My book is a true story of a criminal filed against Brooke Skylar Richardson, a Carlisle, Ohio teenager who was accused of murdering her newborn in 2017.
Authorities said that Skylar, an eighteen-year-old high school honors student and cheerleader, secretly gave birth to her baby girl, hours after her senior prom. She subsequently killed, burned and buried her in the backyard of her family home. Skylar said that her baby was born dead and she did not burn her baby.
Warren County, Ohio Prosecutor David Fornshell grabbed onto the narrative of the burned baby and charged her with aggravated murder as a special felony ensuring that if she was found guilty she would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Along with murder, Skylar was charged with manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
I spent three years reporting on the case and I am the only reporter who interviewed Skylar. I found her to be a traumatized, scared teenager who was struggling with eating disorders, was a victim of a sexual assault and was the target of relentless bullying by a group of girls in her school.
I spent a lot of time with her and I witnessed her grief at the loss of her baby. I saw her wrestle with her guilt of not taking care of herself and exercising excessively to lose weight.
The burning of the baby accusation took the story nationally and the case dominated headlines worldwide. I never believed that she burned her baby.
I believed Skylar was innocent and I was certain that she was not aware that she was pregnant because of her eating disorders. Her weight fluctuated from 90 to 140 pounds and her baby was likely growth restricted and was born dead.
I watched the media outlets and social media attack her and demonize her. I chose to avoid sensationalism and instead I told the story from her perspective. Her attorneys fought for her for three long years and she was ultimately acquitted.
The defense experts proved that the baby was likely growth restricted and was born dead.
I was inspired to write the book because I wanted to highlight the wrongdoings in her case. I wanted to stand up for injustice. I was outraged by the behavior of the police. The detectives in the case used an aggressive method of questioning called the Reid technique to coerce Skylar into confessing that she killed, burned and buried her baby.
The Reid technique is so unethical that several law enforcement departments have stopped using it. Using the method, the police told her that her story was true but they know what happened and they break her down until she agrees with them.
They question her for eight hours on two different days and they tell her that she does not need an attorney. Watching the video of the innocent, vulnerable teen being coerced into a confession made me sick to my stomach. Her crying was heartwrenching and she repeatedly asks for her mother.
The burning of the baby was a horrible mistake made by the forensic scientist hired by the state of Ohio. She had initially just eyeballed the baby who was blacked because she had been buried naked and the mud had set into the baby’s decomposing body, coating it with a black sheen.
The scientist tells the state that she is wrong and that the baby was never burned. Prosecutors stuck to the false story that the baby was burned and never took that back. They said it over and over again and they repeated that fact at trial.
The unfairness and the injustice of it made me angry.
I didn’t think of a target audience. I believe that anyone who is interested in justice and true crime would be shocked at the way this case played out publicly. But I do want young women to read it because the issues of sexual assault, bullying and eating disorders would be a cautionary tale.
Today, Skylar wishes that she had handled it all differently. I wish that young women see the dangers of eating little portions to look perfect as a trap set by the impossible standards of society.
I want my book to read about the wrongdoings in the justice system. If Skylar’s parents didn’t use their savings, their retirement funds and all their assets to get her high-profile lawyers, she would likely be sitting in jail.
If the school had intervened in the bullying, Skylar would not have had low self-esteem and lack of confidence issues.
Teenagers need to be able to seek help. Skylar didn’t and her life went from her goal of going to college to study psychology to having her life put on permanent pause and being severely ill while waiting for her trial.
About me: I have been a reporter for twenty-seven years. Through my work, I have focused on telling human interest stories of women, minorities and those who rarely have a voice.
My first big exclusive on the Brooke Skylar Richardson ran in
Cosmopolitan magazine and I won the National Headliner Award.
My book is available on Amazon
