Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - HERO WAITRESS SAVES BEATEN LITTLE BOY FROM EVIL STEP-DAD

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

An Orlando waitress is being hailed a hero after calling the police on allegedly abusive parents. When Flaviaine Carvalho, noticed bruises on the 11-year-old, she wrote a note that only the boy could see asking if he needed help. He said yes. Carvalho called the police.Joining Nancy Grace today: Troy Slaten - Criminal Defense Attorney, Los Angeles California  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga www.angelaarnoldmd.com Karen L Smith - Forensic Expert, Bare Bones Consulting Podcast: “Shattered Souls” Flaviaine Carvalho - 'Mrs. Potato' Restaurant Manager Who Called 911, Daphne Young - National Chief Communications Officer, www.Childhelp.org Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Have you ever looked at a child in a parking lot at a grocery store when you're at a red light and you glance over at the other cars and you know in your heart that child is being mistreated? What, if anything, do you do? What, if anything, can you do? Well, it started at a restaurant called Mrs. Potato with this 911 call. We have some customers here with two kids. One of the kids is with a lot of bruises on his arms and on his face. And the parent is not giving food for him, but is giving to the other kids that are with them. And I asked him on a paper if he needs help. And first he turned his head saying that no.

But he kept looking at me, and I write in another paper if he needs help again. And he made me a sign that yes, he needs help. So on the first note, this waitress, this restaurant manager wrote the little boy surreptitiously, do you need help? He indicated no,

but he kept looking at her and looking at her and looking at her and she just knew in her gut she should try again and she did and he said yes. Joining you right now And she just knew in her gut she should try again. And she did. And he said, yes.

Joining you right now, an all-star slate of panelists, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining me out of Atlanta at AngelaArnoldMD.com, forensic expert, host of a hit new podcast, Shattered Souls, now entering season two. Special guest with me, the National Chief Communications Officer at one of the organizations very dear to my heart, ChildHelp.org. Their tip line is 800-4-A-Child, 800-422-4453. Daphne Young with me. Lead news anchor joining me from WDBO, Ray Caputo. I know you've heard his name before. Renowned criminal defense attorney out of LA, Troy Slayton. No stranger to

a courtroom, but our star today is the woman who I believe saved this child's life. Her name is Flaviani Carvalho. Flaviani, thank you for being with us. You're welcome. Miss Carvalho, you work there at the Miss Potato restaurant and you are in fact a manager. You see families with children all the time. What stuck out to you when you saw this family what was odd about this family i think a lot of things so first the time that they arrived at that restaurant is not common for families with kids second was wait i didn't understand the first thing what was the first thing that time the hour that they arrived at the restaurant. What time was it? Was 1030. At night?

At night. So we are closing soon. So families usually come early with kids. Yeah, you're right. By 1030, either the twins are asleep, God help me, or we're going round and round about them turning their lights off. But by 1030, what day of the week was this? Was it a weekend?

Was it a weekday? It was on January 1st. And so that would have been, Ray Caputo, January 1st of 2021 was what day of the week? It was a Friday, I believe. It was New Year's Day. Yeah, Friday. But you know what? Normally, if it was a Friday, I would say, well, why are they up late on a school night, Monday through Thursday? But not only was it Friday night, it was also New Year's Day. But still, bringing them in for dinner at 10.30 at night, you're right, Ms. Carvalho, I would have noticed that too.

So you see them coming in at 10.30 p.m. to Mrs. Potato and then what happens? So they sit at the table and I saw that the little boy was complete cover. He was using a hoodie, mask, glass and he was put on the side. No one was talking with him or interacting in any way with him. So this is another flag. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. His face covered and he's being seemingly ostracized from the family. I want to go to Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Dr. Angie, I mean, you're the shrink. I'm just a trial lawyer, but I've noticed in many child abuse and child molestation cases, you could have a whole family and one child is singled out to be starved, to be beaten, to be locked away, mistreated, kept home from school.

And there's nothing unique about that child. They don't cause more trouble. It's just that one child and the other children are well-nourished and not beaten, not mistreated. Why is that? Why pick on one child? Well, oftentimes we call it the identified patient or the identified trauma victim. And sometimes, believe it or not, Nancy, sometimes the child could possibly remind the abuser of someone, and that's why they're picked out, okay? It is also a way to control the rest of the kids because the kids aren't going to say a word, and they're showing the kids what could

possibly happen to them. And so in order to get away from that abuse, the other children toe the line. So then they've got everybody towing the line, and they're only abusing one child. Oftentimes, though, I will say that one child reminds the abuser of someone in the past, whether it could be the color of their hair or whatever. And that is oftentimes why they choose that child to beat up. And I'm trying to figure out the psychology of a parent who would target one child or any child and abuse them. I'm taking a look. But also, Nancy, think about it. Is it a parent or a step-parent?

Yes. Because that often makes a big difference, too. I'm taking a look at Mrs. Potato there in Orlando, Orlando's corner of potato flavor. And it just seems like an awesome diner with everything you could imagine to eat. And the hours there, you just heard Ms. Carvalho say it's getting close to closing time. It's 1030 at night. Who comes in with their children 1030 at night and basically isolates one child? Back to Flaviani, Carvalho, Hero.

What happened next? The food. And this is why when I realized was something very wrong, because they ordered food for the two adults, the little girl, but not for the boy. What was the boy doing during all this, Flaviani? He was quiet, not talking, always with his head down and just looking. When you went over and took the order, did he look at you? Yeah, I approached the table and I asked them, was everything okay with the order? And the man turned to me and he told me that was everything all right. And the boy is going to have his dinner that night at home. And this is when I saw the big scratch on his face.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking to a woman beautiful on the inside and out. Her name, Flaviani Carvalho. She's the manager at an Orlando restaurant, Mrs. Potato, and she just had a feeling, a strong feeling, that something was wrong. Take a listen to our friends at WFTV9. I was working at the restaurant that night, and a family came in.

That family included Timothy Wilson II, Kristen Swan, and their two children. It was nearing closing time, so without the busy dinner rush, all Flaviani Carvalho's attention was on them. We start serving them, and I observed bruise on the side of his eyes. And after bruises here. So she moved to a part of the restaurant where he could see her, but his stepfather and mother couldn't. I wrote a sign asking him if he was okay. The boy said yes, but Carvalho didn't quite believe him, so she tried again with this sign.

That time, he nodded yes. He did need help. It was when I called 911. One of the kids is with a lot of bruises on his arm. With me, that hero, Ms. Carvalho. Ms. Carvalho, you were just telling us that you go to the table and you see how the food has been distributed. And the little boy, who we're not naming, the 11-year-old little boy gets nothing. Did everybody start eating their food and he's just sitting there? Yes.

They was eating, drinking, and nothing to him. Were they talking like a regular family? What were they doing? The man, the woman and the little girl was talking and kind of playing, but just between the three. Just between the three of them and the little boy continued sitting away from them? Yeah, complete ignorance. So many factors in this case are serendipitous. Just by chance, it happened this way, that an 11-year-old little boy's life was saved.

Take a listen to restaurant owner Raffaella Cabade. There were lots of coincidences that led to she seeing the situation and being able to speak up. We truly believe that this was a holy provision and we are very blessed that we were able to help this child. She was not on schedule on that day. She was not supposed to be working. blessed that we were able to help this child. She was not on schedule on that day. She was not supposed to be working. We had an employee who called out her as being a manager. She went in.

It was the last table of the day. It was New Year's Day, very busy indeed. If this family were to come at eight o'clock, we would have 10, 20 tables. Everybody would be running around, and maybe there wouldn't be enough time to see the details. I will just say it right here and right now. for all of the facts surrounding this case that allowed this woman, Flaviana Carvalho, to save this boy's life. Flaviana, again, thank you for being with us. So you know something is wrong. You just sense it.

Now, you went and hid where the family, the mom and dad, couldn't see, but the little boy could. How did you do that? I was in a corridor in front of him. And on the position that he was, I was able to kind of get over a fridge and hide from the man to show him the paper. I was basically in front of him. And so the mom and the dad had their backs to you. And where was the little girl? No, no.

The man was on the side of the boy. The mom was with her back to me. and the little girl was on her side. I got it. So you were at an angle down a hallway so the dad couldn't see you. You couldn't really give the boy anything because the parents would see you do it. So you held up a sign for him to read. What did the sign say? The first one said, are you okay? And he knocked his head yes. So I take over the paper and write sure. And he again knocked yes.

After that, he starts making me signs with his eyes. He gives me a long blink. And this is why when I wrote another sign asking him if he needs help, and he said yes, he needs help. And also he had a movement with his hands showing me that he didn't know what to do. So I understand that he said, yes, I need help, but I don't know what to do. That is amazing to me. I mean, Troy Slayton, veteran criminal defense attorney out of L.A., I've seen a lot of cases. But can you imagine all of this being conveyed by an 11-year-old boy non-verbally? He couldn't really move that much, but through his gesticulations and the look on his face, he communicated, Troy. It's amazing. And it's a wonderful confluence of events. And I really tip my hat to Flaviana, who was able to pick up on all these nonverbal cues.

It's amazing. From the situation and was able to really be the guardian angel for this child who was suffering at the hands of his monster stepfather. And not only that, it's like sticking your hand between two Rottweilers. If you get into an argument with a parent about the child, even if you're trying to help the child, she had no idea what this mom and dad could do if they found out what she was doing. Troy? Absolutely.

She put herself at personal risk. She could have been wrong. She could have been accused. She could have been fired. But she did the right thing at great personal risk to herself. You know, Dr. Angela Arnold, psychiatrist, joining me out of Atlanta. Yes. You know, Dr. Angela Arnold, psychiatrist, joining me out of Atlanta. So often we see people's hunches discarded and mocked on the stand, of course, mocked by the news media.

But I've got to tell you, I've had literally thousands of cases, thousands over the course of 10 years in inner city Atlanta felony courtrooms where people acted on a feeling, acted on a hunch, and they were right. I really believe hunches are instincts born over thousands of years of evolution and are not to be ignored. Right. And what an, what an, oh my God, what an amazing woman to take these steps. I, I truly believe after reading this story, Nancy, that she saved this child's life. Oh, there's no doubt in my mind. And Daphne Young, National Chief Communications Officer, ChildHelp.org. How many times does it just make you crazy angry when people say, well, I thought something was wrong. Why didn't you do something? And a child ends up dead. Remember the house of horrors out in California, the whole neighborhood.

They never saw any of these. I think 11 children. They were off the grid, plain sight. Nobody did a thing. These children were chained to their beds. The house reeked of urine. They were beaten and starved. Nobody did a thing. How often do you hear that where neighbors suspected, but they did nothing? It infuriates me because when we hear those comments, it's usually when the news media is interviewing people about dead children. So I

would have loved for all the people that had hunches to become Flaviani style heroes and save these children's lives rather than comment on how they look cold or underweight for their age, or I noticed bruises, but I was afraid to call. That infuriates me because if your little moment of discomfort in making that call can save that child from spending the next year, the next two years being abused or ending up in a grave in a yard somewhere because you were nervous to make a call, that infuriates me. And what I love about Flaviani is she didn't let that child's first nod, yeah, I'm okay, change the way she felt. She knew that there was a little boy sitting in like small town America,

strip mall eating, you know, surrounded by yummy smells and cheesy potatoes and smelling chili fries and just wilting in that seat with a rumbling stomach while the parents sadistically ate in front of him. And wonderful Dr. Angela gave you the professional nomenclature, but there's also, we call them sometimes Cinderella kids at child health. They're the ones that are singled out for that pain. And imagine being so hungry and so unloved and so small and sad. And she saw that and she kept probably, he looked in her warm eyes and thought, maybe I can do this. Like the first instinct is to run away. And the second was to come forward. And that's why you not only call, but you call again, you try again for the love of that child.

And that is exactly what our hero Flaviana Cravallo, did. Let me just again reiterate the number for child help. 800-4-A-CHILD. 800-422-4453. Report it. What's the worst thing that's going to happen if you're wrong? You're wrong. That's all that's going to happen. What could happen?

You could save a child's life. Because I guarantee you, with this little boy, it wasn't going to get better. Can I tell you, when I go pick up my twins from school every day, I take snacks and cold water, just in case they're hungry. Just in case. Maybe one out of 10 days, they take me up on it. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How can you sit there and let an 11-year-old little boy, malnutrition, covered in bruises, watch you eat while he starves? Straight back out to Flaviani Carvalho. So the boy says no.

Then he indicates, yeah, but what can I do? What did you do then, Flaviani? I just wrote okay on the same paper and show him to let him know that I was doing something. What did you write the sign on? On the paper and just in a piece of paper. Just on a piece of paper. And you wrote it big enough for him to see at a distance. Flaviani, tell me, what were the injuries that you observed on the little boy?

I observed a big scratch between his eyebrows and after a little bruise on the side of his eyes and after on his arms. And I knew it, that the bruise on his arms was self-defense endures. To Karen Smith,

forensics expert, host of Shattered Souls podcast, season two now starting. Karen Smith, those are classic signs. What do they tell you, those particular injuries? They tell me that this little boy was abused for a long time. You know, we look at the bruises and you can tell if they're healing, if they're fresh. These are the things I would have to document. But while I'm documenting them, I'd also be talking to him and ask him, you know, when did this happen? Do you remember how that happened? And, you know, it's easy for me to see

one on his forearm and say, yeah, that might be a defensive injury, but am I sure? That's when I start very gently questioning the little boy. We would have to go to the house. We would have to document everything within that house, his bedroom, anything that he told me or told the other investigators had happened. I would have to go and document all of that. And let me just say something, Nancy, I waited tables years ago before I became a cop. And it is a case study in psychology. You learn body language, you learn small facial tics and small things. And Flaviani just took all of that in. And it's an incredible story of her paying attention to those small details. And it's also a lesson, my God, if you see something, say something. So again,

a big, big hat tip to her. You saved this little boy's life. Flaviani Carvalho, you stated a bruise near the eye and a bruise on, I think you said, the wrist. To me, that says that the child was grabbed by the wrist and hit in the face. And not with an open hand either. Let me ask you, Flaviani Carvalho, you call 911, then what happens? About 10 minutes later, the police officers show up. They enter the restaurant, ask me to stay outside. And they approach the table to talk with them. They acted like nothing was happening and they took the boy outside to talk with him.

What did the mom and dad do when the police showed up? Nothing. They pretended nothing was happening. Guys, take a listen to Detective Erin Lawler. On the evening of January 1st, 2021, a family went into a local restaurant, Mrs. Potato, to have dinner. The staff member, Ms. Carvalho, saw the family come in. It was a father, a mother, and two children, an 11-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old girl. Food was ordered. The son was denied the food, which drew her attention. Law enforcement was notified. Officers responded to the scene. And an arrest was made of the father that evening, Timothy Wilson II. To Ray Caputo, Lead News Anchor, WDBO,

is the little boy, the 11-year-old victim, and the four-year-old girl, are they biologically related? They're half siblings, Nancy. The little boy is the son of Kristen Swan, the mother, and the little girl is the daughter of both parents, Timothy Wilson and Kristen Swan. So they're half siblings. So the 11-year-old little boy is the bio son of 31-year-old Kristen Swan and the stepson to Timothy Wilson II. Take a listen again to Detective Erin Lawler. The child was transported to the hospital due to his injuries, additional disclosures of abuse, an abuse I say lightly, it was torture to be completely honest,

that this child had received at the hand of his stepfather, was disclosed to DCF. We did additional forensic interviews with the child on Monday the 4th and on Tuesday the 5th. There were two arrest warrants, one for the stepfather, Timothy Wilson II, for additional charges, which included three counts of aggravated child abuse and child neglect. There was also an arrest warrant for the mother, Christian Swan, for two counts of child neglect. Torture is the perfect word. Why? Take a listen to Deanna Albrecht in WFTV 9. He had bruising across his face, into his eyelid. Both of his earlobes were completely bruised.

Detective Erin Lawler says the list of places the boy showed horrifying signs of abuse was long. Even the night that he was with officers, he had pain and rolling of his sleeves. And questioning the child, Orlando police say revealed the abuse wasn't new. On Christmas Day. That's when Lawler says the stepfather amplified the abuse and the boy's mother didn't intervene. Instead, she says they perverted the joy Christmas brings to so many children. For the parents, Santa had suggested that he be punished. He was handcuffed to a furniture dolly with his hands behind him? Yeah, you heard correctly. I mean, we're hearing a lot about the physical abuse, but let's not even get into the psychological abuse, Nancy, that cuts much deeper. But they beat this kid. They messed with his mind.

And this is a little impressionable young 11-year-old boy whose brain is still being wired and all this trauma is now going inside. But they also beat him with a wooden broom. They hung him upside down from a door. And they regularly denied him food like they did in this case. It's terrible. Daphne Young. I'm actually speechless. Daphne Young. I'm actually speechless.

Daphne joining me from ChildHelp.org to say Santa told us to chain you to a furniture dolly and beat you? We see this all the time, using something that's supposed to be precious to a child to pervert it, twist it into an abusive element. We've seen it with, I'm going to beat the devil out of you. We've seen it with Santa. We've seen it with a childhood pet. If you say anything, you'll lose the cat or the dog. And we've seen children like this little one who go through our treatment programs. And the good thing is we can, you know, make them love Santa again and make them feel safe from the devil or the monster under their bed again. But one of the things that always sticks with them is, you know, when Christmas comes around, they're going to remember this. When we had a little boy who was also ritually

starved in an abusive way. And every time he came for his therapy, he just wanted to know that his therapist had a candy bar for him in the drawer. He never even ate the candy bar. He just wanted to know it was there if he was hungry again. So this doesn't leave their hearts. We can heal them. We can make them better. We can make them enjoy the holidays again. But there's always a little piece that's going to remember that. And that breaks my heart. It's a loss of innocence. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us with me now,

an incredible guest who saved an 11-year-old little boy's life. Her name is Flaviani Carvalho, manager at Miss Potato in Orlando. When she knew something was horribly wrong with a little boy covered in bruises, scratches. The only one in the family who was not ordered food and didn't get any food was set away from the others, everything screaming abuse. Back to our star, Flaviana Carvalho, restaurant manager. What did the police ask you when they took you out the parking lot? They asked what was happening, and I told them really quickly. The injuries to this little boy are beyond anything you could have seen under that hoodie. When the stepdad and the mom were taken away, did you make eye contact with or get to speak to the little boy, Flaviani? No, I was not able to speak with him again.

So the only thing that I did was when the police officers were talking with everyone there because they separate them sometimes. I was concerned with the boy because he didn't eat with the family. So I asked the kitchen to make him a sandwich and I stepped out to give the sandwich and a drink to him. And he grabbed the sandwich, said thank you. And I saw that he didn't eat. He gave the sandwich to the mother. I wonder why. I wonder why he would have done that.

You know he was starved. Daphne Young, ChildHelp.org. He must have been too afraid to even eat the sandwich without being allowed to by the mother. That's right, because he's a bad boy, right? What, Flaviani? Yes. Flaviani, were you saying something?

Yeah, I think he was so submissive. This is why he didn't eat. Well, we've certainly learned a lot about mommy. Even if she didn't beat the child herself, which she's also charged with child abuse. She stood by and let this man, this stepfather beat her child. I don't understand it. DeRay Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO. What do we know about this stepfather? Well, he's like a 360 pound monster, Nancy, who beats kids. He has a history of this. He was married to a woman before and she had two small kids and there was a history of this. He was married to a woman before and she had two small kids

and there was a history of violence. She ended up divorcing Mr. Wilson because he was beating her two and four year old kids. You know, and this is a mother too, or she's saying, don't do this. They're too small to do this, but this guy couldn't keep his hands off of these children. And he continued it with this 11 yearyear-old boy who was 20 pounds underweight, had bruises all over him. So you can only imagine where this was all going to go if this wasn't stopped by Ms. Carvalho, just by chance. I'm looking at the police report now, and in a previous relationship, he took great joy at beating the woman's child. And the second time it happened,

she told him to stop and then ended up kicking him to the curb for the only reason he kept beating her child. I don't understand the psychology, Dr. Angela Arnold, of a mother standing by and watching their child be abused. Well, Nancy, I know it's very difficult to understand these, and it doesn't matter how many of these stories we hear,

we always have the same reaction to them. Nobody can ever understand how someone can do this. It's so interesting that that is the same reaction we always have. And it's because those of us who do not think like these monsters think cannot, we can't even get close to how they can do this because they have absolutely no remorse. They have scared everyone in the family. I'm not making any excuses for the mother, but there are reasons why she's with this monster. It could be financial reasons. She could be, you know, very unstable financially and whatnot. And oftentimes people

will look the other way when things like that, when they're in that sort of situation. She may be afraid he's going to beat her. I'm very, very not impressed with anything that you just said, Dr. Angela. Take a listen to this, Dr. Angie. Quote, it should be noted the little boy was in pain just by simply rolling up his jacket sleeves to show his injuries. Just to roll up his sleeves, it hurt him. He had chest pains and he was hunched over in pain there at the restaurant. To our hero, Flaviani Cravallo, Ms. Cravallo, what was the mother doing during all of this while her son, her child, was not being given any food? She's acting like he was not there.

That simple. She's acting like he was not there. That's simple. She's acting like he was not there. I'm looking at a shot of Flaviana Carvalho right now standing in front of the restaurant. It's specialty Brazilian dishes. Here's another quote for you. It was an act of God. He was sitting in the only seat in the restaurant where I could show him the note without his parents seeing. Flaviana, is that true?

That was the only seat in the restaurant where you could show him that note without the parents seeing? Yes, it's true. God put him there. I know that the alleged perp in this case, Mommy, 31-year-old Kristen Swan, got together with Wilson, a divorcee. We know why he's divorced. He served in the military. They've been together for six years.

And her Twitter handle reads, I'm a fun-loving Bama fan. I love my fiance, Tim, my son, and my daughter. I love watching movies. It makes her sound like a normal person. How would you ever suspect someone that's so seemingly normal is standing by while their son is being chained up and hung upside down to be beaten? I mean, Daphne Young, you've got to see this every day where everything looks fine on the outside, but it's a chamber of horrors on the inside. Well, that's the scariest part.

These are the neighbors. These are people down the street. These are people eating at a cafe on New Year's Eve. Right. These are normal, quote unquote, people until you look behind the curtain and the watchful eyes, you know, I heard a guest talk about waitressing. I've also done that when I was in college till four o'clock in the morning. And it is the best sociology you will ever have in life because exactly that it teaches you what to look for. You know, when she saw a little boy that seemed 20 pounds underweight, he seemed skinny, Flaviani said. And that is just perfect.

She's starting to put pieces together and she doesn't have to know the whole answer. Just to go on that instinct is amazing. A sign and a nod. A quick thinking waitress saves a little boy's life. If you want to donate to Flaviani's GoFundMe, it's GoFundMe.me slash 16E3437R. It's also listed at CrimeOnline.com. Flaviana,

when you look back at what happened, when you think about what you saw, what you did, what goes through your mind uh first i thank god to let me see the boy um it's a storm of uh feelings inside me when I remember. I get upset because of the situation. I get angry because of these monsters and

I feel sorry for the boy and but I feel also glad that that night the suffering of the boy was stopped. Thanks to you. Ray Caputo, where is the little boy now?

He's back with his biological father. The biological father hadn't had much contact because he said that his relationship with the biological mom, Ms. Swan, was so strained. So hopefully this is a silver lining that this little boy is now back with his biological father. He says he actually talked to Ms. Carvalho and he thanked her from the bottom of his heart

and said that what she did was amazing. So hopefully that relationship gets better and this little boy has some time to heal, be a little boy. If you want to thank Flaviani Carvalho, you can do that by going to her GoFundMe site. You know, Flaviani, people question, is God at work in our world? Are there angels amongst us? You have just affirmed that over and over and over.

God bless you. We pray for this little boy and his life going forward. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.