Cold Case Files - The Punishment

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

Despite several mysterious and concerning clues, the drowning death of 6-year-old Sally Cheesboro is deemed a tragic accident. Over two decades later, Sally's sister is all grown up and determined to keep a promise she made to her baby sister.  Check out our great sponsors! Credit Karma: Right now, visit creditkarma.com/winmoney to open your free account and start winning Instant Karma! Klaviyo: To get started with a free trial of Klaviyo - visit Klaviyo.com/coldcase  Lifelock: Join now and save up to 25% off your first year at LifeLock.com/coldcase  Scott's Cheap Flights: Join for free at Scottscheapflights.com/coldcase and never overpay for flights again! Talkspace: Match with a licensed therapist when you go to talkspace.com and get $100 off your first month with the promo code COLDCASE Warby Parker: Try 5 pairs of glasses at home for free at warbyparker.com/coldcase  Progressive: Get a quote today at Progressive.com and see why 4 out of 5 new auto customers recommend Progressive!

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production, available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One. An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Use your best judgment. Sally Cheesebrough was six years old in March of 1978. She and her older sister Nancy lived with their mother and stepfather in Battle Creek, Michigan. Sally was in kindergarten at Post Elementary School, and Nancy, who was just a year older, was in the first grade. They both went to church and were members of Our Girls Club,

an organization that taught girls how to sew and cook. The sisters were close. They didn't have a lot of outside friends to talk with. On March 9th, the girls wanted to put on fingernail polish. It was clear, but it probably still made them feel fancy. Bonnie, the girls' mother, had told them to wait until she woke up. But the girls didn't listen. Nancy opened the bottle and applied the polish to her sister's fingers, and then her own.

Later, on that same day, an ambulance was called to their home. Six-year-old Sally wasn't breathing. Nancy had found her face down in the bathtub. This is Nancy. I just wanted to get her out, and I walked in, and she was laying face under the water. And I tried pulling her up,

and she was heavy. Real heavy. I don't think even at my age that I am now that I couldn't even pick her up. I screamed and hollered for Bonnie. Sally's obituary said that she had accidentally drowned

and that her parents had tried to resuscitate her. The girl was pronounced dead when she arrived at the hospital. Bonnie told the medic, Joe Arbick, that she had tried to resuscitate her. The girl was pronounced dead when she arrived at the hospital. Bonnie told the medic, Joe Arbick, that she had tried to dress her daughter before he arrived, a story that didn't make much sense to Joe. Just never made any sense because you had, you know,

it said she drowned, but she was clothed, and then her hair was dry on the inside and just barely wet on the out. The morning after Sally had died, the coroner performed an autopsy on her body. Interestingly, there wasn't any water in her lungs. A fact which didn't rule out drowning, but also didn't confirm it. Sally's cause of death was listed as undetermined. The accidental drowning of a child is a tragedy. But what makes this particular incident even more tragic

is that Sally's death wasn't an accident at all. She'd been murdered, and no one was looking for her killer. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. Seven-year-old Nancy Cheesebro felt a deep sense of guilt after her sister's death, especially after the funeral, when Nancy's parents told her to apologize at Sally's graveside because it was her fault that Sally was dead.

That day, she made a promise to Sally that one day she would hold their parents accountable. Nancy knew that Sally's death wasn't accidental and that she was now going to live alone with her abusive parents. This is Nancy. We would be pushed down the stairs, whipped with anything about, weeping little branches, anything grabbed. I've had so many high school emergencies with stitches

because of things being thrown at me. The girls had also been sexually abused. Sally and I would have to perform oral sex on them. Bonnie would tell us how to do it. Of all the abuse and punishments the girls received, they dreaded what they called the cold bath treatment the most. The bathtub, we would have to fill it up with nothing but cold water and lay down on the back. And sometimes we may be only in there for a few minutes, but days we've been in there for hours. Those would go on every week, five, six, seven times a week.

They would hold us under, push us down, make us stay down, yell, beat us. On the day that Sally died, she had taken the blame for using the nail polish and was being punished using the cold bath. Nancy's father told her not to tell anyone about the punishment. He told her exactly what he wanted her to say. That she was taking a bath and was playing with a toy in the bathroom and must have fallen or something, if that's all I know. And told me that if I didn't tell them this, that they would kill me. Nancy's life went from bad to worse.

Her parents began loaning her out for sex. She pimped me out to other guys. And one guy, she had a threesome with me and him and things like that. At the age of 12, Nancy was removed from her parents' home and put into foster care. But she never forgot her promise to Sally. Nancy Cheesebrough grew up and became Nancy Spaulding, an adult not under the control of abusive parents. In October of 1992, at the age of 21,

she made a decision to contact the police and to tell them the true story of her sister's death. I really wanted justice for Sally because I had promised that to her at her funeral. But I was looking at it realistically that it may never happen, that I would need to find it within myself. She spoke with Detective Dennis Mullen. She introduced herself by name and said that she needed to make a complaint

to the police department about her sister's death, that her sister didn't die accidentally. Nancy shared the story of the day Sally died because of the cruel punishment she received from their parents. She was present when this occurred and was a witness to a great, great part of it. And she needed to come forward and bring out the truth as to what happened that day. I thought she was straight up. There was a lot of pain and a lot of emotion in her voice,

and I believed her right after the first few minutes. Mullen went through the case file, but there was only an autopsy report and an accidental death notice. He was going to have to start from scratch. He decided to contact Sally's parents, and on March 16, 1993, he brought Bonnie, now married to a different man, in for an interview. Hey there. Bonnie, why don't you have a seat in this red chair? Bonnie, this is Detective Walters. How are you?

Bonnie Van Dam. Nice to meet you. They asked Bonnie to share what happened on the night Sally died. David couldn't get her in the bathtub, so I helped him put her in the bathtub, the cold water. And while he was ducking her, I held onto her feet. Bonnie explained that they weren't trying to kill Sally. She was just being punished. How many other times did you and David punish Sally like this in the cold water?

Quite a few times. Always the same? You held her and David ducked her? No. After Bonnie's interview, Detective Mullen contacted David, Bonnie's now ex-husband. But he denied any involvement and refused to speak with detectives. Mullen believed he could make the case for a terrible punishment gone wrong. But because there was no water in Sally's lungs, making the case for drowning would be extremely difficult. In July of 1998, Detective Mullen got a telephone call he wasn't expecting from David Walton.

Walton told the detective that he had become a Christian and wanted to talk about Sally's death. This is Detective Mullen again. I believe that he wanted to a Christian and wanted to talk about Sally's death. This is Detective Mullin again. I believe that he wanted to make things right. He wanted to make things right in his heart. Walton agreed to an interview at the police station. You're going to make a clean sweep over here today. I'm going to tell everything. That's what I came down here for,

is to tell everything. Walton what I came down here for, is to tell everything. Walton admitted to holding Sally's head underwater, but claimed that Bonnie was the one who was responsible for the little girl's death. He kind of blames Bonnie as Bonnie telling him to do it. Bonnie's directing things and he's responding to her directions. So did Bonnie do anything wrong, do you think? I think she very much did. What do you think she did?

By sitting there ordering, being a dictator. Mm-hmm. In order for the case to go to the jury, the investigators needed to be able to explain the lack of water in Sally's lungs. Four years later, in 2002, Calhoun County put together their first cold case unit. They decided that Sally's case was the first one they would investigate. This is investigator Bill Howe. Our heart went out to Sally and to Nancy when we read the case, and we just knew that this was a case we were going to go with. The team had the videotaped interviews from both parents and the autopsy report.

But the problem was, the two pieces of evidence seemed to contradict each other. They decided to consult Dr. Thomas Adams, a physiologist who specialized in the regulation of body temperature. They asked him a pretty straightforward question. How could Sally have been drowned, but have no water in her lungs? According to Dr. Adams, one possible explanation was a laryngospasm. It's an involuntary contraction of the muscles of the larynx that stops people from breathing. It's a similar response to what happens when you get a sudden blast of cold water and it takes your breath away. Sally was repeatedly dunked under the water.

She could have had a spasm and then been unable to breathe, so no water got into her lungs. Because the water was so cold, the combination of the two things could have caused her heart to stop. 85 degrees Fahrenheit is fairly well recognized as a dangerous internal body temperature. It's the point at which the electrical activity in the heart is no longer rhythmic. I think that cardiac arrest probably is what killed her so quickly. On May 20, 2002, Bonnie Van Dam was arrested and brought in for questioning. Okay, we need to do this for Sally. You need to be honest with me.

But I don't want to go to jail for something I didn't do. I didn't kill her. He asked me to hold her legs. He asked you to hold her legs? He asked you to hold her legs? Okay. And you said you were afraid of him. Why were you afraid of him? Because he was always beating on me, too. David Walton was arrested on the same day.

Both of them were charged with murder. Bonnie opted for a bench trial, which took place 18 months after the day she was arrested. She was being tried under the malice murder statute that was in effect in 1978, meaning that for a defendant to receive a guilty verdict, the evidence must point to a specific showing of malice. This is prosecutor Jeff Cabot. Bonnie Van Dam had to know that her holding Sally's legs while David held her in the bathtub that night were going to result in death.

That was a problem. We knew it was going to be a problem. Investigator Howe explains how the evidence was interpreted. The entire trial rested on one letter of one word. She said in her taped interview that she knew what she did could have killed Sally. The issue, if she had said she knew what she had done would kill Sally, the judge said that he could have found her guilty. Yet you directed her to get in the tub,

even though you were afraid it could cause some kind of damage to Sally, including death? Yes. Bonnie was acquitted, and six weeks later, David Walton's trial by jury began. This is prosecutor Jeff Cabot again. It's like you want to put them there in that bathroom as David Walton is dunking Sally's head under the water in that water that's, you know, 50 some degrees over and over as she begs him to stop. David Walton was convicted of second-degree murder and will be in prison for the rest of his life. Investigator Bill Howe feels like Walton was convicted of second-degree murder and will be in prison for the rest of his life. Investigator Bill Howe feels like Walton's conviction was only half of a win.

Makes you feel that justice is done, but only halfway. Bonnie will never pay for her crime, at least on this earth. After 26 years, Nancy finally feels like she was able to keep her promise. Today when I was standing there, I was remembering some good times with just Sally and I. But outside of my parents, there were some good times when we were together. Today I have closure. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings,

produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions

and is hosted by Bill Curtis. You can find me, at Brooke Giddings on Twitter, and at Brooke the Podcaster on Instagram. I'm also active in the Facebook group, Podcast for Justice. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at AETV.com slash real crime.