Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Teen Babysitter Murdered 4-Month-Old Baby While Mom Shopped

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Carl Alesbrook was 16 in January 2022 when he was left to care for four-month-old Elijah Shemwell when his mother went to the store. Elijah was not breathing when his mother, India Shemwell, returned from the store, according to Derbyshire Police in the UK. Alesbrook was convicted of murdering Elijah this year and Shemwell is serving time on other charges. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at police interviews of Alesbrook in the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Hello, you all right? Sorry to bother you. Are we all right to come in? That's Carl Aylesbrook as police ask him about a baby in his care who stopped breathing. Caught like he was trying to catch his breath instead of actually breathing. And then he just stopped. Now Aylesbrook has learned his punishment for killing that baby. I have videos and details from the sad case of Elijah Shemwell. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

In January 2022, Carl Aylesbrook was a 16-year-old boy who was left to care for a four-month-old baby. That four-month-old Elijah Shemwell was a beautiful baby boy. They called him Eli for short four month old babies. They sleep, they eat and they cry and they can be really fussy, especially if they are teething. Eli was the son of a woman Carl knew, but not very well. Her name was India Shemwell. Police in Derbyshire in the UK say India went to the store

on the evening of January 2nd and left Eli with Carl Aylesbrook. India was 23 and as I told you, Carl was 16. Surveillance video showed India walking to the store and then paying for items while she was there. Then India arrived home and baby Eli was sick. His breathing was distressed. His brain starved of oxygen. He had a heart attack. Eli died three days later. Shortly after Eli was taken to the hospital, police interviewed Carl Aylesbrook. Take a look. Hello, you all right? Yeah. Sorry to bother you. Are we all right to come in? Yeahmwneud â... Ie. Ie. Mae'n ymwneud â... Ie. Ie.

O. Mae'n ymwneud â... Ydych chi'n ei hun? Ydych chi'n unig arall? Neu, mae'r arall ar gyfer ysbyt. Roeddwn i'n bwriadu mynd i fy mhrofiad. Mae'n ymwneud â'r tŷ. Ie.

Beth ydych chi'n ymwneud â'r... Oherwydd mae gennym ni... Beth ydych chi'n ymwneud â'r... Ie. Nid. Rwy'n ymwneud â'r... Ie. Nid.

Rwy'n ymwneud â'r... Rwy'n ymwneud â'r... Rwy'n ymwneud â'r... Rwy'n ymwneud â'r... Ie. to my aunt's house. Okay what relation are you to the couple? We've got none. I'm practically in his name. So you're the mum's friend? Like her dad. One two seconds. We've got minimal information about names of people so we don't know who's who at the minute. Indy is the kid's mum. Yeah, so she's gone to the hospital with baby Eli. Now there you can see that Carl says he really doesn't know Indy well at all. Carl Aylesbrook then describes how Eli became ill. He had been crying because he was teething. Surveillance video showed Indy Ashamwell walking to the store and then paying for items at the cash register. She was gone for an hour or so.

And he was practically screaming for a good hour and a half. And then he kind of like went to, it was like, it was like a conscious state, but it wasn't. So like his eyes were partially open, but if you lifted his arm up, it just dropped. So he was like, but he was also like, he was breathing. So he was like, he was also like he was breathing so he was like there but he wasn't. And kind of just gave him time to come back round, let him go back to sleep and then he was fine. He did it again like earlier on and then... What sort of time did you notice that it was a bit like that?

I wouldn't really say myself, I'd say maybe it was no better time because I practically woke up a couple of minutes before we started because she went to shop. Do you remember what time you woke up then or? Roughly I'd say about half seven, eightish. Okay, so this is... quite late yeah and then yeah i mean she came upstairs from well coming through and he just kind of went back to a drowsy state but also instead of like with the breathing it was a bit more difficult like he was kind of to catch his breath instead of actually breathing and then he just stopped and you say indy went to the shop yeah okay so did she leave knowing that he was obviously no she in distress a little bit she came back like before that happened right okay

i'd say about literally 30 seconds before that happened. I want to tell you about Upside. It's a free app that will get you cash back on things like gas, groceries, and restaurants. This is real cash back, money that appears in your Upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account. I used Upside when I went to Dunkin' Donuts for a cup of tea recently. I claimed an offer for Dunkin' on the app, paid as usual using a credit card and followed the steps, and I got cash back. It's so easy. You can also use Upside at places like Shell, Exxon, 7-Eleven, Taco Bell, and that's just to name a few. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan the QR code on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code crime fix for extra cash back. So Carl

Aylesbrook said that Eli became ill right after Eli's mother returned home from the store. The questioning continued. When she was at the shop and you saying you was asleep, who was looking after? He was asleep himself. He went and made me cry. Right. Okay. So there's no one actually supervising him at that time right okay so i've got this straight then so tonight you've been asleep yeah how was eli before you've gone to sleep it was all right i mean he had a bit of like a bleeding gum, but again, put that down to two feet because child teething is quite regular. So we kind of just like cleaned his gum, stopped it from bleeding, fed him, put him to sleep

and then he was practically all right until about eight. Carl Aylesbrook described what happened in the time that India was gone. So you said you were watching Netflix. He was fed and put to sleep about half eight. So what happened between half eight and ten o'clock when, at what time do you think you fell asleep? Probably in between that, so about nine, half nine. And was that in the bedroom, not in the same room as...

No, that was in the living room, honestly. So you fell asleep in the living room? Yeah. Yeah. And is that where Eli was? No, he was in the bedroom. He's got like a little, like a swing-type chair. Right, OK. The conversation then turned to what happened when Carl Aylesbrook said he woke up. Eli's mom, he said, was still at the store. So talk us through what you did when you

woke up. I woke up, went and checked on Eli just because he was crying. I seen that she wasn't in the bedroom with him, so I came in here to get my phone because it was on charge and messaged her to see where she was and then I went and checked on Eli. As I was checking on him, as I got back in the bedroom Indy came back and as she came back he decided to go into like a drowsy form and about ten minutes after that, he just stopped breathing. So then it kind of just, we ended up doing, taking turns doing CPR for about 30, 45 minutes until the ambulance came. Gosh, that must have been awful for you.

Mm. 16, first time doing CPR on a person, never mind a child. Mm. Police then walked through the house, which was pretty cluttered. Storbritannia Now you probably noticed that the officer went into the bedroom and inspected that swing. Carl said that Eli was in that swing when he went to check on him. During this time, Eli was being treated at the hospital. The officers continued the conversation with Carl Aylesbrook. He said he had a joint earlier in the day when officers asked whether he had used any drugs. Obviously, we don't know what's going to

happen with the let all on. Obviously, we hope that the bad's going to happen. But obviously as a police we have a duty to investigate what's happened, whether that be, you know, hopefully he'll be okay. Yeah, hopefully that's it. Hopefully, obviously we all hope that, but we have to prepare for all eventualities so we just need as much information as possible. So what I'll probably do is I'll go out to the car, and I just need to speak to my superiors about what you've told us and see if we need to know anything else or what we need to do next. Okay? You going to remain?

Yeah, I'll stay here. Yeah, that's fine. Carl Aylesbrook then went downstairs and outside to smoke a cigarette. He talked about how the year was off to a really bad start. It's been one hell of a start of the year already. I had two fakes, so I ended up having codeine to try and numb the pain of that, and then I ended up throwing that off at three in the morning on the first night of the year. And then the second night, as a kid. Hello.

My phone is probably going to die, Mum. Hello. Sorry, Mum. Yeah, my phone didn't work when it started loudspeaker. My phone's more than likely going to die. Later, officers ask a question that will become very important in the investigation anyone else been here today no so other than there's only been you indeed here all day you've been out at all uh yeah i've been to the shop and i've also been to petrol station three days after this eli dies and the investigation ramps up.

An autopsy reveals that Eli died as the result of a serious brain injury that the pathologist says is the result of Eli being shaken and that he suffered broken ribs in the days before he died. Police believe Aylesbrook shook Eli while India was at the store. More than a year passes and police go back to interview Carl Aylesbrook in January of 2023. They've had time to examine phones, social media accounts and more. The detectives confront Carl Aylesbrook. Have you seen that video before? I'm pretty sure he showed it to me last time. We didn't. It was either that or it was the one of Indiay raising his arm up and then tracking on the bed.

Yes, it's that one. Very similar, but it was recorded the same day. Okay, so when do you think this is recorded? Same day as the last one. The detectives then turn up the heat a little bit more on Aylesbrook. Is there any explanation you can give for the condition that Eli is in, in that he looks like he's not with us, his eyes are virtually closed, he is gasping for breath.

The questioning then turns to photos that Aylesbrook sent to India that night. There's an image sent at 21-29-47, which is deleted. You send it to India, but it's then deleted. Do you know what that is? Do you recall what that is? No, I don't. Okay. And then there is an image that is accessed and modified on Snapchat which is similar. See this one here? Do you remember doing that? No. So your phone goes very quiet for seven minutes and two seconds. There's no activation on your phone at all. Do you remember what you were doing at that point?

No. I was being on the phone in the first place, but no. Okay, do you remember being concerned about Eli at that point? Were you concerned about Eli's crying at that point? So the activity on the phone continues. India is using her phone as well. Do you recognise this image, Carl? Do you know who that's supposed to be?

India responds, looks like you and Eli. This next part is pretty telling. Watch the body language. Okay, do you remember being concerned about at that point? Were you concerned about Eli's crying at that point? Carl Aylesbrook does not answer the question, and you see him with his arms crossed. The questioning continues. So the activity on the phone continues. India is using her phone as well. Do you recognize this image, Kyle?

Do you know who that's supposed to be? India responds, looks like you and Eli. And take a look at this exchange. You confirmed that you sent a message saying, where are you, to the police officers. This was a lie. There is no message saying, where are you. We have interrogated your phone and that is not confirmed on there. What do you have to say about this? You repeated the same account on subsequent police interviews in that you were asleep in India's flat on the 2nd of January and that you were not aware that India had left the flat.

You were also asked to confirm your previous accounts today on interview. And again, you initially maintained the same account of being asleep and then changed this account today when you were presented with evidence to state that you now cannot remember. What do you have to say about that? I'll say you're boring, love. Carl Aylesbrook was convicted of murdering Eli at a trial earlier this year. Prosecutors said that he squeezed Eli so hard that he broke his ribs while shaking him. India Shemwell is serving

a three-year sentence for cruelty to a person younger than 16, she pleaded guilty to the charges. The lead detective said in a statement, Carl Aylesbrook, for reasons that only he knows, decided to shake Elijah, causing him a fatal brain injury. While only 16 at the time of the incident, he can have had no doubt about the potentially deadly force he was using on Elijah. Elijah's final hours would have been unbelievably painful and, as a father, it is inconceivable how anyone could behave in such a way to a defenseless child of just four months. The detective also had harsh words for India Shemwell, who left Eli alone with Carl Aylesbrook. While only Aylesbrook is responsible for Elijah's death, his mother, India Shemwell,

was quite simply an appalling mother who was more concerned with her sexual relationships and drug taking than ensuring the safety of her child. Aylesbrook was sentenced to life in prison, but can be eligible for parole after serving 14 years. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.