News

18-Year-Old Cheerleader Admits to Murdering Newborn Instead of Telling Mom About Secret Pregnancy

NewsPublished Sep 10, 2019
By Kaitlin Stanford
Brooke Skylar Richardson in court, and in the interrogation videoWHIO/YouTube

With the trial of Brooke Skylar Richardson now in its second week, an Ohio jury has already sat through some difficult testimony, including that of Richardson's OB-GYN, who first reported the baby's death, as well as her ex-boyfriend, who was the child's father. But on Thursday, the jury sat transfixed for two hours, watching what might be the most emotional and shocking part of the trial so far: Richardson's interrogation video with police, which captured the then-18-year-old breaking down into tears and apologizing for the death of the baby she stands on trial for murdering.

Richardson, now 20, stands accused of intentionally killing her newborn daughter, whom she gave birth to in secret in May 2017.

The Ohio woman claims to have only learned she was pregnant 11 days before the baby's birth, and was told by her OB-GYN that she likely had two months before she delivered. Terrified to tell her parents, the then-teen continued to hide the pregnancy while continuing to go to school, cheerlead for the football team, and even attend prom. All the while, the teen dodged phone calls from her OB's office for follow-up appointments.

But in the early hours of May 7, any plans to tell her parents about her pregnancy were shattered.

Richardson later told police that she gave birth alone in her bathroom, as her family slept.

Whether the baby was alive at the time, however, has been a major point of contention, as Richardson's defense has maintained that the baby was stillborn, and a medical examiner was unable to determine a cause of death. But at several points during Richardson's 2017 police interview, she seems to directly contradict the stillborn claim.

In opening statements last week, Richardson's lawyer said the teen cried for hours while cradling the lifeless baby in her arms. Only then did she carry it outside and bury it beside a fire pit in her family's backyard. 

The body would remain there for weeks until Richardson returned to her OB-GYN practice to request a refill on her birth control. She was seen by a different doctor, who asked what happened to her baby after looking at the teen's medical charts.

Overcome with emotion, Richardson couldn't hold it in any longer. 

As Dr. Casey Boyce testified in court Wednesday, Richardson told her, "I had it alone in my house and buried it in my backyard."

Shortly after she left, Boyce contacted police.

In the interrogation video, Richardson sits nervously in front of a detective, as she's asked to recount the details before and after the birth.

Investigators did their best to determine whether the baby had signs of life after Richardson gave birth to her, catching her as she quickly slid out into the toilet, according to the Cincinnati Inquirer.

"Did you hear her cry?" they asked, of the daughter she would later named Annabelle.

"Maybe a little," Richardson said -- though her lawyers have since insisted that police put words in her mouth.

In another moment, Richardson can be heard saying, “I think I killed her … I squeezed her,” before adding, "I loved her.”

Pressing further, police asked her how she disposed of the body.

"I dug a little hole in my backyard and put her in it," Richardson said, struggling through tears as she described grabbing tools from the garage and creating a shallow grave. 

Though she carried the baby out of the home in a towel, she told investigators she removed Annabelle from the towel, placed her in the hole, and covered her with dirt before placing a flower pot over it to mark the spot.

When asked if she was worried whether someone was going to see, the teen replied, "Yeah, I should have told my mom. She could have helped me."

In another shocking part of the video, Richardson is seen talking with her parents, saying that, "I tried to cremate the baby. Just a little."

This has remained another point of contention between the prosecution and defense -- whether Richardson burned the body, which was near the backyard fire pit at the time.

Once again, much of that confusion is because of Richardson's own statements during the police interview, as well as inconclusive evidence from the medical examiner. 

Earlier in the interview, when Richardson was asked about whether she started a fire, she replied, "What fire?"

"There's some evidence to show that there was some burning on her," the detective asked her, to which the teen replied: "Burned her? I promise anything I didn't burn her. My dad has lots of bonfires, but I didn't burn her."

Other eye-opening details have also surfaced during the last few days of the trial -- including several texts Richardson exchanged with her mother.

Barely 24 hours after giving birth and burying her baby, prosecutors say Richardson texted her mother to say, “I’m literally so excited for dinner to wear something cute yayy my belly is back now I am takin this opportunity to make it amazing."

Richardson, who had struggled with an eating disorder since age 12, was said to have been fixated on her weight, and fluctuated up and down throughout the years as a result. The prosecution now argues that a lot of this was tied up in her need to please her mother, who had warned her that an accidental pregnancy would "ruin" her life. Both women, prosecutors say, were obsessed with weight and appearance.

After Skylar lost 20 pounds, she reportedly texted her mother that it was announced in one of her classes and everyone clapped.

“I could cry,” her mom wrote back. “U literally (are) my hero.”

In truth, the weight loss was likely due to the fact that she'd recently given birth.

Although it was previously believed that Kim Richardson had no inkling at all that her daughter was pregnant, a new text message hints otherwise.

A text message revealed this week says Kim Richardson caught wind of an email from her daughter's OB-GYN, which indicated she was pregnant. After confronting her about it, the teen insisted it was a mistake and wrote back, “You’re scaring me.”

The Cincinnati Inquirer reports that Kim "chastised" her daughter, while telling her "she wanted her to have a future and that a pregnancy would "eliminate all that."

The prosecution argues that it was precisely this fear of disappointing her mother, and obsession with maintaining a "picture-perfect" life, that led Richardson to kill her baby and shoulder her secret alone.

The defense, however, will be allowed to bring witnesses to the stand later this week, where they likely will lay out a much different tale.

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