Mom Lived with Decomposing Baby Found in a Cardboard Box | Crime Alert 8AM 08.20.25

Wisconsin police made a chilling discovery after neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from an apartment. 

An Idaho father is behind bars after police find an 18-Yr-Old girl shot to death. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now, I'm Nicole Parton.
A woman from Wisconsin has been accused of living in
her apartment with the body of her dead ten month
old daughter, which was reportedly found decomposing in a cardboard box.
According to court documents, When questioned by police, she claimed
I had no control over how she died, and the

(00:23):
mother suggested that she was forced to hurt her children
and hide the body. Shanna Brothers, twenty eight, now faces
charges for concealing the corpse of a child following the
unsettling discovery made by officers last week in her Milwaukee residence.
According to the arrest Affidavid police stated they were alerted

(00:43):
by a caller who detected a foul odor coming from
inside the apartment. Someone said it resembled that of a
dead person. Initially, Brothers explained away the smell as old
food in her home. However, when officers informed her they
had been told that she mentioned her baby was missing,
she responded, yeah, people lose kids. I lost a child,

(01:07):
suggesting she was under stress. Upon being asked for permission
to search the house, Brothers complied, inside she spoke of
a man involved in a domestic violence relationship, who she
claimed had killed her child and was forcing her to
hide the body, and pointed to a locked bedroom. Officers
detected a strong smell of dcomp coming from that locked room.

(01:31):
Upon forcing the door open, they found the room mostly
empty except for a large cardboard box in the middle
of the floor, surrounded by hundreds of dead flies. Inside
the box, an officer discovered the body of a baby
in the advanced state of decay. An autopsy later indicated
the baby had a skull fracture consistent with blunt force trauma.

(01:53):
Brothers allegedly informed officers that her boyfriend was responsible for
the child's death and had threatened her or against reporting
the incident. She indicated that he through the baby, although
police could not find any evidence of a man living
at the apartment. The apartment was notably devoid of any furniture,
with only an air mattress and a television in one room,

(02:14):
while the child's body was found in a box in
the other. The complaint noted that the infant was so
decomposed the baby was unrecognizable, with body fluids seeping from
the box. Taken into custody, Brothers accounts became increasingly bizarre.
During her interrogation, she reportedly claimed I was told I
wasn't in trouble and insisted I had no control over

(02:38):
how she died. She described being raped and forced to
harm her child, alleging that multiple people were entering her
apartment to assault her and steal from her. I'm going
to be exonerated, Brothers asserted, believing that her situation might
appear incriminating but would ultimately lead to her release. Throughout
the police interviews, she frequently covered her mouth as if

(03:00):
trying to suppress her words, and at one point she
expressed regret, saying God, oh God, we left up today,
followed by making barking sounds. Brothers also spoke directly to
the detectives, asserting, you guys already know I did not
kill my child, right, and indicated that her statements could
help her plead insanity. Currently, Brothers is being held on

(03:22):
a fifty thousand dollars bond as she awaits a mental
health evaluation, with the results expected next month. More crime
and justice news after this and now in Idaho, a
tragic incident and Caldwell has left an eighteen year old

(03:42):
girl dead and her father in police custody after authorities
apprehended him in Mountain Home. The Caldwell Police Department reports
that officers responded to a distress call coming from a
teenager shortly after four pm on Monday. The young caller
indicated that his father, fifty one year old Delbert Cornish,

(04:03):
was inside the home with a gun. According to a
release from the Caldwell Police Department, officers made contact with
the son outside the home. He informed them that Cornish
had threatened to shoot a family member and had tried
to prevent him from leaving the house. Following a brief struggle,
the son managed to escape and call nine point one.
Upon entering the home, police discovered the body of an

(04:25):
eighteen year old woman along with a gun. To locate Cornish,
officers utilized automated license plate reader cameras, ultimately tracking him
to a residence in Mountain Home. Around seven thirty pm,
Mountain Home police arrested Cornish. Caldwell Police detectives aided by
the Cannon County Sheriff's Office Crime Lab scene They are

(04:47):
currently processing the crime scene in Caldwell and the investigation
is ongoing. Police say they believe the eighteen year old
girl to be the daughter of mister Cornish and now
to Iowa. A man has been arrested after police located
a missing Iowa girl in North Carolina. On Sunday, the
Fairfield Police Department contacted law enforcement in North Carolina regarding

(05:11):
a missing girl. As part of the investigation, Fairfield Police
found text messages between the young girl and a twenty
five year old man in North Carolina. The girl was
then picked up by the man and transported to Rockingham County,
North Carolina. Police said deputies found the missing girl in
the eight hundred block of Willow Street in Reedsville, North Carolina.

(05:33):
According to the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, one man has
been arrested in connection with the incident. John Johnson is
charged with second degree sexual exploitation of a minor and
solicitation by computer. He is being held on an eight
hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond. The young girl is
in the care of the Rockingham County Department of Social

(05:54):
Services until her parents arrived to take her home. For
the latest crime injustice news, follow Crime Alert hourly update
on your favorite podcasting app. With this crime Alert, I'm
Nico Parton