. Okay. I don't know cuz whenever he's on his game, he's just zoned out. Okay. Which sometimes it scares me to even put the kids down there. But 99.9% of the times we're able to like recover those kind of messages. So it'll show me whether or not that's what you sent him. If either one of you guys made a mistake and an accident happened in the home, it'll come out eventually and it's just not a good way to go about those kind of situations. So yeah. Well, I will say though that I did swaddle her with a blanket, but there was nothing over her face. Nothing. I am not trying to say like that it would be a like positional or like this a swaddling kind of a thing. I more so get concerned like did somebody get overwhelmed with her and drop her or did somebody you know and that's but that's more so what I'm looking at. I just didn't want you to to misinterpret like when I'm saying something. It just I know that um my mom's friend's son passed away from swaddling too, but I don't I was just scared to say that because I didn't want Yeah. swaddling to be like um I with her age development um or with her age and her level of development, swaddling wouldn't be something that I'd be concerned about. There can be issues with newborn babies that can't get their arms or legs out of there or anything like that. She always Yeah. If she's crawling and and standing up on stuff, um pulling herself up on stuff, that tells me that it's not going to be something where she's swaddled and can't, you know, get out of the swaddle. Um so, okay, let me grab him and then I will uh I will grab my notebook and then we'll get you guys out of here. Thank you. Yep. The couple left the station shortly afterward with both of their cell phones submitted into evidence. Two days later, an autopsy was conducted. Initial findings revealed abrasions on the inside of the baby's upper lip and frenolm. The medical examiner informed investigators that these injuries were concerning as they were consistent with pressure being applied to the baby's face. It was suspected that an object had been pressed against the baby's mouth and nose. At that time, the cause of death was not immediately apparent, and additional testing was required. Meanwhile, text messages between the couple were recovered through cellular forensic analysis. The messages revealed that the woman had been coaching her boyfriend on what to say during his police interview. Further testing later confirmed that the baby's cause of death was asphixxiation, eliminating the possibility of an accidental cause. In the weeks that followed, investigators continued building their case, ultimately calling the woman back in for questioning on July 18th, 2024. During an extended interview, she broke down and confessed that she had become overwhelmed and frustrated when the baby would not stop crying. She explained that she had tried to put the baby down for a nap three separate times, but the infant was unusually fussy and resistant to sleep. She confessed to pressing a plush toy over the baby's face, which forced the pacifier against the upper lip, consistent with the abrasions observed during the autopsy. She acknowledged that out of frustration, she may have used more force than intended and held the object in place until the baby closed her eyes. Believing the baby had fallen asleep. She did not realize the fatal outcome until later. She ultimately admitted that her actions directly caused the baby's death. The woman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Okay. Um, so at this point, you're under arrest. Go ahead. I'm going to have you turn around. Okay. Okay. Can I just go tell my mom? Can I talk to her? We will let her know. I'd rather not have you in handcuffs on your kid, even with him being a baby. Okay. Do you know how long I'll be there? You'll see a judge and then he'll have to decide as far as like releasing you. Okay. I'm just scared. I understand. You'll have to see a judge. It will not be today. No. No. Um I can't tell you exactly. I'm not sure when the next hearing will be the one that they give. I I just I don't think that that's the last thing you're going to want to be. In the days that followed, during court hearings on July 23rd and 25th, prosecutors revealed evidence that another child in her care had previously suffered a broken arm with inconsistent explanations given. The judge denied her bail, citing the risk she posed to other children, including her own infant son. Her trial was scheduled for October 7th, and a follow-up court appearance was held on August 15th. She later filed motions to reconsider her detention, but those were denied. On January 28th, 2025, the Illinois Appellet Court upheld the decision to keep her in custody, finding that no release conditions could ensure public safety. She remains in jail awaiting trial.