During Canada’s Victoria Day long weekend in 2014, 20-month-old Ryker Michaud-DaPonte was scalded over 25% of his body by a hot cup of instant coffee. Over the next three days, Ryker’s mother, Amanda Dumont, and her boyfriend, Scott Bakker, carried on with their lives as if nothing was wrong. They not only refused to take Ryker for medical treatment, but they went so far as to lie to Amanda’s family members, telling them they had taken Ryker to a doctor for his severe burns. Only when they...

In episodes 47 and 48, I told you the story of 4-year-old Averylee Hobbs. Avery was not even a month old when her mother, Britney Roll Mayes, fractured Avery’s skull and spent time in prison. After Britney was released, she was awarded visitation with Avery, who began returning to her paternal grandparents covered in bruises, burns, bite marks, and other inflicted injuries. Even though multiple family members reported the obvious abuse, Avery’s caseworker and guardian ad litem took Britney’s...

Since 1990, well over 1,050 children in the United States have died after being left in hot cars. An untold number of additional kids have been left with permanent brain damage and other long-term injuries. The largest percentage of these kids were unknowingly left in a vehicle by a parent or caregiver. No one wants to believe their brain is capable of this kind of failure. Many place blame on these parents, accusing them of using drugs or alcohol or of being inattentive, neglectful, abusive,...

Leon Benson spent 24 years in an Indiana state prison for the 1998 murder of a young man named Kasey Schoen. His conviction hinged on the testimony of two eyewitnesses – but what if their memories turned out to be wrong? And what if the people who knew what really happened had never been allowed to speak? Suspect Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark is the story of two victims: one murdered, one sentenced to life. Follow host Matt Shaer and attorney Lara Bazelon as they investigate how the...

Baby Jazmine Robin weighed under three pounds when she was born 11 weeks premature, and she spent nine weeks in a Houston hospital’s NICU before being taken home on July 3, 2018 by her parents, Jason Robin Jr. and Kat White. Only 11 days later, Jasmine arrived at the emergency room, suffering from head trauma, brain bleeding, broken bones, and bruising. The following day, Jazmine was pronounced dead. This is the story of a pair of drug users who were under CPS investigation for abuse of...

Over the course of a seven-part miniseries that began last September called Groomed to Die: The Kendzia Children, I told you about the countless alleged crimes committed by Susan Lee, formerly known as Susan Stevenson, Susan Cook, and Susan Kendzia. I told you about Susan’s charges in the 1980s for the murders of her two adopted infant sons, Michael and Kevin, and her subsequent murder trial; the chronic, inexplicable illnesses suffered by Susan’s daughter, Shain, throughout her first 28...

In episode 138, I told you the story of two-year-old Stevie Osborn, whose death on December 23, 2019 went all but unreported by the media. Stevie’s mother, Abigail Osborn, and Abbey’s boyfriend, Joseph Chilson, were investigated by the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division, which found by preponderance of evidence that both had committed neglect against Stevie and that Joe had committed the abuse that caused Stevie’s fatal head injury. After Joe’s suicide in 2021, the...

On May 30, 2015, first responders arrived at a townhouse in Waterloo, Iowa, where they found four-year-old Gracie Buss unresponsive. Gracie’s mother, Kristi Buss, and her boyfriend, Chad Little, told police and medical staff that Gracie suffered a seizure and fell down the stairs. Tragically, Gracie died after three days on life support. Eighteen months later, both Kristi and Chad were arrested in connection with Gracie’s death. At his murder trial, Chad Little’s varying stories about the...

In episodes 5 and 6 of this podcast, I told you the story of 8-year-old Thomas Valva. Thomas and his two brothers were unjustly taken from their mother’s custody in 2017 and spent the next three years living with their father and his girlfriend, both of whom abused, starved, and tortured the boys. On January 17, 2020, Thomas and his 10-year-old brother, Anthony, both of whom were on the autism spectrum, were forced to sleep in the family’s unheated garage in their Long Island home. The...

(This is a re-edit of an episode released in March, which was taken down shortly after release.) On December 23, 2019, two-year-old Stevie Osborn was rushed to the hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, suffering from bruises all over her body, two skull fractures, and massive bleeding on the brain. After Stevie died during life-saving surgery, her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the head. A report by child services pointed the finger squarely at two individuals, but a...

Over the last two episodes, I told you the story of Alexavier Pedrin, whose six years were marred by family turmoil, alleged abuse and neglect, and CPS involvement. On February 11, 2023, Alexavier was found dead in his family’s rented home in Medary, Wisconsin with multiple inflicted injuries and Xanax in his system. Three months later, his father’s girlfriend, 31-year-old Josie Dikeman, was finally arrested and charged with Alexavier’s murder. For this episode, I had the honor of speaking...

In the last episode, I began telling you the story of six-year-old Alexavier Pedrin, whose short life was filled with constant family turmoil and frequent involvement by various CPS agencies in his home state of Wisconsin and others. After Alexavier’s mom went to prison, his father eventually stopped letting her side of the family see their son, allowing the abuse and neglect Alexavier allegedly suffered at the hands of his father’s girlfriend run rampant. In this episode, I’ll tell you...

In 2011, 19-year-old Josie Dikeman was accused of child neglect after her boyfriend’s one-year-old daughter suffered a skull fracture and a brain injury in her care. That charge was dropped. Two years later, she was convicted in a separate child neglect case regarding the same little girl, by then age three, who had been returned from foster care only to become malnourished and suffer fractured hands and feet while in Josie and her boyfriend’s care. After Josie moved in with her new...

For this episode, I asked my listeners for questions they wanted answered about the podcast, about me, or anything else. Across several platforms, I received a lot of great questions! In this episode, I’ll answer those questions with the help of a special guest – my 18-year-old son, Andrew! This is my first-ever episode devoted to answering listener questions. (Also, bloopers after end credits!) Links discussed in today’s episode (mainly as shout-outs from Andy): Kurtis Conner on...

Whenever possible, I like to provide updates on as many past cases I’ve covered as possible. In this episode, I will provide updates on the cases of Frankie Gonzales, Marion Jester-Montoya, Damian Sutton, Zaiden Javonovich, Jaxson Love, Tesslynn O’Cull, Moko Rangitoheriri, Kyon Jones, Giovanni Melton, and Emrik Osuna. This is Case Update Special #11. Links discussed in today’s episode: Episode 19: Frankie Gonzales - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/44665649 Episode 13: Marion...

In the last episode, I told you the first part of the story of 15-year-old Jack Edwards and his 13-year-old sister, Jennifer. I told you about the multiple romantic partners and children their father, John Edwards, abused and manipulated over the years, the various complaints against John of domestic violence and stalking, and how, despite all that, he was able to obtain permits and licenses to both shoot and own multiple firearms in New South Wales, Australia. In this episode, I’ll tell you...

Note from Laine: Today, I'm proud to bring to you the first episode of an incredibly important podcast called Nobody Should Believe Me. Novelist Andrea Dunlop is looking for answers. When her older sister was first investigated for Munchausen by Proxy abuse more than a decade ago, it tore her family apart. This catastrophic series of events sent Dunlop on a journey to understand this most taboo form of abuse. In this groundbreaking podcast, she talks to some of the top experts in the world...

On July 5, 2018, 13-year-old Jennifer Edwards got off the bus and walked eight minutes to get to her home in West Pennant Hills, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Jenny had no idea that her father, 67-year-old John Edwards, was following her in a car he rented so she wouldn’t recognize him. When Jenny arrived at home, John pulled into the driveway and chased her inside the house with a handgun. Jenny fled to her brother’s bedroom, where she and 15-year-old Jack huddled under his computer desk,...

On May 15, 2018, police responded to a self-storage facility in Sacramento, California, where, in one of the storage units, sat a box containing a blue plastic barrel, inside which was a duffel bag. In that bag were the remains of a small child who appeared to have been dead for at least two weeks. Police tracked down the couple who left the box in the storage unit, Tyler and Averyauna Anderson of Reno, Nevada, and arrested them for the murder of Tyler’s five-year-old daughter, Cali. This is...

In episodes 87 and 88, I told you the story of four-year-old Judah Morgan, who spent the first three-and-a-half years of his life in a foster care kinship placement with his second cousin, Jenna Hullett, and her family. Despite multiple warnings from Jenna and other family members, Judah was returned to his biological parents, Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder, in April of 2021. Six months later, he was dead, and Alan and Mary were both arrested. In this episode, I’ll provide you with the many...

On March 21, 2020, three-year-old Erykah Taylor arrived at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, unresponsive. Shortly after her arrival, she was pronounced dead. Based on her injuries, which included bone fractures and multiple bruises, police did not believe the story they heard from Tonny Manns, the live-in boyfriend of Erykah’s mother and Erykah’s caretaker at the time she was fatally injured. After Erykah’s five-year-old sister told investigators what she witnessed, Tonny was...

(This episode was originally released on September 29, 2021.) On January 26, 2020, San Antonio mother Sareh Lang was at work when she received the phone call every parent dreads: her three-year-old son, Christian Paz, was being rushed to the hospital, unresponsive. Two days later, Christian was removed from life support and died in his mommy’s arms. Sareh’s boyfriend, Logan Harvill, was charged in Christian’s death, and Sareh’s other children were removed from her custody, because...

On December 23, 2019, two-year-old Stevie Osborn was rushed to the hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, suffering from bruises all over her body, two skull fractures, and massive bleeding on the brain. After Stevie died during life-saving surgery, her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the head. A report by child services pointed the finger squarely at two individuals, but a shocking act by the prime suspect in Stevie’s murder brought the police investigation to a...

In last week’s episode, I told you about two-year-old Bradley McGee, who was returned to his biological mother and stepfather, Sheryl and Tom Coe, even though they abandoned him in a shopping mall as an infant and failed to comply with the reunification tasks they were assigned by Florida’s child welfare department, HRS. Bradley died on July 28, 1989 after a potty-training accident led his stepfather to hold Bradley by his ankles and slam his head into the toilet bowl over and over, causing...

In 1987, four-month-old Bradley McGee was abandoned at a shopping mall and placed into foster care. He spent most of his life thriving and happy in the Lakeland, Florida home of his foster family. In 1989, despite reports of abuse from multiple family members and others, Bradley was placed back into the custody of his mother and stepfather, Sheryl and Tom Coe. Just two months later, two-year-old Bradley was dead. This is the story of yet another toddler murdered over potty training when his...