Episode 138: Stevie Osborn

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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This podcast contains descriptions of violence againstchildren, an adult language, and is
not suitable for all audiences. Listenerdiscretion is advised. Hi everyone, and

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welcome to Suffer the Little Children,the True Crime podcast, giving voices back
to the victims of child abuse andshining a harsh spotlight on the parents,
guardians, and caretakers who silence them. I'm your host, Lane, and
this is Episode one thirty eight.Stevie Osbourne. On December twenty third,
twenty nineteen, two year old StevieOsbourne was rushed to the hospital in Kansas

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City, Missouri, suffering from bruisesall 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 causedby blunt force trauma to the head.
A report by Child Services pointed thefinger squarely at two individuals, but
a shocking act by the prime suspectin Stevie's murder brought the police investigation to

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a screeching halt. In this episode, you'll hear my conversation with Stevie's dad,
Gary Osborne, who refuses to giveup hope of seeing justice for his
baby girl. This is the storyof a little girl whose violent death has
received almost zero media coverage and hasnever resulted in criminal charges. It's also

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the story of a heart broken familywho will do anything they can to keep
her memory alive and to get somesemblance of justice for her murder. This
is the infuriating story of Stevie Osbourne. Quick shout out to my newest patrons,
Christina M from Paterson, California,and Sandra E and Jess and Bean

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from Mister dress Up's Teckeltrunk. Thankyou all so much for helping to keep
this show going. To make apledge, you can visit patreon, dot
com, slash stlcpod. Today's storyis an unusual one, not unfortunately for
the circumstances which are all too common, but because of the fact that Stevie's
story has received next to no mediaattention whatsoever. The majority of what I'm

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about to tell you came from othersources, including unredacted official documents. I
truly appreciate Stevie's family for bringing herstory to my attention so I can bring
it to yours. I originally releasedthis episode on March twenty third, twenty
twenty three. Shortly after that,I pulled the episode down. I have

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since re edited the entire episode,which I believe now better reflects an objective
view of the case. A quickdisclaimer before I begin, all parties are
innocent until proven guilty in a courtof law. In audio clips and interviews,
the statements and opinions expressed are thespeaker's own and do not necessarily represent
my views. Gary Lee Osborne andAbigail Jean Morris met in twenty thirteen,

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a few months after Gary graduated frompark Hill High School in Kansas City,
Missouri, where Abbey graduated the followingyear. The two began dating as soon
as they met, and eventually eighteenyear old Gary moved in with Abbey,
her mother, Mindy, Mindy's motherCarol, and Mindy's boyfriend at the time,
Aaron. After high school, Abbyworked at a couple of different jobs,

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eventually deciding to pursue a healthcare careerand becoming a nursing assistant with the
intention of attending nursing school. Thecouple had married and moved into their own
little place by the time their daughter, Stevie Lynn Alice and Osborne, was
born on April twenty eighth, twentyseventeen, in Kansas City. She was
named after Gary's father, Steve,and one of Stevie's middle names was in

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honor of Abbey's sister, Allison,who died years before during infancy. When
Stevie was five months old, Abbeyfiled for divorce with no other options.
Gary ended up moving back in withhis parents. Shortly after Gary moved out,
he received a call at work fromhis father, Steve, letting him
know that a police officer was atthe house to speak with Gary. The

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officer came to visit Gary at workto provide him with paperwork about a failed
emergency ex partey order of protection.Is soon to be ex wife had tried
to take out on him, claimingthat Gary had tried to choke her in
two fifteen. The judge threw outher request. The matter was finally settled
after a short but bitter custody attle, during which Gary was not allowed to
see Stevie for three months, therebymissing her first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and

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New Year's Eve. In January oftwenty eighteen, the court decided that Gary
and Abbey would share joint legal custodyof Stevie, who would live primarily with
her mother. Gary was ultimately orderedto pay Abbey just over seven hundred dollars
per month in child support. Theircustody arrangement gave Gary every other week end

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with his daughter, as well asultimately an overnight each week. Some time
in early twenty nineteen, Abbey begandating a man named Joseph Chilson, who
had been a high school classmate ofhers and Gary's. Abby and Joe soon
moved in together, sharing an apartmentin the Wild Oak Apartment Homes at seven
nine four to five North Flint RockRoad in Kansas City. Gary last saw

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two and a half year old Steviealive on the morning of Thursday, December
nineteenth, twenty nineteen, when hedropped his daughter off at her great Grammar
Virginia's house. He had given Steviea bath the night before, at which
time her pale skin was unmarked andunbruised, according to a later report from
the Missouri Department of Social Services Children'sDivision, on the evening of December twenty

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first, twenty nineteen, while Abbywas working at her job as a critical
care nurse at Saint Luke's Hospital inKansas City, she received a text message
from Joe, who said that Steviewas sick and throwing up. When Abby
arrived home at a round two am. On the twenty second, Joe
told her that Stevie had tripped overthe family dog, hitting her forehead on
the tile floor and leaving bruises thatcan be seen in photos taken later that

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day. At a Christmas party Abbyheld in their apartment as a critical care
nurse, even one who never receivedformal training in neurological assessments. As Abbey
later claimed, there's no way shedidn't know that a head injury accompanied by
vomiting could indicate a serious medical problem. Even so, Abby didn't seek medical
attention for Stevie at the Christmas partyon December twenty second. According to the

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Children's Division report, many family membersin it tendents told social workers that they
witnessed Stevie l Osborne projectile vomiting andbeing warm to the touch, and that
Abby allowed only Joe and no oneelse to change Stevie's clothing during the party
every time she threw up on herself. The same family members reported that Stevie
projectile vomited multiple times during the party, and that they were concerned about the

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numerous contusions around the forehead slash earareas, along with a bump on the
right side of her forehead. Followingthat Christmas party, Abbey's maternal grandmother,
Carol Dixon, posted two photos onFacebook depicting Abby in red plaid one piece
pajamas with Stevie sitting in her lapwearing pink footie pegs with a large bruise

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in the middle of her little forehead. Along with the photos, Carol wrote,
celebrated Christmas with Abby, Jean,Stevie, and Joseph Chilson. Yesterday.
Poor little Stevie was sick with astomach virus and not much into the
holiday. Cheer get better, littleone. Grandma loves you, bunches.
The DSS report also mentioned that Abbyherself admitted that she noticed severe contusions on

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Stevie l Osborne's ears, as wellas her forehead and neck. That evening.
After noticing Stevie's injuries, Abby reportedgetting into an argument with Joe,
which she said escalated into physical violencewhen he pulled Abby's hair and threw her
on the bed while she was holdingStevie. Abby said she considered but decided
against calling the police, saying thatshe and Joe decided later that night that

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he would move out. Shortly thenext morning, Abby made the fateful decision
to leave her two and a halfyear old daughter in the care of a
man she had just broken up withthe night before. Several hours after leaving
for work that morning, Abby receiveda phone call from Joe, who told
her that Stevie had fallen out ofbed and wasn't breathing. Abby told Joe

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to call nine one one, whichsomehow wasn't his first thought. After Joe
called nine one one, officers fromthe Kansas City Police Department and paramedics responded
to the apartment to attend to amedical emergency. Inside the arment, first
responders found two and a half yearold Stevie Osborne, covered in bruises and
unresponsive. Stevie was taken by ambulanceto Liberty Hospital in cardiac arrest. She

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was without a pulse for twenty minutes. Doctors determined that she would need emergency
surgery, so Stevie was taken byambulance to Children's Mercy Hospital in downtown Kansas
City in critical condition. There aneurosurgeon informed Stevie's parents, Gary and Abbey
that their daughter's injuries were not accidentaland were in fact inflicted by someone.

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She was rushed into surgery for acraniotomy, which is the temporary removal of
part of the skull to provide accessto the brain. However, Stevie coated
in the operating room, and despitemedical staff's best life saving efforts, including
CPR and defibrillation, Stevie was pronounceddead at one twenty eight pm on December
twenty third, twenty nineteen. Becauseof the nature of Stevie's injuries, staff

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at both Liberty Hospital and Children's Mercysuspected child abuse and made reports to DSS,
which immediately began an investigation into Stevie'sdeath. Stevie's funeral was held at
park Hill Baptist Church in Kansas Cityon Saturday, December twenty eighth, twenty
nineteen. Abby provided me with thewords she spoke at Stevie's funeral, which

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read as follows. Stevie is lovein the purest way, which is why
I want to start off by readingFirst Corinthians thirteen four through seven. Love
is patient and kind love is notjealous or boastful, or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and
it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice,

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but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses
faith, is always hopeful, andendures through every circumstance. Stevie's love is
so much more than all of thosethings, though. Stevie's love is beautiful
in the way she smiled, happy, in the way she laughed, Sweet
in the way she asked for hugsand kisses, Giving, in the way

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she always wanted to hold you andnot the other way around. Reassuring in
the way she would grab your faceand tell you you're so nice or you're
my best friend. Fun in theway she would run around chasing the dog
and play airplane. Adventurous in theway she wanted me to carry her up
the big kid's stuff at Penguin Park. Wild in the way she would run

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around the store and think it wasa game. High energy in the way
she was always ready for another vacation. Curious in the way she was always
getting into something, whether it wasthe cabinets, for chocolate chips or my
clothes doors. Helpful in the wayshe carried in groceries with me and tried
to dress me Independent, in theway she wanted to feed herself and get
herself on the potty, even ifit meant she had to do a complete

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three sixty. Comforting in the wayshe would rub your back when you cried
and tell you that it's okay,or lay her sweethead on your chest.
Strong in the way she would liftweights with me at the gym. In
hiring, in the way she gaveme the motivation to finish nursing school and
go into critical care. Contagious inthe way she lit up a room and

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immediately filled the room with positive energy. Magical in the way she allowed me
to feel her presence the other daywhen I couldn't sleep. After her funeral,
Stevie was buried in a tiny pinkcasket in the Whitechapel Cemetery in Gladstone.
Of her daughter, Abby later wroteon Facebook, I miss you telling
me to go to work and makemoney, and I miss your nana dropping

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you off at my work. Myco workers would help keep an eye on
you while I finished up charting.I loved sharing you with the rest of
my tribe. You were in lovewith my stethoscope, and I loved the
idea of you growing up to bea nurse like me. Gary's sister Kimberly
also later posted about her niece afterhaving three boys, I was so excited

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when you came to have a littlehead to put bows on, a reason
to buy pink. We finally hada little princess. You were so cute
and happy. But then I hadmy own little princess, and it made
me so happy to think she wouldhave an awesome older girl cousin, someone
to have sleepovers with, play andmake up and eventually talk about boys with.
But instead of all that, weare forced to celebrate your birthday without

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you here, And I hate that. I hate that you will never get
to learn to ride a bike.I hate that I'll never get to put
a band aid on your booboo afterfalling off that bike. I hate that
you will never lose your first tooth. I hate that you will never learn
to tie your shoes. I hatethat you will never have your first day
of school. I hate that youwill never know how much your cousins adored
you. I hate that your Mimihas five grand babies but can only hold

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four. I hate that you willnever know how proud your daddy was to
be your daddy. I hate thatyour Christmas presents are still wrapped under my
bed, and I hate that sucha perfect, innocent girl was taken from
us while there are monsters who remainhere. But I love that I got
to be your aunt, even ifonly for a little while. Daycare teacher
Bailey Bennian wrote on her memory wallon December twenty seventh, twenty nineteen,

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I'm so very sorry for your loss. Gary. We had so many good
memories together with Stevie. I willnever thank you enough for letting me be
a part of this beautiful little girl'slife. She is the reason I stayed
at the daycare as long as Idid. I will forever cherish the moments
of her running to me in themornings and evening saying good morning or goodbye.
I will forever cherish always doing herhair and you thanking me a thousand

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times because you couldn't figure it outyet. I love you both so much.
In addition to the Children's Division's investigation, Kansas City Police also investigated Stevie's
death. In March of twenty twenty, police announced that on February twentieth,
Stevie's death was ruled to homicide.They did not provide any further details about
Stevie's injuries or her cause of death. According to police spokesman Sergeant Jacob Bekina,

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they could not release Stevie's cause ofdeath because those details were part of
the ongoing investigation. We are hopefula case can be submitted soon for charges,
which will yield many more details.He added that they had identified a
person of interest, but they hadnot arrested or charged anyone in Stevie's murder.
The KCPD also issued a statement sayingthat they were still investigating Stevie's case

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in the hopes of submitting a casefile to the Clay County Prosecutor for consideration
of charges. The Kansas City Star, a local newspaper, only found out
about Stevie's death being ruled to homicidewhen they contacted the police to verify the
number of homicides that occurred in thecity in twenty nineteen, because the newspaper
maintains homicide data in the metro area. When the newspaper contacted Abbey for comment.

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She said her daughter was a sweetand innocent child who was about as
cute as they come. I firmlybelieve that if the most miserable person in
the world came in contact with her, she could bring them joy. She
was fun, We took road tripsall the time. She was my best
friend. She deserved a lot betterthan this. That was one of the
only scraps of media coverage Stevie's deathreceived, aside from a couple of brief

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articles in other sources also stating thatStevie's death was ruled a homicide after the
police final announced it, there hasbeen no other media coverage of this sweet
little girl's murder. I'll pause herefor a quick word from my sponsors.

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Also in March of twenty twenty,Stevie's father, Gary Lee Osbourne, received
a letter from the Missouri Department ofSocial Services Children's Division dated March twenty sixth,
twenty twenty. The letter informed Garythat the Children's Division had concluded the
investigation it began on December twenty third, twenty nineteen. The investigation was begun

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based on the allegation of child neglectagainst Abigail Jean Osbourne, and the letter
declared the department had made a preliminaryfinding of neglect by preponderance of evidence against
Abbey, as well as preliminary findingsof physical abuse and neglect by preponderance of
evidence against Joseph James Chilson. TheChildren's Division's report from the investigation included the

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following information, which I've paraphrased onlyslightly due to the constant repetition of the
party's full names. Abigail j Osbornedisclosed to Children's Division that she is a
critical care nurse at Saint Luke's Hospital, but primarily handled patience in cardiac distress.
Abigail admitted to Children's Division she hadzero training in neuro assessments, but
on the day of the holiday party, believed Stevie l Osborne had a mild

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concussion. By her own admission,Abigail treated Stevie's mild concussion with dramamine and
sprite. Abigail admitted to a socialworker at Children's Mercy Hospital that when Joseph
Chilsen became angry, he would punchthings. Abigail was aware of Joseph's violent
tendencies and after becoming embroiled in aphysical altercation where law enforcement contact was pondered,

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Still chose to leave her daughter,Stevie in the care of Joseph,
who was suspected of causing the deathof Stevie. After speaking with all parties
involved in this case, Children's Divisionhas determined Abigail did not seek medical intervention
for Stevie as stevie symptoms were indicativeof a serious medical condition. After speaking
with all parties involved in this case, Children's Division also determined that Abigail failed

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to protect Stevie by leaving Stevie inthe care, custody and control of Joseph
Chilsen, whom Abigail alleged physically abusedher. The report also found that Joseph
James Chilsen was responsible for Stevie's care, custody and control at the time of
the incident that ultimately caused her death, stating that Joe lived in the home
and often babysat Stevie when Abby hadto work. Another section of the report

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read Joseph Chilsen disclosed to Children's Divisionthat he noticed severe contusions on Stevie l
Osborne's ears, as well as herforehead and neck. Joseph also disclosed to
Children's Division that after noticing the contusionson Stevie the evening of Sunday, December
twenty second, twenty nineteen, heand Abigail j Osborne got into an argument
that escalated into physical violence. Josephis alleged to have become violent with Abigail

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by pulling her by the hair andthrowing her on the bed while she was
holding Stevie. Joseph stated to Children'sDivision this was an accident and denied forcefully
shoving Abigail onto the couch. Josephdisclosed to Children's Division that he and Abigail
discussed the event and made the decisionJoseph would move out of the residence within
a few days. The report wenton to say that Joe told the Children's

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Division that he thought Stevie's maternal grandpa, Dennis Morris, had caused the bruises
on Stevie's abdomen on December nineteenth whileshe was at her great Grammar, Virginia
Seller's house. He said he showedthe bruises to Abbey the next day,
but Abby didn't think they were serious. Joe also said when he baby sat
Stevie on the evening of December twentyfirst, she was throwing up, and

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he claimed he saw her trip overthe family dog and hit her head on
the tile floor. During the Christmasparty the next day, Joe said Stevie
was still throwing up, so hetook responsibility for changing Stevie's clothes every time
she needed it, claiming he wastrying to help Abby by preventing anyone else
at the party from changing Stevie becausethat supposedly makes By the time Joe baby

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sat Stevie again on the morning ofDecember twenty third, he said she was
still throwing up. Joe told theChildren's Division that he always told Abbey about
any concerns he had about Stevie,but that Abbey never took them seriously.
The Children's Division determined that Joe wasneglectful by failing to seek medical intervention for
Stevie for what was obviously a seriousmedical condition. Joe denied being physically abusive

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toward Abbey or Stevie, but theDSS report determined that Stevie's multiple injuries were
caused other than by accidental means,and were too severe to be the result
of spanking or other reasonable discipline whatexactly were those injuries. Stevie's autopsy was
conducted at nine am on Christmas Eveof twenty nineteen by doctor Altaf Hossain,
coroner and chief medical Examiner, atFrontier Forensic's Midwestmoor in Kansas City. The

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autopsy report stated, according to theinitial investigational information, the decedent was a
two year old white female child thatwas reportedly vomiting with abdominal pain on twelve
twenty three, twenty nineteen, whileunder the care of her mother's boyfriend.
The decedent reportedly became unresponsive and collapsedat her residence. Nine one was notified
and EMS services transported the decedent tothe emergency room. Upon arrival, the

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decedent was noted to have multiple contusionsof the head and abdomen. Once stabilized,
the decedent was an agonal breathing anddiagnosed with parietal and occipital skull fractures,
diffused subdural hematoma with mid line shift, and an abdominal abnormality. Despite
efforts, she was ultimately pronounced deadon twelve twenty three, nineteen at thirteen
twenty eight. According to doctor Hussain, Stevie was just over three feet tall

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and weighed thirty eight pounds. Theright side of her head was shaved due
to medical intervention, and the restof her medium length blonde hair was braided.
The report listed several injuries, bothexternal and internal. These included contusions
on Stevie's forehead, scalp, upperlip, lower chest, abdomen, pelvis,
both hands, right wrist, andlower left leg, as well as

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hemorrhages in the abdomen and the bowel, two skull fractures, multiple hemorrhages between
the skull and the scalp, anda massive subdural hematoma. Were bleeding on
the brain on the right side ofStevie's head, which caused a midline shift.
Otherwise, her body was that ofa normal two year old girl with
no bone fractures or abnormalities. DoctorHossain ruled Stevie's death a homicide caused by

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blunt force trauma to the head.The only reason I'm giving you this information
with the police refused to make itpublic is because the ongoing criminal investigation ended
when on January sixth, twenty twentyone, the prime suspect in Stevie's murder,
Joseph James Chilson ended his own lifewith a bullet in his father's bathtub.

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At that point, the Kansas CityPolice Department reportedly told family members that
Joe's suicide was as good as anadmission of guilt and that they would know
longer be pursuing criminal charges against Abbey, despite the Children's Divisions determination that Abbey
was also responsible for Stevie's neglect unlessthere was a note or a confession that
I'm not aware of, Joe's suicideis not an admission of guilt in any

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way, shape or form. Couldit mean he was guilty? Absolutely?
Does it necessarily mean that, No, it doesn't. As I mentioned earlier,
the investigation by the Missouri DSS Children'sDivision pointed the finger at both Joe
and Abbey for Stevie's physical abuse andneglect. Because of the division's findings,
Abby faces the withdrawal of her nursinglicense in the state of Missouri, as

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is her right under the law.Abbey decided to fight the division's ruling.
In April of twenty twenty, shefiled a civil lawsuit against Children's Division director
Jennifer Tidball and the Children's Division itself. Before the lawsuit could be decided.
In October of twenty twenty one,Jennifer Tidball stepped down as the director and
returned to the position of chief operatingOfficer. That did not change the direction

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of Abbey's lawsuit. During a longawaited bench trial that finally took place on
March seventh, twenty twenty three,before Judge Timothy Flok, evidence and testimony
were presented and the cause was takenunder advisement. According to spectators present in
the courtroom on March seventh, Abby'spaternal grandmother, Connie Morris, told the
judge that during the Christmas party onDecember twenty second, twenty nineteen, she

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didn't notice any bruising on Stevie andthat her great granddaughter did not throw up
during the party. This is indirect conflict with the previous statements of multiple
family members to police and the Children'sDivision, including Connie herself, that Stevie
was clearly bruised and vomiting. Atthe conclusion of the hearing, all parties

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were granted a month to submit findingsand facts and conclusions of law for the
judge's consideration. On April tenth,two twenty three, the judge granted a
joint motion for continuance, allowing bothparties until April to submit their respective judgments.
On April fourteenth, Attorney Elizabeth AllenComfort electronically filed findings of Fact,

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conclusions of law, and judgment onbehalf of the Department of Social Services Children's
Division. It does not appear thatAbby or her attorney filed anything either before
or after the deadline. As ofJune eighth, the judge has yet to
make a decision or schedule any futurecourt dates in the case. I'll pause
here for another quick sponsor break,and then you'll hear my conversation with Stevie's

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dad, Gary Osborne. What typeof person would you say Abby is?
She doesn't seem to have any emotionsabout really anything. Her emotions are always

(25:52):
a mystery to everybody involved, andso I never knew if things were going
well in our relationship, or knewif they were going poorly. I would
find out by her actions, neverby any sort of conversation that we had.
I don't know. It was likean impossible person to be with as
soon as we got married. Ourrelationship was pretty good before we got married,

(26:15):
but I was very young and verystupid. And I hate to say
this, but at the time,I was in love and I ignored so
many red flags right, and alot of things that I look back on
now and I'm like, Wow,if I had noticed that, maybe I
could have saved Stevie. Maybe Icould have You know, I live in
this constant state of what if,which, through therapy, Thank God for

(26:37):
therapy, I am not in aconstant state of what if, but it's
hard not to be when you thinkabout what you could have seen, what
you could have done, the worstcase scenario actually happened to you. So
I can completely understand that feeling ofregretting what if? What could I have
done? Differently? Then to touchon like the manipulative stuff. I get
this letter the day she tells methat we're going to separate. That says,

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I owe you X amount of dollarsto Children's Division already in child support.
It's like six months of child support. But the whole time she lived
with me, I was paying bills, I was taking care of her,
taking care of Stevie. It wasit was weird to owe back child support
for somebody that I've been providing forfor six months. But yeah, I
didn't know that we were separating.I didn't know that that's what we were

(27:18):
working towards. I thought I wasdoing the right thing in the relationship by
coming home from work and then eitheryou know, buying dinner on my way
home or making dinner once I gothome. You know, I wouldn't get
myself a drink or get Stevie anythingwithout asking Abby if she needed anything.
I thought I was doing the rightthing. So I thought the relationship was
going well. And then one dayshe told me. It was like,

(27:41):
hey, I'm I need you toget out of this house. You know,
we live here together, but you'vegot to leave because Stevie's bedroom is
here. And then she told meabout the divorce. She told me about
how I owed this much money inchild support, and I had no idea
what to do. You know,I panicked immediately, Like I called my
parents and I was like, hey, I think I have to move back
in with you. And then notlong after that, I get a call

(28:03):
from my dad and he's like,hey, there's a cop at our front
door for you, something about aboutAbby. Okay, So I get on
the phone with a cop and I'mlike, hey, I don't I don't
know what to do. I'm atwork right now. Can you maybe wait?
Can we reschedule? And he's like, no, I have to get
you this today. So I gointo my boss's office and I'm like,
hey, this is really embarrassing,but would you mind if I just sit

(28:26):
in your office and have a policeofficer come in? And thank god,
I had an amazing boss. KimRomo is my boss at Motion Industries,
and she pretty much told me like, you can sit in here, the
cop can come inside. You guyscan have your conversation. I'll leave the
office. It can be private.Nobody else has to know about it.
So she kept me from the embarrassing. My wife is finally a restraining order

(28:48):
against me in front of my coworkers. So that was thank you,
Kim Romo. So the officer showsup with this emergency expartee in hand and
he tells me. He's like,hey, you know they didn't have suffic
evidence to grant this ex partee,but you will have to appear in court.
So here's a copy of this expartey that failed. She said that
I had choked her in two thousandand fifteen. So after all of this

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happened, I guess Abby got marriedsomewhere in there. Yeah, so I
actually had met Corey a few timesat this point. I'd been to his
house to pick up Stevie a fewtimes, so I met Corey, but
I had no idea that they hadgotten married at some point. I don't
know. I don't know when theygot married. All I know is that
they were married sometime between me andwhen she started seeing Joe. Do you

(29:34):
know anything about her relationship with Joeor did you basically learn all about that
after the fact. I pretty muchlearned all about Joe after the fact.
We went trick or treating together me, Abby, Joe, and Stevie in
twenty nineteen October twenty nineteen, andhe seemed like a reasonable individual. But

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I also married Abby at the time, I thought that he was a decent
individual. Like out of all thepeople she had dated, Corey was the
only one that seemed to at leastbe somewhat of an adult and have his
life figured out. Corey had achild of his own. But Joe didn't
seem like he was going to bea harmful individual. But obviously hindsight twenty
twenty, did you learn after thefact anything about Abby's relationship with him or

(30:18):
other than the CPS letter was thatpretty much all you had the chance to
find out. The CPS Report ofthe Children's Division letter is when I found
out what I know today about theirrelationship, and I still don't really know
much about them too together. Iknow that when I met them, we
had gone costume shopping for Stevie togo trick or treating, and then we

(30:40):
had gone trick or treating together.What was Stevie dressed? Ask for her
Halloween costume? She was a littlebo peep. How did you find out
what was going on with Stevie goinginto the hospital that day? Yeah,
so I was at work. Iworked at a place called Unilever in Independence,
Missouri. I was on site thoughI worked for Motion Industries, but
in the storeroom at you leave herand I got a phone call from Abbey,

(31:02):
which is pretty unusual to get aphone call from her during the day.
And she called me at eight fiftyam on December twenty third, and
she said, Hey, Stevie's atLiberty Hospital. She's unresponsive. You need
to get there now. I madeit in about fifteen minutes, and I
think it's probably about a thirty minutedrive, and I called my mom while
I was on my way. Itold my mom, was like, I
don't know what's going on, butyou have to get there. Then I

(31:25):
get another call from Abby and shesaid, and I quote, I don't
know what's going on. I thinkshe's dead. You were actually there when
Stevie was taken in for surgeries atright, Yeah, So we started out
our day there at Liberty Hospital.I feel so bad for those people because
I showed up and I asked them, where's my daughter? They asked me
who I was. I told themwho I was, and I threatened them.

(31:47):
I was like, you'd take meto my kid right now, or
I will hurt you. And theydidn't know who I was, what was
going on, And all they knowis that this little girl showed up.
Now she hadn't been breathing for twentyminutes, and now there's this guy making
threats to people. There's some guythat shows up being violent, and so
they, I'm assuming, thought Iwas responsible for what had happened at first,

(32:07):
and they took me into a roomwhere I sat down and talked to
some police, and then my momshowed up and I talked to the police
with my mom, and they wereable to verify the timeline of the story
based on my story and Abbey's story, and so they found out that,
you know, I hadn't seen Steviesince Thursday morning when I dropped her off
at her Grandma Virginia's house. Andwhen I last saw Stevie, she didn't
have a single bruise on her.You know, I'd given her a bath

(32:29):
to night before, changed her pullups because she was potty training. So
I don't know how you wouldn't noticesomething like that if you were a parent
that gave a shit. And sowhen I had her on Thursday morning overnight
on Wednesday night, she was spotfree, no bruises, no bumps,
nothing out of the ordinary. Andso that's when they had decided to let
me, let me go see herat Liberty Hospital. So as I'm walking

(32:49):
back to see Stevie at Liberty Hospitalis when they decided that they can't you
do the appropriate life saving measures atthis hospital, she needs to go to
children Mercy Downtown. So that's whenthey took her to Children's Mercy Downtown by
ambulance, and we just followed theambulance to that hospital and at Children's Mercy
Is when they were going to dothe surgery. I walked in and a

(33:10):
doctor told me, I think itwas the surgeon to be honest. That
day, as a blur, thesurgeon had told me, He's like,
hey, you know, I'm reallysorry to tell you this, but this
was not the result of someone trippingover a dog or falling off of their
their toddler bed. That this wasdone on purpose, intentionally, that somebody
had hurt my baby on purpose,which I immediately assumed it was Joe.

(33:34):
And then I was immediately angry withAbigail because she put Stevie in that position.
What they told me and I satwith, you know, several different
hospital staff members and for the day, basically they let me go back.
They let me tell Stevie I loveher. And this is one of the
things that really cuts me deep,is that I gave her a kiss and
I told her that everything was goingto be okay, and you know,
h insight, everything was not okay. But without a pulse for twenty minutes.

(34:00):
I don't know much about the waythe body works. I'm not a
medical professional by any means, andso I thought so she didn't have a
pulse for twenty minutes, but shedoes now. So in my head,
I'm like, Okay, well,you know, someday I get to take
my baby home. Maybe not today, but someday. And another positive that's

(34:20):
going to come from this is Inever have to send her back to Abbey,
because she never wanted to go toAbby's house. Anytime Abby came to
pick her up, she was clawingand prying and trying to get back to
me. And anytime I picked herup from Abby, she was the happiest
baby in the world. So tome, what's happening. While it is
a bad thing, there is asilver lining, and that is that I

(34:42):
am never going to have to sendher back to that house. And at
some point I'm going to get totake her home, just maybe not today.
But not having a pulse for twentyminutes means your organs are not getting
the oxygen that they require, includingyour brain. And so the doctor came
in and told me after I hadsat for a while, He's like,
you know, we're getting ready totake her back for surgery, but I
want to tell you that she hasa midline ship. Well I didn't know

(35:05):
what that meant, but that meansthat she was hit hard enough that her
brain is no longer communicating with therest of her body properly. And then
they told me that she had noreaction to light in her eyes, which
I still to this day only somewhatknow what that means. But now I
know that it means that she's braindead. And so they took her back
for the craniotomy, shaved part ofher head to do the surgery, and

(35:30):
I think before they even started cuttingis when they decided that she's not going
to make it. Oh God,I'm so sorry. Yeah, they actually
took us in the room together.They asked for both parents to meet the
doctor in the room, and theyhad the I think they're called a hospital
chaplain. I don't somebody from thechurch, maybe that works at the hospital.
I'm not positive. I walk intothis room and Abby's in there with

(35:53):
the surgeon, and I walk inand they were waiting for us both to
be there to tell us. Butthey told me and told Abby that,
you know, unfortunately the life savingmeasures that we took they weren't they weren't
enough. You know, we're verysorry, but you know, Stevie's not
going to get to go home,and that to me felt like a little
misleading, and I'm like, whatdo you mean she's not gonna get to

(36:15):
go home, my cash. Iknow she's not gonna get to go home
today, like she's obviously very hurt, but like what happens now? They're
like, well, we're not goingto do the surgery. So I'm still
not understanding, like why are younot going to do the surgery? And
that's when they explained that no,sir, your your daughter's not gonna make
it. She's she's going to passaway. So I'm I'm as devastated as
any person could be and I thinkshould be. And Abby just dials her

(36:39):
mom. Mindy she calls her andwith no emotion, no tears, nothing
at all, just says, youcan tell everybody to go home, she's
dead. I feel stupid because Iwasn't understanding what they were saying, because
to me, I always try totake best case scenario, and my best
case scenario was that, Okay,yeah, don't get to go home today,

(37:00):
whatever, She'll get to go homesomeday. You guys just need to
continue doing all you're doing to makesure she's okay. I didn't know what
a midline shift was I didn't knowwhat having no pulse for twenty minutes does
to your body. I was ignorant, so he had to basically just say,
you know, she's had and soI didn't. I wasn't following in.
So that was one of the hardestconversations I think I've ever had to
have in my life. Well,I'm so sorry. I can't tell you

(37:23):
enough. It's just it breaks myheart even just imagining it, and you've
been living through it ever since.So I went and I planned the funeral,
and I was actually going to payfor the funeral, and my company
stepped in and had wrote a checkfor the funeral. So my work actually
paid for it from the Carlisle FraserFund, which is a trauma fund for

(37:43):
our employees, which was incredible.You know, it was not expensive.
Those little pink casket was pretty pricey, but my work took care of it
and it was really nice of themto do, and they all came to
the funeral and everything. But soI planned the funeral and I didn't know
what to do right. I didn'tknow if I should have Abbey there or
not, because I didn't know ifabby was guilty or not. The criminal

(38:05):
investigation took so long, and myparents were both very mad at me for
allowing her to show up. Mywhole family was pissed off at me for
allowing to show up. We lether family sit on the left of the
church. My family sit on theright of the church. I called the
Platte County Sheriff's office and told themthat they should probably have some cops here
because I knew that I wasn't goingto hurt anybody, but I couldn't guarantee
that my family wouldn't hurt anybody.Emotions were very high. It was an

(38:28):
open casket funeral. I just didn'twant someone to see Stevie and then immediately
get upset and then just attack someone. So I made sure there were cops
there. But here's my thinking behindit is that if she was innocent,
then Stevie deserves to have her momthere. Yeah, and if she's not
innocent, then I planned at thefuneral. I have to live with that

(38:50):
every day for the rest of mylife, and I'm fine with you holding
that burden. But I didn't wantto deprive Stevie of having her mom there.
If her mom was innocent, itwas Stevie's last day, you know,
or last day that I'd ever getto see her again, the last
day that anybody would ever get tosee her again. And I know she
was already passed, but I wantedit to be the best last day that
anybody could ever have. And yeah, my family was pretty upset with me

(39:10):
for allowing her to be there andallowing her to speak. Did you bury
Stevie with any of her special things? And did she wear a special little
outfit? That's sort of the storygets really irritating is that I told Abigail,
you know I took care of thefuneral, I want you to take
care of the burial. And soI find out about four hours after Stevie

(39:32):
was buried that they did a burialat Whitechapel and none of my family was
informed, so none of us gotto be there when Stevie was placed in
her final spot. Oh my god, did you know there was a DSS
investigation going on? I did onDecember twenty fourth, so the day after
she passed away, as when Ithink I actually may have been the first

(39:53):
person to speak to Children's Division.You know, I got the redacted report,
of course, so where they hada black out the stuff that was
used in the criminal investigation. ButI think I might have been the first
person to speak to her. Nameis Patricia with the Children's Division. I
spoke to her first, saying onDecember twenty fourth, the morning of December
twenty fourth, I know they spoketo a number of family members. Do

(40:15):
you know who they spoke with thatwere actually at that Christmas party on the
twenty second? Yeah, Actually,they spoke to everybody that was at the
Christmas party. I believe they spoketo Connie, Dennis, Carol Virginia.
They spoke to all the adults thatwere at the party, and did they
all pretty much give the same story, because I know there's been some discrepancy

(40:36):
since in what Abbey's side of thefamily is saying about occurred at that party.
Yeah, so the original stories fromall of them were that they had
seen the bruising on her forehead,ear and neck, and that they saw
her projectile vomiting. All of themactually told me an Children's Division that they
wish they would have called me becausethey knew some thing was wrong. So

(41:00):
it's in my opinion that everybody thatwas at that Christmas party should be charged
with failure to protect. But youhave to establish that you're a primary care
provider to be charged with something likethat. But they all failed my daughter
that day. Everybody that was atthat Christmas party failed Stevie that day.
The stories that they gave on thestand during the bench trial were vastly different

(41:22):
from this that they gave to Children'sDivision when the original investigation was conducted.
So I am a firm believer thatAbigail herself, Connie Morris, and Carol
Dixon committed perjury in court. AndI'm sure because our criminal system is flawed,
nothing will ever come of that.But I think they lie, you
know, they lied in court.Now kind of going back on what they

(41:42):
originally said to Children's Division, theysaid that they didn't see any of the
bruising on the neck or the ear, that yes, she had a bump
on her forehead, and some ofthem even changed the story from she had
projectile vomited six times two. Inever even saw her throw up. I
know that she might have thrown upone time. I play you from my
side of the story for a minutethat it was very difficult for me to
lose my daughter, but for mymom you know, me and my daughter

(42:06):
lived with my mom. You know, my daughter was very close to my
mom, and so my mom hadto not just lose Stevie, she had
to watch me go through losing Stevie. So I think it was probably more
difficult for my mom than it wasfor me. So when I think about
the other side of the family,you know, when I think about Abbie's
mother, Mindy, not only didshe lose Stevie, but she also had

(42:29):
to watch Abby lose Stevie. Butwatching Abby loose Stevie had to have been
a little weird because at least somepart of Mindy knows that Abby is responsible,
that Abby should have protected Stevie.So I think Mindy's in a very
weird position with Abby. And whatis your mom's name? Is she Stevie's
mimi? Yeah, Stevie's mimi.That is a valerie. She has a

(42:52):
memorial set up in her house,Is that right? Absolutely? Yeah.
We've got all of stevie sloths,We've got her bears, we've got all
of her pictures. You know,when you think about like a shrine for
people, this is definitely a shrine. I'm actually I came over here to
my parents house to do this interviewin Stevie's room today. So oh,
that's awesome. I'm so glad tohear that. So she liked slots,

(43:13):
she loved him. She actually,while I was working, I was a
customer service rap at a company thatdoesn't pay the customer service reps incredibly well.
But most of my money was goingto Abigail, and so the nights
that I had Stevie, I didn'thave a ton of extra money to do
stuff with. So we would goto five Below and we would just go
get toys. And one day shehad her little overalls on and she ran
into five Below and she grabbed apink sloth and a blue sloth and she

(43:37):
tucked him under each arm. Andshe didn't even want to pay for him.
She just turned around and started walkingtowards the door, found what she
wanted, and then turned on herway out. And so then she just
kind of started accumulating some sloth toys. And she loved Frozen and all of
her sloths and her Frozen toys,and I'm snuggled up to her olaf and
everything right now. So oh,I'm so glad you have that. I'm

(43:58):
glad you have the ability to dothat. I love it in here.
It is not the easiest place tocome sit down and and be, but
you know it's you feel really closeto her when you're in this room.
I bet so. After the funeral, you knew that there was an investigation
going on, I guess from dss'sside, and the police. Were the
police good about keeping in touch withyou about how that was all going.

(44:20):
You know, I like Detective Cooka lot, but as a parent who
just lost a child, there wasnot enough information and obviously they couldn't share
the information with me that they weregetting. But I never felt like I
knew or was in the loop aboutanything, and I just asked them that
if you're not going to talk tome about it, just do the best
job that you can. Got youreyes, cross your teas, and keep

(44:44):
me in the loop whenever possible.I don't want to say anything bad about
Detective Cook, because there's nothing badto say about them, but I do
wish that I was kept in theloop more. But I understand that there
was an ongoing investigation into a murder, and if I knew stuff, than
I could say stuff and I couldprobably mess up the investigation. But as
a parent who just lost a kid, I absolutely did not have enough information.

(45:07):
So they were investigating I guess afterthe March letter, they were investigating
both Joe and Abbey. Yes,yeah, so they had to prove that
she didn't hurt Stevie and then theyalso had to prove that he did.
But it had to have been animpossible task because the only explanation I've gotten
so far is that the amount offorce required to inflict the damage that was

(45:31):
done couldn't have been generated by Abby, and I don't know where the science
is to determine that. So yeah, that's where I wish I had more
information. Even today, I wishI had more information on how they determined
that Abby didn't hit Stevie, becauseknowing what I know now, I wholeheartedly
believe that she is capable of doingdamage and hurting Stevie physically. I just

(45:51):
I want to know how they determinedthat she didn't. I want to know
how they decided that it was Joe, because so far they talked about his
suicide as an admission of guilt,saying that he is the one that did
it. The only thing that Ihave to go on is that and I
don't know much about what it takesto bruise or break or anything, but
the cartilage on her ear was bruised, and apparently that is one of the

(46:14):
hardest pieces of a human to bruise. You have to be hit incredibly hard
to bruise cartilage. And so that'show they told me they determined it was
Joe and not Abby. How didyou find out what happened to Joe?
Yeah, so I think it wasJanuary sixth of twenty twenty one when I
got a call from Detective Cook.And this is going to be graphic,

(46:37):
but he told me that they wereresponding to a call from the morning of
and that Joe had shot himself.And I didn't know what to do,
and I didn't know what emotions tohave a note, it makes me sound
like an insane person to say thatI was relieved or even maybe happy.
I don't know that Joe hurt Stevie. I don't know if it was Abby

(47:00):
or if it was Joe. Iknow they told me it was Joe,
so I kind of just have totake the word of the police. That
must have been tough. When didthe police tell you then that they were
basically giving up on the investigation.So I never got a call from the
detective Cook that they weren't going togo forward with charges against Abbey. It
was when I started going around theKCPD homicide unit and I started working directly

(47:22):
with Clay County prosecutors. I startedcalling our victim's advocate, and I called
our victims advocate nearly every day fortwo years, and she never gave me
a call back. You know,she never answered my phone call. She
never called me back. I talkedto her so few times, and by
so few, I mean zero thatI don't even remember her name. After
I got nothing from her, Istarted going directly to the Clay County Prosecutor,

(47:45):
Robert Sanders, and there was oneday where he finally was like,
Okay, you know what, let'sget your family in here for a meeting.
Right So the court the courts hadbeen closed because of COVID for a
while, and you know, weknew that it was going to take forever.
So finally he was like, Okay, you know, I've done my
research. I've got an answer foryou, but I need you to come
into my office. And so Iwalk into his office with my mom and

(48:06):
my sister Kimberly, and I getthere and there are four armed officers standing
outside of his So I already knowgoing in that I'm going to get bad
news. So there's just this pitin my stomach where I know that they're
going to tell me that they can'tcharger, and verbatim, he said,
it's not illegal to be stupid,and it's not illegal to be a bad
mom. And all I could thinkwas, imagine if you put this woman

(48:27):
in front of a jury of herpeers. Imagine if there's another parent on
the jury. Imagine if there's anurse on the jury. They're going to
convictor of abuse and neglect resulting indeath, which in Missouri is a five
year five to fifteen year sentence.I just couldn't believe what they were telling
me. And you know, RobertSanders even said, we got the guy

(48:49):
that hurt your daughter, And allI could think was, No, you
didn't. You didn't get anybody.You didn't arrest him. Yes, you
were going to arrest him, butyou didn't know he took himself out of
the equation. Yeah, Joe,you know he killed himself. He took
himself out of the equation. Andso then to me, that immediately means
look more into abbey because somebody needsto be held accountable for this. But

(49:13):
Clayscuting office just acted like Joe's suicidewasn't arrest. They acted like they put
him in prison for life. Thatis so frustrating. I cannot imagine how
angry you were. Now. Yeah, I mean my parents, my mom
and sister know how angry where IVaders told me, you're not going to
yell at me in my office.I said, my daughter was murdered less
than five minutes from here, andyou're worried about being yelled at. And

(49:34):
that's when he asked the officers tocome inside and remove me from the building.
Not only he didn't understand, buthe also just didn't care, and
that that hurt more than anything thathe didn't care, and that, you
know, people in my county,in my city in Missouri are just okay
with children being murdered and then nojustice being given. I hate to say
it's all over the country, butit does seem to be less important in

(49:55):
some regions than it is in others. I'll take a moment here for one
last sponsor break, so I'll explaina little bit. So what they did,
Children's Division did their investigation and thenthey enter their findings, and their

(50:19):
findings that they entered were a preponderanceof evidence against Abigail for failure to protect
Stev. You know, she neglectedto protect Stev. So that puts you
on a list. It puts youon a list called the Child Abuse and
Neglect Registry. It's similar to alike a sex offender registry where you're on
there. If you go on there, you're on there for life. So
she's actually currently on the Child Abuseand Neglect Registry. But I think she

(50:45):
sued Children's Division or the State ofMissouri to take her name off of the
list. That's when they did what'scalled a Denobo review. And I think
the Dinobo review is where there's likea nursing board, doctors, legal professionals
that all go in and determine ifthis is correct, if this person should
be on the child Abuse neglect list. And then the bench trial that we

(51:06):
just had was to either have thefinal ruling upheld where she stays on the
list, or if they get theiroutcome that they want, then she'd be
removed from the list. Once it'sall wrapped up. If she remains on
the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry,then she will probably lose her nursing license,
and she should not be able tobe in a position where she is

(51:28):
responsible for the life of another person. She shouldn't be in a position where
she's a care provider at all.Whatsoever. That would be a victory for
my family. We would feel,we would feel like that is some sort
of justice. You know. Ithink if she ever has another child,
that the state should just go inand take that child from her, because
you know, there's no way thatshe's going to do better this time.
About the bench trial on March seventh, how did that go? What did

(51:52):
that look like? It's a littledifferent from a normal criminal trials since it's
civil. They did, you know, in a criminal trial, the criminal
gets to go for In the civiltrial, the State of Missouri got to
go first. I actually got tosit in the courtroom the whole time and
be present for all of the witnesses. The first witness with the State of
Missouri called was Patricia and she wasthe investigator from Children's Division, and she

(52:14):
gave her story and then they calledI want to say his name is He's
from Frontier Forensics. He did theautopsy photos, and then the last person
they called was an expert witness whois a doctor who specializes in child abuse.
I feel like the cross examination fromAbbey's attorney was bullshit. The lawyer

(52:39):
just came up with a bunch ofhypothetical scenarios and tried to get the expert
witness, the gentleman from Frontier Forensics. It's Jim Helton from Frontier Forensics.
His entire defense seemed to be hypothetically, if the child didn't have any bruises,
should you take them to the hospital. It seemed like he was only

(53:00):
trying to get them to say thatno, Stevie didn't need to go to
the hospital, but in this situationshe had bruises and was vomiting, that's
you need to go to the hospital. So her entire lawyer's defense was a
bunch of hypotheticals, and to me, they really fell apart. Her lawyer
crumbled the entire thing, and theydidn't have an expert witness. He didn't

(53:22):
have a good cross examination for ourexpert witness. A nice way of saying
it, that guy shit the bed. And if anybody ever needs a lawyer.
Do not get the lawyer that Abigailhad. I think that what happened
on March seventh was a good thing. Unfortunately, you know, I've had
to wait three and a half yearsalready, so two months doesn't seem so
bad. But they wanted thirty daysfor each legal party to submit proposed judgments,

(53:44):
and then thirty days after that thejudge would make a final ruling.
So by May eighth, we shouldknow if Abby is going to be left
on the scheld Abuse the Neglect Registry. And she admitted on the stand that
yes, she did fail to protectSteve on December twenty third, twenty nineteen,
So I don't think there's any waythat she's not going to be on

(54:05):
the list. She did admit thaton the stand. Wow, it took
the lawyers six times of asking didyou fail to protect Stevie on December twenty
third, twenty nineteen, and shewouldn't answer. She wouldn't answer, And
on the sixth time that she answered, After six times she was asked a
question, she finally answered and shesaid, yes, I guess I did
fail to protect Stevie on that day. Yeah, the state's lawyers were incredible

(54:29):
Patricia Wrothe from Children's Division was incredible, Jim Helton from Frontier Forensics, and
the expert witness from Children's Mercy.They all did a fantastic job. And
you'd come to find out that allof these people just do this job because
they want justice and they care forchildren. It just felt really nice to
have those people in Stevie's corner becauseher voice was taken from her because of

(54:52):
Abby and Joe and all of thosepeople are giving Stevie a voice. And
that's what I lived to do,is to give Stevie a voice. She
deserves to be heard. So herfamily didn't necessarily behave well at the hearing.
Yeah, so the bailiff actually removedme from the courtroom at one point
because I was nodding. The lawyersfrom the state of Missouri. We're asking

(55:14):
Abby, did you fail to protectTV on that day? And I started
nodding, and she asked again,and I nod harder than Connie Morris.
Abby's grandma starts yelling, can hedo that? Can he fucking do that?
But she's like losing her mind,and so I look at her NodD
some more because I'm a smartass.Then she goes, well, if you're

(55:35):
allowed to do that, then justwait till what I do to you out
loud in the courtroom. And soI make some very not nice hand gestures
at Connie. So I had tobe removed from the courtroom. I got
put in adult time out by thebailiff. He goes, hey, I
understand your dad and I know thatthis is an upsetting deal for you,
but you have to behave. AndI didn't tell you this before, but

(55:58):
the head nodding and the gestures,the facial expressions, it's not allowed.
He said it could be impacting thetestimony of a witness. And I was
like, hey, buddy, I'mI'm sorry. I know you got a
job to do. Just come getme, you know, and I'll stop
whenever you decided to let me backin the courtroom. And so I missed
about five minutes of testimony, butI got back in there before the judge
wrapped it all up. Abbey's sidebrought witnesses up, including Abby, Connie,

(56:21):
and Virginia the great grandmother. Yeah, they brought witnesses up and I
couldn't believe what I was hearing.They brought them up to perjure themselves.
Somehow Abbis convinced them to lie forher, and Connie's no surprise. But
I think Virginia lie for you waswild to me, because Virginia, to
me, always was very good toStevie and did everything right except for the

(56:43):
day that they went to that Christmasparty. She should have called me.
They should have told me what wasgoing on. They should have told me
their suspicions, because they communicated theirsuspicions to me the day after Stevie died,
but not the Christmas party day.And all it would have taken is
one phone call. You know,I would have been over the immediately to
against Stevie. There's no doubt inmy mind that I would have been there

(57:04):
in less than twenty minutes to takemy daughter out of the situation and could
have saved your life. Had somebodyhad five seconds of courage to take that
little girl out of that house,that's all I would have taken, you
know. It's all it ever takesis about five to ten seconds of true,
unimpeded courage to make a change.And they didn't have it, None
of them had it, So that'sall I would have taken it five seconds
to give me a call or fiveseconds when Joe said no, I'll change

(57:28):
her. If any of them wouldhave said no, let me take care
of it's my granddaughter, or youknow it's my great granddaughter, let me
change your clothes, all they hadto do was stand up to Abbie or
Joe for five to fifteen seconds,and they could have saved Stevie's life.
Right That I cannot stress enough iswhy I feel like telling these stories is
so important because it really brings homethe fact that saying something, anything,

(57:50):
can save a child's life. Itreally does come down to just have the
courage to stand up against your ownfamily member or whoever it is that's holding
you back from doing something about it. Absolutely yeah. I mean, with
Stevie being the most important thing inmy world, I've spent every dollar,
in every minute of my life,so in every measurable of a person's life
after Stevie was born, I spentall of it to spend as much time

(58:12):
with her as I could. Andany one of them could have earned a
lifetime of more time with Stevie hadthey done anything about it. It's heartbreaking
to think about, and they haveto live with that thought. What was
the situation with this hometown hero thing. She got recognized by Casey TV five
News for being a nurse during COVID, which any other nurse recognized for their

(58:35):
actions during COVID, I one supportthem as a hometown hero. But Abigail
is a monster. She's the farthestthing from hero that exists in our world.
And so, yeah, Casey TV, that all just came about when
Casey TV recognized her as a hometownhero for being on the front lines of
COVID when they didn't know what wasgoing on with the criminal case or the
civil case. They didn't know anything. I feel bad for Casey TV five

(58:59):
because my entire family called them andtore them a new ass. But they
didn't know the story of why Abby'snot a hero. They just knew that
she was out on the front linesof COVID, So they weren't wrong about
the other nurses being hometown heroes,but to call Abbey a hero was infuriating
for my family. We need totalk about Stevie a little bit more before

(59:22):
we go. What she loved andthe things she said and the things you
remember best about her and that sortof thing. Yeah, absolutely, Now,
just I'll rattle off a few.You know what comes to mind the
most is she was a little copycatand she did a lot of the things
that I did. She would justrun into a room and say hi baby.

(59:43):
I think one of my favorite thingsis we would watch Frozen together and
I would sing the Frozen songs becausewe had watched Frozen so much. But
the way she looked at me andthe way she looked at the TV while
Frozen was on, or anytime Oloffsaid I love warm hugs, or anytime
Anna was on screen. She wasn'treally a big fan of Elsa. She

(01:00:06):
loved Anna so much. I don'tknow. It was like every time I
looked at her is the way shelooked at everything. She loved everything so
much. One of my favorite Steviememories is of her eating her smashcake at
her first birthday. I just hadthis little purple Rocky Balboa. She just
got her arms up straight up inthe air with a purple face. It's

(01:00:27):
so good. And then I usedto be a really large person. I
was a soda drinker for a longtime. And I know that this is
not something that anybody should admit too. But when I had a soda on
the coffee table. Stevie would walkover and point at it, and I
would say, no, baby,you can't have that's that's daddy. She
would just say, but I loveyou, and then she would take a

(01:00:51):
drink and she didn't say please,She just said I love you, and
I let her have a drink,because how do you say no to that.
She knew gave what she wanted.At the time, you know,
I felt like, oh man,I really shouldn't let her have that,
But now I'm so glad I did. You know, she didn't have much
time in this world, and everyminute that she was with me and my
family she loved. So all ofthe mistakes that I made as a parent

(01:01:13):
by letting her have soda or lettingher awake my dad up middle of the
night because she's running through the housebecause she's not ready to lay down and
go to sleep, it's whatever.I don't care that I made those mistakes
as apparent, because my two anda half years with Stevie were amazing.
Every minute that we spent together wasamazing. She made the most of it,
and so did you, and that'sawesome. I'm so glad she had
that with you. Yeah. Sheused to carry my mom's cat, Charlie

(01:01:35):
around the house by his hair.Oh is that the big grand white cat
in that one photo. Yep,that's Charlie. She would just pick Charlie
up. And then sometimes you wouldjust walk over and you see Stevie laying
on her belly on the ground,but you don't see Charlie, and then
his tail just like we'll sneak outfrom between her legs. So she was
just like body slamming Charlie. Hemust have been a good sport. Oh.
He was so nice to her.He loved her so much. And

(01:01:58):
then she would eat like I usedto get the sandwich is called a gargange
one from Jimmy John's, and shewould just eat my sandwich from the middle.
She would ever eat from like theend of a sandwich like a normal
person. She would just eat rightfrom the middle of the Sandwich's room for
all that bread when you have sucha tiny tummy. Oh yeah. And
then of course, my memories withmy mom and Steve and Stevie and my
sister, her aunt Kimmy, werelike the best. We went to my

(01:02:21):
sister's house and she made her asnow white dress, and she'd put her
hair up in a ponytail because Ias a girl. Dad I tried,
but I sucked into an hair.And of course, you know, she
had all three of her cousins.They all got to play together all the
time, and you know, itwas it was fun. My mom,
Valerie, her Mimi. They wouldsit in the in the living room and

(01:02:42):
watch cartoons together and uh, youknow Frozen, even the part in the
beginning of Frozen where they're chipping awayat the ice blocks. She would just
be staring at me and my momand the TV and just in awe,
just amazed by what was happening becauseshe loved that movie so much. Are
you guys seeing this? Ye?Actually, is this really happening right now?
Oh guys. And there's a partthat I remember so vividly. It's

(01:03:04):
the clock where it's like and Iwould make that sound while we're watching the
movie and she would just start hystericallylaughing. And you know, there's just
so few memories overall, but there'sa ton in the short two and a
half years. You know, somuch time was put in with Stevie,
so much love and so much passionto be around her, and be with

(01:03:25):
her and want to spend every momentwith her. That there's so many memories
in two and a half years,but it feels like there's so few because
we only had two and a halfyears. Yeah, it's such a short
time in terms of time, butit's amazing those will be with you forever.
Yeah, And then I'll touch onone last one. And it was
downstairs that I sent you the videotoo of Stevie on my dad's dirt bike,

(01:03:46):
her Pap Paul's dirt bike, andshe just making the dirt bike sound
with her mouth and it is themost adorable little dirt bike sound I've ever
heard in my life. It isnot at all accurate, but it is
amazing. And that the end ofthat video, she says, Dad and
I watched that video all the timeand it just I love it, you
know. It's one of my favoritevideos ever. The hardest thing that I've

(01:04:09):
had to hear since Stevie pass actuallycame from my nephew. We were visiting
Stevie at her set a cemetery ather funeral plot and he asked me if
we put her in the ground soshe could grow, And I didn't know
how to answer it at first becauseit broke me. So that is like
at a break your spirit, becausethe innocence of a child is so adorable.

(01:04:30):
His only like frame of reference forplanting or burying anything is so that
it will grow. And to thisday I just think about that and I
think that like spiritually, absolutely she'sgrowing. Physically, she doesn't get to
so like she's growing in a sense. But I didn't know how to answer
that, And to this day nobodyhas asked me a harder question. Yeah,

(01:04:54):
I can't picture one that's wow andthat it's so deep too. Yeah,
And at the time he was likethree o four, Maybe it was
a really tough question from a youngguy. And I'll never forget that question.
Thank you so much for sharing somuch about her with us, and
I definitely will be glad to helpyou in any way I can to keep
Stevie's memory alive. Oh absolutely,And thank you again, you know,

(01:05:16):
for the platform. I will definitelykeep you in the loop without dacent.
Thank you so much to Gary forsharing so much with me and especially for
letting us know who Stevie was.My deepest sympathy goes out to Stevie's family,
who have no choice but to finda way to move on, whether

(01:05:38):
or not they'll ever see justice servedfor their little princess. According to Stevie's
obituary, on Monday, December twentythird, twenty nineteen, Stevie Osbourne,
cheerful princess and beloved daughter, passedaway at the age of two. Stevie
was born on April twenty eight,twenty seventeen, in Kansas City, Missouri,
to Gary and Abigail Osbourne. Shewent on to spill love and happiness

(01:06:01):
into the lives of everyone she evermet. Stevie had a passion for singing,
and she adored stuffed animals. Sheloved to watch Frozen and Lion King
while singing along word for word.Her beautiful voice will forever be playing in
our hearts and our minds. Shewas known for her infectious smile and compassionate
spirit. Stevie will be loved andmissed by many, but the light she

(01:06:25):
brought into everyone's life will forever becherished. Gary and his sister Kimberly shared
with me some utterly adorable videos oflittle Stevie, so I'm glad to be
able to share with you some clipsof her tiny little voice. Oh guessing
that hi baby? This is fromthe video Gary mentioned of Stevie pretending to

(01:06:54):
ride her papa's dirt bike. OHey, yeah, thank This clip features
Stevie having an adorable conversation with heraunt Emily. I love you. I

(01:07:15):
love you the most. Are younot crying? Now? New's not crying?
Are you a good girl? Yeah? Are you a good girl?
I yeah, a new bristowin.You are my best friends. Here Stevie

(01:07:38):
and her Mimi are making a videofor her aunt Kimmy. Say Hi,
Aunt Kimmy. Kimmy, did Imiss you and miss you? So?
I love you? Oh? Aveyou? You want me to send this
to Aunt Kimmy Kimmy? Where'd yougo? In a couple of the videos,

(01:07:58):
little Stevie got solly inaffectionate with herMimi. Oho zychie. I want

(01:08:30):
to end this episode with a sweetremembrance of Stevie by her aunt Kimmy,
who posted the following on Facebook onApril tenth, twenty twenty. I was
cleaning the carpets today and had tointentionally leave a stain. A stain in
your cousin's room that you made withthe cookie I told you to not take
to the bedroom. You did anyways, l O L, but now I'm
so glad you did because it isjust one more reminder that you were here.

(01:08:54):
We all miss you so much.A talks about you all the time
and never leaves out how pretty youwere. R says you are still his
best friend. M loves picking outflowers to bring you, and unfortunately their
baby sister has no idea of whatan amazing, beautiful, smart, and
silly cousin she is missing, butshe will. I miss making silly Snapchat

(01:09:14):
videos with you. My favorite oneis still the one where you had a
beard and you kept saying I'm apretty girl. Makes me laugh even just
thinking about it. I loved howmuch you loved your cousins. I loved
how happy you made your daddy.I loved that I got to plan both
your birthday parties. I only wishI got to plan so many more.
You literally were just this perfect littlegirl, full of love and happiness,

(01:09:38):
and though we did not get tohave you here long enough, I am
forever grateful for the time we had. Rest Well, Stevie, you are
so very loved and you will neverbe forgotten. My sources for this episode,
were ever Loved, The Associated Press, the Kansas City Star, forty
one k SHB official documents, theMissouri Courtscase dot net portal, and Stevie's

(01:10:02):
family members. That's it for thisweek. Join me next week for another
episode. If you like the show, please follow or subscribe to Suffer the
Little Children on Apple Podcasts, GooglePodcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Spreaker,
Pandora, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, oryour favorite podcast listening app, and please

(01:10:24):
leave me a five star rating anda positive review on your favorite podcast platform.
Visit the website at Suffer the LittleChildren Pod dot com. You can
support the show by visiting Patreon dotcom slash stlcpod, where you can become
a patron for rewards ranging from ashout out by name on the show to
bonus content and exclusive gifts. Youcan also support the show at ko dashfi

(01:10:46):
dot com, slash stlcpod. Followthe podcast on Facebook and Instagram at Suffer
the Little Children Pod and on TikTokat stlcpod. View photos ad to today's
episode on Facebook. For more storieslike the one you heard today, visit
Suffer the Little Children blog dot com. This podcast is researched written, hosted,

(01:11:11):
edited, and produced by Lane.Intro theme music is by Dreamnoe Music,
and AllMusic for the show is licensedfrom audio jungle dot net. For
more information about preventing or reporting childabuse, visit childhelp dot org or call
your area's child abuse hotline. Andremember, if you see something, say something.

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Episode 138: Stevie Osborn

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