Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - TEEN GIRL IN COMA TORTURED BY NURSE: CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

A mother in St Cloud, Florida, hires around the clock nursing care in her home to help care for her teenage daughter. The 18-year-old is developmentally disabled, non-verbal, quadriplegic with cerebral palsey, and minimal vision. To cover the 24 / 7 schedule, nurses work 12 hour shifts, 7am to 7 pm and 7pm to 7am in their St Cloud, Florida home.   Checking on her disabled daughter Saturday morning, the mother notices red scratches around her daughter's mouth and eyelid, the scratches were not present the previous evening and as a quadriplegic, it is impossible for her daughter to scratch herself in such a way, so she reviews surveillance camera footage from the previous night and calls police immediately.   The nurse during this time was Nia Ayers,  a 24-year-old Licensed Practical Nurse who has cared for the girl on Friday night into Saturday morning for over a year. She has been licensed since 2021 and has not had a single disciplinary action or even a complaint in her nursing career.   Joining Nancy Grace: Ben Powers - Criminal Defense Attorney, Facebook: Legal Powers PLLC, https://legalpowers.com  Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski - Forensic Psychologist, Author: “Darksides", darksides.podia.com, YouTube: "Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski, Forensic Psychologist"  Chief Douglas Goerke - St. Cloud Police Department in Florida; stcloudfl.gov Dr Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), NEW Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue" launching soon, Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)  Dave Mack - Investigative Reporter "Crime Stories" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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guaranteed. Ready to build a confetti-ready site in minutes? New customers start for free at go-dadi.com. That's go-dadi.com to get the lowest-priced website Builder. Guaranteed. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A precious teen girl in a vegetative state, like a coma, tortured relentlessly by a nurse. And lucky for me, it's all caught on camera. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories.

And I want to thank you for being with us. The patient couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't defend herself, but a camera caught it all. And now this home health nurse is behind bars. Home health. My rear end. Talk about a felony defendant. That's what I'm talking about.

Joining me an all-star panel to make sense of. what we know tonight. But first, before I even get into the facts, I want to go out to a special guest joining us who's taking time from solving crimes right now and answering calls. Chief Douglas Gerke joining a St. Cloud Police Department in Florida, Chief. Thank you for being with us. You know what, Chief, do you ever get tired of the most vulnerable, the most defenseless, the weakest people in our society getting preyed upon and mistreated. Just for the fun of it, do you ever get exhausted and go home and say, I give up, I quit. You know, Nancy, I appreciate that and I appreciate you having me on the show. And, you know, every day, we come to work every single day to ensure

that our community is not preyed on. And, you know, some of the things I've seen in my career, almost 25 years, it's just, it's shocking to see the videos of what occurred in this case specifically. It reinvigures our mission every single day to come out. And again, protect those that are unable to protect themselves. And that's exactly what happened in this case. But there was a lot of things that came together to make this work. And I give a lot of credit to our detectives, but I really give a lot of credit to the family that actually had the cameras set up that recognized this that came to law enforcement. And we partnered with them to make sure that this person is actually never able to harm another person. One bad apple makes the whole

But rotten. Yeah, so they're in every profession, Nancy, and you're 100% correct. You know, no matter what profession there is, there's always going to be someone there that has to be watched. I will tell you, I'm a paramedic myself, so I, you know, the duty to do no harm. The things that I saw here were absolutely despicable. But I will tell you, there's good people out there that actually take their job seriously. And our job is to find those that are not.

I think this family knew something was wrong, which is why they set the camera up. And when they reviewed the cameras and what they saw, they saw nosebleeds, they saw everything, out of this poor victim. Again, it's heartbreaking. I saw the mom last night. She came in last night. I gave her a big hug. She brought me some new videos. Unfortunately, we're going to be looking at those two. We're going back day by day that she has video. And we're going to actually look at everything because there's potentially more charges coming against this person. You know, Chief, two words. Nail her. Nail her. Because it's going to go on and on and on until

health care workers realize they will be held accountable if they're caught. And also, I know it's not sexy. You're not like stopping a gun fight or jumping in in the middle of a bank robbery. You

and your staff are going to be going through minute by minute a video where mostly nothing happens, but then there's that moment. There's that moment. And it's a felony. Okay, let's start at the beginning. Listen. A mother in St. Cloud, Florida, hires around the clock nursing care in her home to help care for her teenage daughter.

The 18-year-old is developmentally disabled, nonverbal, quadriplegic, with cerebral palsy, and minimal vision. To cover the 24-7 schedule, nurses work 12-hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in their St. Cloud, Florida home. Different nurses are used from two different services in the area to provide the nurses needed for proper care. Boy, can I relate to that. All-Star panel, I'm going to go to Dr. Kendall Crowns, but first to Dave Mack, who is a tireless crime stories investigative reporter. You know, Dave, you have been to our home, you met my mom. That's exactly the setup that we have. When I go to work, there's somebody with her.

Whenever I'm away, there is somebody with her. And I have the greatest people that I know, I know this. now. I know their families. I know all about them. And I trust them. I also have granny cams out of the yin-yang so I can see. I'm sitting right here. I could see what is happening in my mom's room, right? But you have to trust these people. Tell me about this girl, this teen girl. She is in a vegetative state. What happened? We're not talking about an incident that happened that caused this. She was born. with a number of issues. She is non-communicative. She is a quadriplegic. She has cerebral palsy

and she has minimal vision. So she needs 24-hour round-the-clock care that her family has provided for her. And they go to great lengths to make sure that she's got somebody there with her all the time. They work shifts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And in this particular case, the same nurse has been there every Friday working the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Saturday morning shift for over a year, Nancy. Oh, my stars. No wonder Chief Gerke has a lot of video. Over a year, this minion from hell has been with this little girl, this teen girl. Let me go to Dr. Kendall Crowns. Guys, Dr. Kendall Crowns is the chief medical examiner, Tarrant County. That's Fort Worth, Texas. Never a lack business there I like to say. He is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at

TCU and he has just launched a hit podcast called Mayhem in the Morg and I've listened to it and it is him describing very unique cases that he has worked in the past at the beginning. You couldn't really tell what was going to happen with the COD cause of death and then he puts it together like Erichu Poirot in the end and it all makes sense. sense. It's pretty amazing, Dr. Kendall Krause. That's a whole other can of worms. Dr. Crowns, could you just tell me what does all this mean? As I like to say, I'm just a JD. You're the MD. Now, this teen girl developmentally disabled, she's nonverbal. I know what that means she can't speak. She's a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy and minimal vision. Okay, what is that

poterie of elements? What does that mean? So let's start with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a condition in which there is essentially brain damage, and the individual does not function as well as a normal individual would. These people can have any level of consciousness, any level of disability, but she is a quadriplegic, and then she also has vision abnormality. So she's minimal vision, has minimal vision, has minimal ability to speak, and cannot move. So she's the perfect victim in these type of nursing home or care home deaths in which the individual gets frustrated or tired of caring for them and then takes out their frustrations on the individual who can't speak or even see. How do you get cerebral palsy? Cerebral palsy can be actually caused in the birthing process or in utero or when you're in the womb. There can be a lack of oxygen getting to the brain or it can be actually congenital developmental defect.

So it can also occur as the birthing procedure has happened, occurring where the procedure takes too long, or there is anoxia or a lack of oxygen getting to the child as they're trying to get it out of the birth canal. And there is also a feeling that it can occur after the birth where there can be injuries associated with the birthing process. Okay. I don't know really exactly what you just said, but I did manage to call out, reduced oxygen to the brain causes cerebral palsy, be it in uter. during birth or after birth? Correct.

And it can also be associated with congenital abnormalities or birth defects. Okay. Translation born that way. Got it. Okay. Does cerebral palsy cause impaired vision? It can be one of the things that can be associated with it. Impaired vision can also be associated with other injuries and also can be a birth defect.

I was just wondering if lack of oxygen to the brain also causes vision impairment. does it it can okay um okay the next the next thing uh this teen girl is a quadriplegia explain so because of the brain injury that she may have had occurred from lack of oxygen to the brain or a birth defect cerebral palsy the brain doesn't function right and it causes the limbs or the muscles to not be coordinated or to function properly in her case it caused quadriplegia which means all four of her limbs are not functioning, so essentially she's immobile. You know why I'm asking this, Chief Gerke, because listeners and potentially a jury needs to understand as painful as it is to hear it.

All I could think about just then, while Dr. Kimball Crowns was describing how the lack of oxygen to this little girl's brain caused her to have cerebral palsy, It costs her to have minimal vision. She has four limbs, but they don't work. All I could think about is my son running free on the soccer field or my daughter doing her walk, her hour and a half walk every day, which walks so fast I can hardly keep up with her. Her legs are so long.

This girl has never been able to move, to see, to see, to speak? I don't know what she understands. If she can really hear what people are saying and if she can hear them, does she understand what they're saying when her mother speaks to her? That's who the victim is. And of all the people in the world, okay? I'm sure you, like me, have had many drug lords gun down. I'm like, eh, eh, boo-hoo. This girl is so defenseless, so innocent. And yet she was, in my mind, ag assaulted. This little teen girl can't see, can't move any limbs,

nothing. And she was tortured. I mean, it makes me want to bring back the death penalty for ag assaults, chief. So let me tell you, this is, You know, to put this in a better perspective, and I will tell you, when I saw some of the pictures, it broke my heart because as law enforcement, it's very difficult for us to really engage and really understand everything. Let me tell you some of the things that we did see in the video itself. You know, her eyes were taped shut, aggressively shaking her head and with the respiratory equipment. She had a bi-pat machine, shaking her head around, which caused scratches and potential nosebleeds, holding a washcloth over her mouth for a prolonged period of time that appeared to have.

obstructed her airway. You can see her moving around. So obviously the video is not releasable yet. It's an active criminal case. But some of these things are what really breaks my heart, that there are horrible monsters in the world like that that are out there. And I'll be honest with you, people like that have a special place in hell, to be honest with you. Do we have to wait for her to die and go to hell and let Lucifer deal with her? Can't we do a little something now, Chief? You said that she used a bi-pat machine. Dr. Kendall Crowns, what is that? Aipat machine is basically an oxygen machine that usually goes over the nose.

It helps force oxygen in and it aids in sleep apnea by keeping the airways open. Also, if she's putting a washcloth over her face, if that watchcloth is wet, that would be similar to waterboarding techniques where they're essentially making them breathe in water almost like drowning. You know, in one of the videos in chief, I have never liked a crime scene photos, but I know I have to look at them to look for elements of proof to see what I can argue to a jury based on little details I might see in those photos. And you mentioned that the PURP, according to the video,

she is innocent until proven guilty. Of course, that goes without saying at one point when she, the health care worker, a young female, I mean, she looks like somebody I'd see when I'd go pick my daughter up from getting her nails done, sitting in the next chair, the victim has her face and mouth covered, and you can see her chest heaving, trying to breathe through that wet cloth. I mean, how could she? Did you see that video, Chief? I did it, it's very difficult to watch. Even as a paramedic, it's very

difficult to watch. I don't necessarily see any medical justification for it. It's clearly that It appeared to be punitive in nature, but, you know, we're going to let the jury decide on that one. Punitive. Hold on, Chief. What, whu, whoa, bo, bo, poonitive. Well, okay, punitive in my world means you're being punished for something that you did wrong, like punitive damage or an over-punitive sentence. So what did the little girl, the teen girl in a vegetative state do wrong, that she deserves punishment? I can't wait to hear this. I have zero answers for that

because I watched this poor girl lay helplessly in her bed while this person abused her. There is no justification. It's morally reprehensible for what she did. She was supposed to be a lifeline. Instead, Nurse Nia Ayers

is accused of tormenting a disabled teen, ripping tape off her face, suffocating her with a washcloth and shaking her breathing machine. Oh, my stars. She's actually smiling. The alleged perp is smiling. Oh, uh-uh-uh. Look, look. Well, you know what? A 20 to life sentence will wipe that smile right off her face. I'm guessing. I want you to hear how the whole horrific scenario first was uncovered. Listen. disabled daughter Saturday morning, the mother notices red scratches around her daughter's mouth and

eyelid. The scratches were not present the previous evening. And as a quadriplegic, it's impossible for her daughter to scratch herself in such a way. So she reviews surveillance camera footage from the previous night. And what she sees shocks her to her core and has her calling police immediately. Yes, of course, right there. Joining me is Ben Powers. We're now on criminal defense attorney, you can find them on Facebook at legal powers. Also, legal powers.com. Ben, thank you for being with us. Ben, see those subtle clues. Mom comes in and she sees a scratch on her daughter's face and she knows right then something is wrong. There are subtle clues that if you are tuned to the person, you spot them immediately. Now, somebody like you might be able to argue to a

A scratch, that means nothing. That means nothing about my client. But to a jury, it could mean everything Ben Powers. Yeah, I think the scratch is the least of her defense team's worries. I mean, there's a video that lays out some pretty egregious behavior. Most concerning, if I'm defending her, is, you know, I guess to back up, we need to point out that is nonverbal. This case is all about what is on the video. Well, Ben Powers, you're absolutely right.

The scratches on her daughter's face, mild though they may be, are the least of this health care workers' problems. But because of those scratches and because the mom is vigilant, it led mom to check the video. What's on the video? Listen. Watching the surveillance video, the officer notes times where Nia Ayers is aggressive and abusive with the 18-year-old victim.

At 11.58 p.m., Ayers is seen placing tape on the mouth of the victim, then very aggressively holding a washcloth tight to the mouth of the victim. Ears has then seen ripping the tape off the mouth of the victim. The victim's mother tells police at no time is its standard procedure to tape the mouth. The only time tape is used is to tape eyelids shut while the victim sleeps. Tape the mouth. She's okay, Chief Douglas Gerke joining me, the Chief of Police at St. Cloud there in Florida. Chief, whoa. Okay, So the teen girl is already wearing a breathing apparatus. But this health care worker, based on the video that you have seen, taped her mouth.

And of course, she's innocent until proven guilty. But the video is what it is. So even with a breathing apparatus on, the victim's mouth was taped shut. Explain how that worked. So again, that would be a procedure that they would, I'm not sure why they would be taping the mouth specifically. I do understand that tape on the eyelids could go on to help them to assist them to sleep. But what we also saw in that video was her aggressively tearing the tape back off backwards. Did tear it off.

She puts it on and rips it off again. That's really what we were seeing. That didn't make any sense at all. The bi-pat machine was put on. So it wasn't on all the time. Then she put it on, but she's forcefully shaking her head around. She's getting visibly upset. She's throwing things.

So there's a lot more that just shows that. that she is completely, my opinion, it appears she's enraged while this is all occurring. All the while that this person is helpless. She's not moving. She's getting spun around, her head's getting moved around, forcefully, putting tape on, ripping it off. And I'll tell you, what's concerning the most was that washcloth incident, holding it over her mouth and pushing down forcefully while you see her writhing around trying to move her body back and forth, almost as if she realized she is unable to breathe or she's having a difficult time breathing. So it's unjustifiable.

Number one, but I have no idea what's in her mind why she did something like that. Boy, do I need a shrink. And luckily, Dr. Jeff Kaleshiewski is joining us, forensic psychologist, author of Dark Sides. And on YouTube, he is a star of Dr. Jeff Kelshevsky, forensic psychologist. Dr. Jeff, thank you for being with us. okay, I keep hearing about the health care worker translation felony defendant. And, you know, very often you see a wolf in sheep's clothing. This girl looks like she should, you know, be bopping by you at the mall or the nail salon.

She looks like she's about 17 years old. Long story short, we keep hearing Dr. Jeff that she looked enraged, angry at the victim. over what? The victim can't see, can't move, can't talk, can't understand what's happening around her, angry at what, Dr. Jeff? Well, it's interesting because, you know, I've had a number of these cases over the years, unfortunately, and it was mentioned earlier. Sometimes these cases unfold when the caretaker is stressed out and sort of loses it for a minute. But when we talk about sort of systematically. Wait, but wait, wait, wait, Dr. Jeff, wait, wait, wait, okay, sorry.

I need to ask you a question. Yeah. I still don't get angry or burned out or racial about what, I mean, the victim can't speak, move, or hear. What the victim do? Right, because sometimes in these cases that I've had, the health care provider becomes frustrated because the person's not compliant or confused. This is different. This is when we're talking about sort of systematic torture,

you know, holding the washcloth over and watching the victim suffer. Now we're moving into this is, these are sort of sadistic acts. And this is beyond a health care worker having a bad moment. This is a person who it sounds like. is getting some type of pleasure and causing pain or emotional distress in the victim. And that's a whole different ballgame compared to some of these other cases where there's abuse that occurs of a vulnerable adult. Dr. Jeff Kellechevsky, you mentioned a word that is in everyone's common parlance,

our vocabulary. You said sadistic. But it is actually a psychological or psychiatric term used in your profession. What exactly is sadism? In general term, sadism or sadistic that really talks about a person who gets pleasure from causing either emotional, psychological, or physical pain on another person. After watching Ayers rip the tape off the mouth of the victim, Ayers adjusted the victim's body on the bed,

not by sliding her arm underneath and slowly moving the teen, but by yanking the victim's left arm aggressively. After yanking and pulling the team into position, Nurse Ayers aggressively suction the victim's airway before holding a white washcloth up to the victim's mouth and holding it firmly in place for several seconds, appearing to hinder the breathing of the victim. While holding the victim's mouth closed,

it appears the victim is attempting to move her head in a way that depicted she was uncomfortable and unable to breathe. That business idea you've been sitting on? this new year. Stop waiting for the perfect time. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to build your website, logo, and marketing in minutes, not months, no tech skills, no excuses. Just your idea, made real. Get started at godaddy.com with GoDaddy Arrow. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Mother reviews home security footage and is horrified by what her daughter's nurse is caught doing.

An 18-year-old nonverbalt quadriplegic patient, completely dependent, left bruised, bleeding, and gasping for air. Who is this woman? I know about the victim. She's a quadriplegic. She has minimal vision. If she can hear, I don't know if she can understand what her mother and other. are saying to her what, what that means to her. She can't move. She can't speak. They put tape on her eyes at night for her to sleep. These videos are hell on earth. To Dave Mack joining me,

I want to talk about Nia Ayers, age 24, working for two different health care companies. Okay, I bet that seems Chief Douglas Gertie. on Wild Goose Chase because now he's got to go to these health care companies. He's got to find out everywhere else she works and review all the video from them, find out if anything unusual has happened, and so forth and so on. Because I'm telling you, Dave Mack, this ain't her first time at the rodeo. You don't go from pre-K to your doctoral degree. No, no, no.

Uh-uh. What do we know about Nia Ayers? is a licensed practical nurse got it in got her you know it's an LPN she got that in 2021 and in the you know her career granted it's not that long but you got 24 year woman with a three-year career so far four years no complaints there has not been one call about anything negative about her she has good reviews from her patients and family so this is a shock Nancy but you know as you can see on the pictures that we have this is a young woman who has a lot going on working with two different agencies as a contractor

and you know this is a specialty to care for people who cannot care for themselves they do require a different type of handling so you would expect a whole lot more from a woman who has chosen that profession but that's not what this family got at all they got a nurse with horns man To become an LPN, and correct me if I'm wrong, Chief or Dr. Kendall Crowns or Dr. Jeff Kelsheski, you know more about the nursing profession than I do, except for the nurses that saved my children's lives. To become an LPN, you have to complete an accredited practical nursing program, and it usually takes at least two years, 18 months to two years, to do that. You've got to have a high school diploma.

You've got to get into the program. you have to complete the approximately two-year program. You've got to be licensed by the state, and you have to pass an exam. Like for me, it would be the bar exam. So I know she's got at least two years of college education to get that LPN. Chief, what do you know about her education?

I mean, certainly she knows better. Of course. There's certification classes that she has to go through, and like you said, it's an accredited system to get the licensed practical nurse done. And it's similar to a paramedic program. A paramedic program here goes through college level education classes, and then you have to take

a professional exam to get certified. And then there's continuing medical education you have to do in the state of Florida. So similar to my paramedic exam, I have to continue to do medical education in order to renew my license every two years. So this is a person who should be up to speed on everything. They're up to date on their CPR,

they're up to date on all their training and everything they're supposed to be doing to be a license, practical nurse. And then, again, they have to do continuing education to ensure that they keep that license current. And that, again, she was working for two different companies at the time of this event. So she's obviously, she was certified to be doing the work. I don't necessarily think that half the things she was doing qualifies under the LPN curriculum and as part of her job duties. What more do we know about what happened to the teen girl victim? Listen, a particularly disturbing

sequence caught on camera shows airs forcefully placing what appears to be a washcloth over the mouth of the victim and forcefully wiping it. Ayers holds the washcloth in place for approximately 10 seconds as the victim becomes visibly distressed, exhibiting physical resistance by tensing her body and attempting to move her head away. The officer notes these reactions suggest the victim was struggling to breathe and experiencing panic. And there is one particular moment in the footage. I'm sure the chief has seen it. Listen. At one point during the hours of camera footage, Nurse Nia Ayers places a white washcloth over the victim's mouth and then violently shakes the victim's head. Ayers then places tape over the victim's mouth again and then throws the roll of tape across the room towards the wall in what can only be called an aggressive manner.

The 18-year-old girl is on a bipap machine and Ayers is caught on camera as she walks around the victim's bed and physically, forcefully, adjusts to victim's breathing device, then violently shakes the victim's head. and says a profanity-laced statement heard on the surveillance camera. Oh, my goodness, Chief. You didn't tell me you had audio, too. That's awesome. Okay, wait a minute. So when you were saying she was shaking her head violently, you're saying the video depicts the defendant

shaking the victim's head violently with her hands? Yes, that's correct. She's manipulating her head in a violent manner. What it appears, she's trying to adjust the bi-pat machine. and she's obviously she's saying she's yelling expelatives and then it appears she throws tape and just almost in a fit of rage. Okay, wait a minute.

So Ben Powers, criminal defense attorney, oh man, you know, way back when when you and I first started trying cases, we would never have a video and the defense like you would say, we don't know what really happened. We don't have a video. You're going to believe the state's witness?

Well, guess what? Gerke has a video and not just video Ben Powers what do you do as a defense attorney do you just shrink down just a tiny bit

in your seat and around the jury when they start rolling that beautiful footage for the jury and you see everything that's described in opening statements

is actually true what do you do just take notes like O.J. Simpson didn't pretend it's not happening. So when it comes to a case like this, I think a big limitation is the prosecuting victim isn't able to say whether they

were in pain, what they were thinking, whether they couldn't breathe. And so it's going to bring us back to what the video has. And as it turns out, the video has audio. And so if it's not on video and if we can't hear it, then it didn't happen. And so unless they have some other medicals to support what they're claiming, it's all going to come down to the video and audio. And if there's multiple interpretations, then there's multiple views, not just the state's view. like you very much right now, at all, because what you said is actually true. And in some cases, I think it can be argued that what you're seeing is actually, actually subjective. In other words, should I believe you or my lying eyes? Is there some other way to explain away what's happening?

But to Dr. Jeff Keleshevsky, joining us forensic psychologist, the cursing, the cursing, the cursing. I don't know exactly what it is, something along the lines of F-U-B, go straight to H-E-E-D-L, I hate your, I can only imagine. But when you have the audio profanity leveled at this girl, a teen girl in a vegetative state, a vegetative state, and she's cursing her out, To me, that gives the meaning to her actions, because now I understand that Gerke has audio as well as video. It explains what may have been implicit, would have to figure out what she was thinking when she did this to the girl. But now we know, because we can hear her cursing the little girl out. Right.

And when we're talking about the victim really... not physically being able to do anything that would cause someone to be enraged and abuse the person from a punishment perspective. What we're really talking about here is using these accolatives and yelling in the victim's face to try to impose some emotional turmoil. So this idea that the the perpetrator must have been enraged and having an angry outbursts, This is beyond this. This is, she's likely using this. Emotional turmoil.

She's cursing a vegetative state teen girl, quadriplegic, and causing emotional turmoil. Well, more than emotional turmoil, right? I think it's so much more than emotional turmoil. The idea that, you know, I had emotional turmoil this morning when I had to iron, not one but two of my daughter's skirt uniform, uniform skirts before she walks out the door at 7.15. Surprise. None of the skirts were right. It had to be not this one that I earned, but the second one I earned. Okay, fine. That's turmoil. But this little girl

is having her mouth tape. She's basically waterboard with a wet cloth. She can't breathe. You can't move. She can't speak. And now she's getting cursed out. Yeah, emotional terror, right? I mean, combine it all. And the audio is another, gives more evidence of this person. and sadistically trying to cause harm. The camera provides the timestamp for events, documenting the time incidents take place. At 12.23 a.m., Ayers wipes a nosebleed as a result of tape having been placed over the victim's mouth.

At 1226 a.m., Ayers applies more tape to the victim's mouth. At 1228 a.m., Ayers is seen forcefully ripping the tape from the victim's mouth. The camera timestamps more abuse at 321 a.m. when Ayers shakes the victim's head and aggressively rubs her face with a towel. At 3.23 a.m., Ayers continues to shake the victim. At 5.07 a.m., Ayers is seen pinching the area around the victim's mouth. Patients, maimed, sometimes killed by health care pros. That is dad, Dominic Haki, speaking to me.

He had twin baby boys. beautiful but noah's legs were fractured how did that happen and now he finds out listen they initially told us that it could have been done from an injection that was given maybe too too rough or too hard so they were going to implement some trainings so that the nurses could be able to give injections correctly and that's kind of the only explanation that was given and I want to make it perfectly clear, bone density, vitamin deficiency, brittle bone syndrome was never ever brought up in our case. It was never questioned. It was never a factor for us. Yeah, that wasn't natural. The nurse did it. To Chief Gerke, joining us from St. Cloud PD, in that case,

and I've got a whole stack of similar cases here, the nurse was fracturing. newborn infants' bodies, not just fracturing, breaking, breaking like, breaking their bones. And she was caught on video. And at first nobody knew what had happened. Then they started looking at the video, and then they found out. And it wasn't just twin Noah. There were many, many other babies, newborns that had their bones as they're laying there. Can you imagine the pain?

A brand new baby just gets born in this world and somebody breaks their leg, breaks their leg, snaps it in two? I mean, if you can see a monitor, I want you to look at the x-ray of Noah's leg. It just, and what's so upsetting about it is the helpless nature of the victims, like in the case you have right now.

It's shocking. You know, again, Nancy, I told you, I mean, 25 years in law enforcement, I've seen some horrific things. People that are supposed to do no harm to people, and they go out and do this all the time. I will tell you there is, you know, we have a very, very, no, no nonsense policy

when it comes to harming people in our society, and I'll be honest with you, the most vulnerable, including our poor 18-year-old victim and these newborns, you know, there's, I said it before, there's a special place in hell for people like that, and our job is to actually bring them to justice and ensure they never harm another person again.

There's always a common denominator in these things. When you start to see multiple infants in the cases you're describing, there's always somebody that's working around the same time and you can never explain these fractures. That's really how you do these things and that's how you start looking. You know, the poor mother of our victim, she's not sleeping at night. I mean, it bothers her so much that she thought she was doing the right thing

by bringing in caregivers to get her daughter the best possible help that she could have all night long. And now she's devastated. I met with her again. I met with her last night. You know, we cried. I gave her a hug. She's doing the right thing now.

But it's horrible thinking that these cameras were in existence, but she had no knowledge that it was occurring. So now she is going back with us and we're looking at all these incidents for potentially more charges or potentially more violence

that that was happening under her roof while she was in the next room. It's heartbreaking. That's just to think. You're in the, very next room while your daughter is being tortured by this. Well, I gave up cursing when I had the twins or tried to. Dr. Jeff Kelleashefsky joining us. We're now a forensic psychologist. You told me what sadism was, and you explained it, the actual psychological or psychiatric definition.

But when you add the factor that the person, the praise on someone so helpful. Okay. That's got to be another facet to sadism. Oh, for sure. I mean, with sadism, sometimes people do it for the control. They get someone who's not under control and they have control over them. That's not occurring in this case. So this particular sort of sadistic behavior and maneuver to me is even more disturbing because the aim of it is not necessarily to get control of the victim. The victim was already under control. But the actual sort of pleasure that this person gets out of inflicting pain on this helpless victim makes it more concerning from a forensic perspective about this person's dangerousness. And particularly if they don't go to prison or when they

get out of prison, this kind of thing doesn't necessarily go away. And I'd be very concerned if this perpetrator had access to victims again. The victim's mother provides police officers with four pictures of the injuries the victim had to her face and eyelid. The officer observed red marks and scratches around the mouth of the victim and red marks on her eyelid where it appears skin had ripped off from the tape. $0.99 per month for new customers their first year. Ring in 2026 with a domain and matching email at godaddy.com slash new year. That's go daddy.com slash new year to own how you show up online. Crime stories with Nancy Grace.

Hired to care for a vulnerable teen, now charged with aggravated abuse, via heirs, turned herself in, but not. for disturbing footage surface and a mother demanded justice. I want you to listen to the audio that goes with the video. We just showed you

where 24-year-old Nia Ayers is told what she's being charged with. We're being charged with aggravated disabled persons abuse. They disabled adults. Okay.

Did you hear what she said at the very end? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. She's just told, Chief, that she's being charged with aggravated. It kind of got blurry right there, but I think it's going to be aggravated assault on a disabled person or aggravated abuse of a disabled person. What is she actually charged with at this juncture, Chief? So that's what it is. It's aggravated abuse of a disabled adult, and the Florida statute is 825.102, subsection 2B.

So that's what she's facing right now. And again, there's going to be potentially more counts that we're looking at now. We're reviewing all videos. I know you're not a shrink, chief. But what is wrong with these people? Number one, I will never try to make an excuse for anyone like this, nor even try to understand why they do these things. Nancy, but I think it is important that we recognize that there are still a lot of health care workers that are out there that do the right thing. I'd be remiss if I did not say that.

Like you said, you've had some great health care workers. These are the anomalies that float in and out of this profession and any profession that we have in our society, law enforcement officers, attorneys, anywhere. There's people that probably should not be doing the profession they're in. These people will just continue to out themselves over and over again, thanks to social media, to videos. And I will tell you we will be there.

Law enforcement is going to be there, and we will hold them accountable, highly accountable, and ensure that justice is served on these poor victims that are unable to basically help themselves. Well, Chief, of course, you're right. You're right. For instance, when I hear about a lawyer that does something despicable and horrible, it makes me feel terrible. Or when a member of law enforcement abuses a defendant, whether they're guilty or innocent, I feel like it's a kick in my stomach. The vast, vast majority of health care workers, doctors, nurses are amazing. angels. But this woman, oh yeah, she's having supper with Satan, and it's not going to be long. If you know or think you know anything about this case or other cases connected to 24-year-old

Nia Ayers, dial 407-891-6700. Nancy Grace, signing off. Good night, friend. That business idea you've been sitting on, this new year. Stop waiting for the perfect time. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to build your website, logo and marketing. In minutes, not months, no tech skills, no excuses. Just your idea, made real. Get started at godaddy.com with GoDaddy Arrow. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.