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Newborn Stolen From Murdered Mom Finally Reunited With Dad For Bittersweet Christmas

NewsPublished Dec 26, 2019
By Kaitlin Stanford
Heidi Broussard and Shane Carey with their daughterYouTube/Facebook

It's been a harrowing couple of weeks for the family of Heidi Broussard, the mom from Austin, Texas, who went missing earlier in December with her newborn baby. She was later found dead in the trunk of her best friend's car. Broussard's infant daughter, Margo, was luckily found alive and well last week, but in the middle of the investigation into what exactly happened to her, the baby was placed in the care of child protective services. Finally, on December 23, little Margo was returned to Broussard's fiancé, Shane Carey, and reunited with her family -- just in time to celebrate Christmas.

It was Carey who first reported Broussard missing, after coming home from work on December 12 and finding the house empty.

Broussard had last been seen dropping off the couple's 6-year-old son at elementary school that morning, and presumably returned home, where her car was found sitting in the driveway with her purse still inside it. 

"Her car … everything's at the house," Carey later told KVUE in an interview. "The baby stuff … everything. Nothing's gone except her and the baby."

Broussard's cellphone was missing too, but since it had been turned off, her whereabouts were even more of a mystery.

Finally, investigators were led to the home of Magen Fieramusca, also 33, who had reportedly been friends with Broussard for more than 20 years.

According to a mutual friend, the pair met as children at a church camp, and Fieramusca was even present during Margo's birth just weeks before. But as soon as police conducted a search of the home, it was clear the friendship was not what it seemed. A body believed to be Broussard's was found in the back of a car in the driveway. The car belonged to Fieramusca. An autopsy has since revealed the cause of death was ligature strangulation.

On December 19, Fieramusca was charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of tampering with a corpse. Murder charges are expected to follow, though police are looking into whether there were others involved in the crime, The Washington Post reports.

Fieramusca allegedly pretended to be pregnant with her own baby girl at the same time Broussard was expecting Margo.

In fact, during a true crime podcast show last week, mutual friend Caressa Nolte said that Fieramusca told her she had given birth to her daughter, Luna Mae, just 15 or 16 days before Broussard's disappearance. 

“I talked to Magen every day,” Nolte told the hosts. “She’s been like sick over this. She just had a baby and she's breastfeeding ... " 

But while speaking to the hosts of Justice 4 Jay, and watching news footage of police descending upon Fieramusca's home, she began to see holes in the woman's story.

The Texas woman also appeared to fool Tim Miller, who owns Texas Equusearch, a search party operation that organized efforts to look for Broussard. Miller told KHOU 11 that he'd spoken with Fieramusca recently, and said she seemed like a caring, concerned friend. Fieramusca even told him she last spoke with Broussard the morning she disappeared, and claimed that she was having trouble breastfeeding.

But following a police search of Fieramusca's home, a DNA test proved that the baby she claimed was her own was in fact little Margo.

On December 24, Carey posted a photo of himself on Facebook, holding his infant daughter along with the caption, "Baby Margo is home."

"Praying for you and the families," one person wrote on Facebook. "So happy you have your precious baby girl in your arms."

"She is so precious," added another commenter. "I have a 6-month-old and every time I have held her the past few days I have been thinking of baby Margo. I am glad you have her back with you and I am praying for your family."

The reunion had first been announced at a Monday night vigil by Carey's father, Ty. 

“That’s the best thing that could ever happen,” the grandfather reportedly said, according to the New York Post. “Just a tiny window of light is shining through and that’s a blessing.”

In the days following Broussard's disappearance, there was plenty of speculation on Carey himself, who was accused of domestic abuse in the past.

Broussard's friend Cliff Nolte told the Daily Mail that Carey would frequently get violent after drinking, and claimed that Broussard had tried to leave him several times, but ultimately stayed because of the children. (In addition to their 6-year-old son Silas and baby Margo, Carey also has a daughter from a previous relationship.) Nolte even shared Facebook and text messages Broussard allegedly sent him, describing Carey's violent outbursts. However, it seems -- at least for now -- that Carey had nothing to do with his fiancee's disappearance.

"You know how much he loved her," Ty Carey told ABC News. "It's just unbelievable, but it's over now, and everybody saw. There were so many people saying so much terrible things."

Meanwhile, Fieramusca's alleged role in the crime has certainly shocked those who knew her.

Even Heidi Broussard's own mother, Tammy, was blindsided by the news.

"She was supposedly Heidi’s friend for a long time,” Tammy told People. “Heidi had so many friends. Everybody loved her. We thought Magen loved her too. But evidently that wasn’t the case. She wanted Margo, is what she wanted.”

Broussard's mother also admitted that she didn't exactly warm to Fieramusca.

“The thing is, I was uneasy with her, and I had [been] from the beginning of her friendship with Heidi," Tammy shared.

"It's just very upsetting that someone could do that," Fiermusca's neighbor Darla Bundick told KHOU. "I thought, 'What in the world could have happened to her and oh Lord Jesus, here she is in our backyard.'"

Still, there have been some friends who now say that looking back, things were "off" about Fieramusca.

Vickie Shreves, a mutual friend of both women, was also present in the delivery room when Broussard gave birth on November 26.

Speaking with People, she said that Fieramusca stood to the right of Broussard, silently holding her hand as she pushed. Also in the delivery room was Broussard's fiancé, Carey. 

But the woman's behavior did not seem to be that of a supportive best friend. 

“Magen was quiet. Somber,” Shreves recalled. “She wasn’t saying a word to her.”

Then, just minutes after Margo arrived, Fieramusca abruptly left. 

“Without a goodbye she was gone,” said Shreves. “I knew something was wrong.”

Also raising an eyebrow was the fact that Fieramusca claimed to be pregnant and due within a week.

But to Shreves, she didn't appear to look that far along in a pregnancy, and was clutching a pillow over her stomach for much of the visit.

Rachel West, a mutual friend of both women, told the Today show that she spoke with Fieramusca almost daily while Broussard was missing, and didn't sense that anything was wrong. But now, she believes that Fieramusca “wanted that baby from the get-go ... and she didn’t care how she got it."

She also can't shake the memory of speaking with Fieramusca over the phone, and hearing a crying baby in the background. At the time, she believed it was Fieramusca's baby, Luna Mae. But now, she knows that it was Margo, likely crying out for her mother.

“That is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” said West.

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