Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Faith healing parents jailed after newborn’s death

Episode Date: June 6, 2017

Two Oregon parents face murder charges after one of their twins died hours after her birth. None of the Followers of Christ church members at the home where the babies were born called 911 for help after the girl stopped breathing, according to investigators. The mom’s sister is already in prison for the death of her baby under similar circumstances. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss this case, as well as the story of Josh Duggar, the former reality TV star who wants police to pay him for the release of information about his alleged molestation of children. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. from medicine and medical treatment. Parents who rejected medical treatment for their sick children in favor of faith healing are now charged with murder and criminal mistreatment. 24-year-old Sarah Mitchell and 21-year-old Travis Mitchell. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Sarah gave birth to twin girls at her parents' home in Oregon City. One of the girls developed breathing complications, but detectives say because the Mitchells and the family believe in faith healing over medicine, nobody called 911.

Three midwives were at the house when the kids were born. The little girl died just a few hours after birth. The state medical examiner says there's no guarantee she would have lived, but at least would have had a chance with medical treatment. Another faith healing couple charged with murder. Now, according to reports in Oregon, followers of Christ Church, they are known for deadly adherence to the practice of faith healing.

And a very young couple who are part of that church are now facing murder charges because they chose prayer over doctors. Now, many people will argue this infringes on freedom of religion, which is in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights. However, child advocates and victims advocates disagree. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. And yet another baby is dead, according to the Oregonian. Investigators state the baby was having trouble breathing

right after she was delivered at home, the home of Sarah Mitchell's parents near Oregon City, nobody bothered to call 911. The surviving twin, Evelyn, and let me tell you, having twins is a tricky thing, I know. I and Lucy, my daughter, almost died in childbirth. All three of us were in the hospital for a very long time. The surviving twin in this incident, Evelyn, was later taken to Dornbecher Children's Hospital in Portland. I'm not sure and I can't understand the reports as to who has custody of the surviving

twin. So they took one twin, Evelyn, to the hospital while the other baby dies. A so-called church elder named Carl Hansen contacted the county medical examiner to report the baby's death nearly two hours after it happened. Now, I'm learning this from search warrants in the case. The county deputy medical examiner responded, stated, it was very common and, in fact, the norm, his words, not mine, the norm for followers of Christ's church member to call the medical examiner directly when someone in their church passes away. This whole thing has me beside myself because I'm a believer. I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud of it. I'm a believer. But, you know, let me go to the Duke. Alan Duke also joining us today, our co-producer Jackie

Howard. Alan, I mean, maybe I'm misreading the scripture, but you know, you pray to the Lord for help. And there's your phone sitting there where you dial 911. You can get an ambulance. You can get EMTs. I mean, what more does the Lord have to do for you, for Pete's sake? Yes, providing the wonderful hospital down the road and the doctor. You know, well, you know better than anybody I know that when you have twins, you've got to be in a hospital because they're going to be generally premature. I mean, this baby was three pounds and some ounces. What did Lucy weigh in at? Two pounds or something? Lucy weighed two pounds. John David, this is crazy, too, because we were in an awesome hospital. We're set to give birth.

Jackie, I don't know if you know this story. I was set to give birth at Mount Sinai in New York. And I had been going there. I came down to visit Atlanta, see David, my husband, and my parents for the weekend. And I gave birth. It was an emergency cesarean, and I went to Northside. Let me tell you, that place was like the Taj Mahal compared to anything I had seen. I couldn't believe it when I went into their labor and delivery unit. We had been tracking John David and Lucy and their growth seemed normal, but what they didn't know is while Lucy's skeleton was the right size, she only weighed two pounds. John David was getting

all of the nutrition. He was five pounds. And when I gave birth, golly, I had blood clots to my lungs. I had about 40 pounds of liquid on me. It was just incredible. Little Lucy almost didn't make it. And that is with the best care in the world in a NICU unit, much less at home for Pete's sake, Jackie. It's amazing to me that anybody can look at what has been given to us as a country and not understand that while God is a huge place in our life and our world, he also gave everybody else gifts too, and knowledge to the doctors, facilities for people to build. So it's hard for us to understand why people make the choices that they do. Well, you know, I have Christian scientists

in my background, and they don't believe in, I have Christian scientists in my background. They don't believe in going to the doctor, including my mom. She was raised Christian scientist. We're all Methodists now, and we go to the doctor. But I'm not saying don't have your beliefs. Those are your beliefs. But inflicting that on a baby and not taking it to the hospital when you have a duty. I mean, child deaths have plagued the church for years.

And the Oregonian reports, members, quote, believe the sick will be anointed by elders and their faith will heal all elements. Death, if it comes, is God's will. That's what they say. I would let the person choose that for themselves. And that is why the law steps in. The law steps in when you are dealing with children because they don't have the ability to take care of themselves. And you rely on faith-healing parents. And they die. The sheriffs are investigating right now an Oregon couple whose infant daughter died of breathing complications hours after she was born. Sarah Mitchell, the mom, gave birth to two twin girls at her parents' home there in Clackamas County.

Okay, that's what we know. The husband, Travis Lee Mitchell, and Sarah are members of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, and it is known for practicing faith healing and rejecting medical care. In all modern medicine, they choose prayer and anointment with oil, which to my understanding, I've never been anointed with oil. I think it's when you rub oil on the person. Is that what that is, Alan? I think some holy oil. What is holy oil, number one? What is holy oil? I guess whatever in your religion you decide is holy. I'm asking a question of you, though. You're the expert on having twins. At what point should you know that you've got twins coming

and it's going to be high risk? It should be pretty early, but maybe these parents didn't even get prenatal examinations. You know what? That's a good point. Yeah, that is a really good point. I don't know if she knew they were having twins. But, you know, fairly early on, you know it. I'm sure by month three or four, I knew I was having twins. Because a doctor told you or just because you figured it out? Yeah, you can't just look at your stomach and figure it out. A doctor had to tell me.

Now, there's a former member of this church, followers of Christ Church, Susie Shoemaker, and she is speaking out. And she is saying that scriptures tell them not to put faith in doctors. She left the church in 99 and married a non-member. She said her children were born in hospitals. She takes them to the doctor. But within the church, that is not allowed, and people are shunned for it. You know, it's amazing how peer pressure, when you hear the words peer pressure, you think of high school students. These are adults that shun going to the doctor because of peer pressure in their church.

What? I mean, and you put that over your child? But if you look at the pictures of these parents, they're very, very young. They don't look like they're hardly out of high school themselves. They're 21 and 24. We know that's not an excuse with Nancy because that's generally the age of people who have children. We had this case a couple of weeks ago where the baby was in a crib and a rat started chewing on this infant. And by the way, that child is doing okay, I'm told now. But they were 18 and 19. But age is no excuse because just traditionally, that's the young people. It's the young folks who have the babies. I want to pause and thank our sponsor today, Zip Recruiter. It's awesome. And if you're hiring, are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the very best candidates? Well, with Zip Recruiter,

you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with one click. Then their technology matches the right people to your job better than anybody else does it. I'm all for people getting hired. I'm all for people finding jobs and working. This is why ZipRecruiter is different. Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter does not depend on candidates finding you. It finds them. In fact, over 80% of jobs posted on ZipRecruiter get a qualified candidate in just 24 hours. That's pretty incredible. No juggling emails or calls to your office, you screen it, you rate, and you manage the candidates all in one place with ZipRecruiter's easy-to-use dashboard. Find out today why ZipRecruiter

has been used by businesses of all sizes to find the most qualified job candidates with immediate results. And now, anyone listening to our podcast today that posts on Zip Recruiter, you do it for free. Repeat, free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. One more time, try it free. Free. Find the person you're looking for. Hire somebody today. Get them working. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter, thank you for what you are doing in the job market, and thank you for being our partner. Now, Alan, I want to go back to our story. Guys, not too long ago, Sarah's sister, the mother's sister and brother-in-law, Shannon and Dale Hickman, were found guilty of second degree manslaughter after

the death of their infant son. Okay, did you hear me? So it's a pattern. This mother that let this baby die, sister and her husband, Shannon and Dale Hickman, were found guilty of second degree murder, second degree manslaughter after the death of their baby boy in 2009. That baby boy died less than nine hours after being born. Both of them are serving six-year prison sentences, and their release date earliest is January 2018.

They were tried in Oregon City, Oregon in 2011. So it's not as if they don't know what's going on. They knew. This is her own sister. They also knew to be deceptive. When the deputy medical examiner showed up at the home and was presented with the deceased infant, Jennifer, the deputy, just five minutes before the medical examiner was going to leave the home. He realized there was a second baby who was alive, Evelyn, the second child, healthy and alert, about the same size, still just three pounds, six ounces, thereabouts. But they had withheld information that this was one of twins. And we don't know.

The government is not telling us where the other child, Evelyn, is right now. But my guess is, my money, is it's not with the parents. Okay, I hope you two are sitting down. Here's more. You ready? Turns out that this mother, Sarah, and the sister, Shannon, who's already gone to jail for manslaughter of her baby, their father, who is Walter Matthew White, is believed to be the direct descendant of Walter White,

the founder of Followers of Christ Church Congregation in Oregon City. According to former members of the church, he turned into what they call a dictator and that members of followers of Christ Church were scared to death of him. Now, listen, I am certainly no biblical scholar, okay? I'm right in there with the worst of the worst, and I accept that, okay? So don't quote me on anything to do with the worst of the worst, and I accept that. Okay, so don't quote me on anything to do with the Bible. But why is everyone afraid of the church? I don't recall anything like that happening with Jesus.

Am I crazy, or did I get the whole thing wrong? I don't recall anybody being afraid of him. I'm not afraid. I don't think that has anything to do with the church. That has more to do with the cultists. Okay, so this is what I also want to throw out there is a tip line. 503-723-4949. 503-723-4949. Another baby dead out of this church called Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, known for faith healing and rejecting medical care and modern medicine. I don't think that anybody that I know anyway, when faced with a major illness or a major crisis in their life, does not at some point reach out to God for help.

And in my mind, help came their way. With 911, EMTs, the local hospital, which has an excellent reputation, there was the help that they chose to ignore. Faith Healing Parents once again under investigation for the death of a child. Now, this is what they're going to argue. They're going to argue freedom of religion. That's what they're going to argue, which is in our Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to our Constitution, along with freedom of the press, freedom of associations, right to bear arms, and so forth and so on. All the first 10 amendments. That's what they're going to rely on.

It's the bedrock of our jurisprudence system. But that doesn't wash when you are dealing with, Alan, a helpless child, and you're making the decisions for them, and because of your decisions, your religious leanings, they die. N-O. They have got to go to jail, period, if these allegations are true, and Evelyn has to be taken away. And I don't mean given to somebody else in the family or within that church. Oh, no. Uh-uh.

No. Because she could die in the next six months with some kind of an ailment, for all I know. And then there will be another death. I mean, I'm very angry about this. Allowing children to die and using God as your disguise. That makes it even worse to me. You let the baby die. You might as well have just killed the baby yourself, outright killed it. They let the baby die and then hide behind this church that has a history of dead babies. I mean, why do you want to be in a church where they've got a history of dead babies? Yes, they're thinking it's God's will. And this is how

they communicate with God through, I suppose, seeing what God does. And in this case, God took Jennifer away from them and God wanted Jennifer. I think that's the logic that they've got. But the medical examiner, this is the state medical examiner, in the conclusion that's in this affidavit said this was a preventable death. You know, hospital neonatal intensive care units are probably the scene of an awful lot of prayers. Oh, yes. I can promise you that. That's true.

There's probably no other per square foot. You said that was how their logic is. Logic doesn't play any part in this. Well, this is indoctrination from this church. I mean, you could apply that kind of logic to everybody that commits a crime. You know, oh, it's God's will that I run into this Walmart and steal all the jewelry. You know, yeah, I should have it, not them. That's what God told me out in the

parking lot that's not washing with me alan in oregon the legislature there just 2011 passed a law to remove spiritual treatment as a defense for all homicide charges so there is no legal defense in the state of oregon okay wait a minute so that is no legal defense in the state of Oregon. Okay, wait a minute. So that is no longer going to be a legal defense. They can't claim freedom of religion. Wait, tell me that again. You're telling me something new. Tell me. The Followers of Christ Church is so notorious in the state of Oregon that in 2011, the state

legislature passed a bill that removed spiritual treatment as a defense for all homicide charges. You know, I have one other issue. And I noticed this when I was a prosecutor. Ten years, inner city Atlanta, nothing but felonies. When the child, excuse me, when the crime victim is a baby or a child, the perp gets a lighter sentence. Okay, so if I let Jackie or Alan just die or I kill them intentionally, I'll probably go to jail for murder or manslaughter. When it's a baby, somehow the sentence is less, like six years. Seriously? The baby's life is less important than other lives? I'm telling you, just watch. Now, this is anecdotal. It's just what I noticed,

that when it's a child or a baby, the perp gets a lighter sentence. I guess the thinking is, well, the person hasn't lived so that we didn't lose that much i don't understand it to quote you that's bass ackwards you know what wait i'm so glad you said that because i was just about to say that on another note bass ackwards is how i'm describing this is another story i mean i hate to even say the name josh duger okay and i don't know if I'm saying that correctly. You know, was it 21 and counting? Was that the name of their show where they have all the children? Was that on TLC?

It was 19 kids and counting. Okay. I don't know where I got 21 from. Okay. Sorry. I guess legal age. 19 kids and counting. Catch this.

Okay. You remember Josh Duger. age 19 kids and counting catch this okay you remember josh duggar he was accused of molesting his sisters right was it one sister or more than one sister actually it was several there were jill jessa ginger with a j and joy jill jessa and Joy Duggar filed the lawsuit against Springdale, Arkansas police and a celebrity tabloid claiming that they were promised their police report would be sealed because they were all minors at the time. All of them, Jill, Jessa, Ginger, and Joy Duggar claim that the police, Arkansas police, and some tabloid, I don't know which one, should not have released their names. Okay, I get it. Usually, sex attack victims' names are kept secret. Kind of hard to do when you're in a reality show, but still, yes, kept secret.

Now, you two might as well lay down for this. Now, Josh Duggar, the disgraced reality star, who is accused by them of molesting them, this seemed to go on for years, apparently, he is demanding money, damages damages from his sister's lawsuit claiming his siblings have received sympathy but the public treats him like a pariah okay stuff just like this that makes the public treat him like a pariah so what i'm saying jack Jackie and Alan, is that Josh Duggar from 19 and still giving birth, 19 babies and having more. What was the name of the show, Alan?

19 and what? 19 kids and counting. Okay. 19 kids and counting, you claim, is the name of the show and the one son josh duggar is accused of molesting multiple sisters of his that he lived with they sue for breach of privacy because their names were released and now he's trying to piggyback trying to hop on the caboose and get the money He is trying to join his sister's lawsuit against Arkansas police. Oh, it was In Touch Weekly, seeking damages for the harm he suffered following the tabloids publication of the story that claimed he molested his sisters. Have I just completely lost my mind?

We should title this podcast today Bass Ackwards because that's exactly what this one is. These sisters, I certainly understand their claim against the city of Springdale for breach of privacy because you come forward, you talk to investigators and by law, and in fact, in Arkansas, it is the law that their identity should have been respected. Yeah, they're on reality shows, but this was not directly related to their reality television career. And again, they were 14 and 15 years old. I have sympathy for them. But for Josh, none.

Again, I think we agree on this one. Did his lawyer tell him he actually has a chance with that? Now, hold on the sisters have argued that under arkansas law police are disallowed releasing information related to cases of sex attack on children and they're right the four girls who are now in their 20s claim that this whole scandal led to their show being canceled on TLC, 19 kids and counting, and that they were held up to ridicule, embarrassment, and so forth because the claims were made public. Okay, I hear what they're saying, but how does he piggyback on this? That's what I don't get. I don't think very well. I think that's the bottom line. He's not piggybacking very well That's what I don't get. I don't think very well. I think that's the bottom

line. He's not piggybacking very well. He's not getting our sympathy, and I doubt he's going to get any from the court. Can you imagine being his lawyer? How do you argue this? Now, what happened in the end of the case? As I recall, he went off to some kind of a treatment center. Well, the sisters, if I remember right right the sisters didn't want to file charges i mean that he they went through faith counseling and these actual crimes the alleged crimes took place many years before they were finally reported i don't know how long they went on josh duggar was prosecuted. It's argued his parents helped him avoid prosecution and hiding his predatory actions on his own sisters. It was alleged Josh Duggar molested five little girls. Remember, four were sisters and one was another person that was in and out of the family home.

Never prosecuted. It's amazing that public figures can avoid prosecution and apparently bounce back from a scandal. Many fans have even come forward and said that they still love Josh Duggar, which, you know, that's their prerogative, of course. I'm very concerned that he was never prosecuted. What was his penalty, getting his reality show canceled? Was that what happened, Jackie? That was it.

There was a faith-based element in this story as well. The family went through Christian counseling and extensive, according to them, Christian counseling. So in their mind, they did as Christ would do and forgave him. And if you remember back to a lot of the interviews that the sisters gave. I'm all about forgiveness, but he could be forgiven as he's sitting in his jail cell in fact he was so forgiven what was that about popping up on his profile wasn't he on um what was the name of that was it ashton madison some dating i can't remember what dating website he was on he had a what really was a false profile on the dating site and now he has been sued by a Los Angeles DJ who claims that it was

his photos that Josh used for his profile on the dating site. Well, this is what I know. Now, Josh Duggar, he just can't go away. He has reared his head again and is trying to cash in on his sister's lawsuit. I think that sums up the tenure of today's crime stories. I'm Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.