Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Zone 7: The Search Warrant That Led Investigators to 16 Children _ Angenette Levy
Episode Date: September 13, 2026While executing an unrelated search warrant, law enforcement discovered 16 children in an isolated Ohio home, ranging in age from 18-month-old twins to an 18-year-old. Parents Gary Siders Jr.... and Elizabeth Siders face neglect allegations, while Gary Jr. has also been charged with misdemeanor counts of public indecency. All 16 children were taken to the hospital for evaluation after being removed from the home, with several requiring additional treatment. In this episode of Zone 7, Sheryl McCollum talks with Law&Crime correspondent Angenette Levy about the case. Angenette describes the deplorable living conditions inside the home, what school and truancy records reveal about the children’s years away from the classroom, and the medical treatment some required after being removed from the home. She and Sheryl also look at how an entire family could seemingly disappear from public view and what is known about how the household was being supported financially. Angenette closes the episode with a remarkable story of the day she was assigned to cover an active Amber Alert and ended up finding the missing toddler at the center of it. Highlights: (0:00) Sheryl introduces Angenette Levy and explains why she turned to her for the latest on the Ohio case (3:00) Authorities execute a sealed search warrant and unexpectedly find 16 children inside the Ohio home (5:30) What is known about the public indecency charges against Gary Siders Jr. and what remains unclear (8:30) School and truancy records raise questions about the children’s years away from the classroom (12:30) A neighbor recalls seeing children run toward the house and later came to believe the property was vacant (15:00) Reports about the conditions inside the home (17:15) Angenette looks at public benefits, a local diaper bank, and questions how the household was being supported (20:00) The role schools and mandated reporters can play in identifying children at risk (22:45) The children’s medical treatment after being removed from the home (26:00) Angenette shares how she found a missing toddler while covering an Amber Alert (33:00) Where the children are now and the additional support provided through therapeutic foster care Enjoying Zone 7? Leave a rating and review where you listen to podcasts. Your feedback helps others find the show and supports the mission to educate, engage, and inspire. --- Angenette Levy is a correspondent and host with Law&Crime Network. She has covered major trials, including Steven Avery, Kyle Rittenhouse, and Derek Chauvin, and was Emmy-nominated in 2015 for a story in which she helped find a missing toddler during an active Amber Alert. Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an active crime scene investigator for a metro Atlanta police department and the director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, which partners with colleges and universities nationwide. With more than four decades of experience, she has worked on thousands of cold cases using her investigative system, The Last 24/361, which integrates evidence, media, and advanced forensic testing. Her work on high-profile cases, including The Boston Strangler, Natalie Holloway, Tupac Shakur and the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynching, led to her Emmy Award for CSI: Atlanta and induction into the National Law Enforcement Hall of Fame in 2023. Social Links: Email: coldcase2004@gmail.com X: @ColdCaseTips Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum Instagram: @officialzone7podcast TikTok: @Sheryl.McCollum Sheryl’s new book, Swans Don’t Swim in a Sewer: Solving the Cold Case of the Flint River Killer’s Daughter, is available now wherever books are sold.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Y'all, Anginette Levy.
is a correspondent and host with Law and Crime Network.
Y'all know her.
You respect her.
You can count on her when she tells you something.
She has been nominated for an Emmy when she worked for TV in Ohio.
She went to the University of Cincinnati.
She actually, and I don't know if y'all know this,
but I find this extraordinary,
that when she was covering an Amber Alert case,
she actually helped rescue the child.
So she ain't just your average reporter.
She ain't just out there in the field saying,
okay, we're going to do a little bit of talking
and then we're going to get back in the van and leave.
No, she is boots on the ground.
If something's going on, let's handle it.
So I could not think of anybody better to bring on
to talk about the updates, if there's any,
of the 16 children that were rescued
in Ohio, again, her home state. She doesn't just know the territory. She knows how to put a case up
ethically. So a lot of people are already saying some of the stuff we've heard isn't true,
like the family, they weren't squatting in that house. So let's just bring her in here
and see what we can find out from her, because again, she lives it. She lives this every day.
So, Anginette Levy, welcome, welcome to Zone 7. Thank you for having me, Cheryl.
I'm so happy to be here.
Are you kidding?
This is an honor for us.
You know, looking at your ex account, it's like you move pretty quickly.
But even though you're moving quickly, your stuff is pretty solid.
You don't just put a sound bite.
Like I sometimes think people know what I'm talking about.
So I may just say, hey, big news today on blank case.
And I move on.
You don't ever do that.
You explain it.
exactly what the reader needs to know a little past and a little during and a little after.
So I, for one, appreciate it.
Oh, well, thank you.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, I strive to be accurate and just tell people what I think they need to know and explain it,
you know, in a way that everybody can understand because not everybody, you know,
is sitting around reading legal documents all day long like somebody like me does.
And, you know, you know how it is, Cheryl.
I mean, you're a crime scene investigator.
So you read stuff all the time that other people may not fully understand.
So you've got to break it down.
And you know, you're hitting on something that I think we are watching in real time with the Nolan Wells case.
And that is whoever says it first, that's who's believed.
And it may not even be true.
It may be so far from accurate that it's really doing a disservice to the overall case.
But again, let's talk about what we do know here.
We know there were 16 children in a house that law enforcement didn't even know was going to be there, correct?
Because they were serving a warrant for something else.
Yeah, that's correct.
You know, the law enforcement, you know, the sheriff, the agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, went to that house with a search warrant.
That search warrant is sealed.
So we don't even know what they were looking for.
At the same time, there was also a warrant out for Gary Sider's Jr., the father of the 16 children, a warrant for his arrest.
There was a claim that he, or he's facing charges for misdemeanor counts of public indecency for exposing himself to someone who's not a family member at his home on four occasions between May 23rd and May 31st.
But really, they went there armed with a search warrant.
Like that's that was the main thing that they went there for.
And that's what they've told us.
So they had no idea when they went in that house.
This is what they claimed that they were going to find 16 children, you know,
ranging an age from a set of twins who are one and a half up to an 18 year old.
So and we came to discover that the mother of the children, Elizabeth, that she's been
pregnant nearly every year since 2008.
So her last three, actually last four.
birth that she had. She gave birth to twins. One of the twins, lots of twins was born,
conjoined and died on the same day that the twins were born. So they went in there for one thing
and then had to go once they found the kids, went and got a search warrant for another crime.
So there you have it. It's shocking. It is shocking. And you know, one thing that I thought about
almost immediately, when you're talking about 18 months old to 18 years, I thought,
is there any chance the 18 year old has had a child? Yeah, and we were kind of wondering that too.
We have not been told that. As far as we know, because we've gotten birth certificates for
the children, all 16 belong to Elizabeth and Gary Jr. So that's our understanding from the records,
whether or not the 18-year-old has given birth to a child, we do not know.
But, you know, even his accusation of exposing himself, that is concerning because you're talking
about 16 children in a 12-by-12 space.
I mean, there ain't a lot of places to hide, y'all.
No.
And, you know, the language was very specific in the complaint.
It said he exposed his private parts to someone who was.
not a member of his family and that it happened at the home. So did it happen outside? And I've seen
people online saying, oh, he was, he was, you know, going to the bathroom off the porch. He was
peeing off the porch. We don't have any information to support that right now. And this was a very
isolated area. I went out there. And, you know, there's a set of railroad tracks across the street
from the home. And then there's a neighbor like two or three lots down. And then a
trailer across the immobile home across the railroad tracks that sits a distance away.
So please tell me who you think he was exposing himself to because I talked to one of the neighbors
and there was no mention that he had exposed himself to her. So something happened and we just don't
know what it is and we don't know what that other crime is that they went there to investigate
with the search warrant. I don't think you get a search warrant for, for
four misdemeanor counts of public indecency?
Not at all.
You've got to have probable
calls for a search warrant.
And when you have four separate counts, as you know,
the, you know, accusations could change
slightly. The victim could change.
The location could change slightly
from the front porch to the back porch.
But again, if there's a pattern of behavior,
they're going to, I'm sure they've already done it,
but sees his cell phone.
if there's any other electronics in the house.
They're going to see if he's got anything that would substantiate that behavior.
And here's all I'm going to say about somebody peeing off the porch.
If you're peeing off the front porch, you need to go to jail anyway.
Yeah, I mean, nobody really needs to see that.
I mean, come on.
Just go in your backyard.
Go in the backyard.
If you really want to be one with nature, there are a lot of places you cannot be seen at that house because of all the brush.
So if that's what you feel you need to do, yes, I agree with you, Cheryl.
Go to the back porch.
I mean, that's the advice from me and Angelette Levy.
If that's why you're here, you're welcome.
Thank you, y'all.
Go to the backyard, get behind a tree.
I mean, good Lord, that's pitiful.
But when you have got 16 children and the oldest one can't read and they don't have social skills
and they're basically nonverbal, that ain't poverty, y'all.
And that to me is beyond neglect.
Yeah, I would, I would tend to agree with you, Cheryl.
You know, these people, the last time that these children were registered for school and they,
and they had to have been was back in 2021 because they were living in a neighboring county.
It's called Gallia County.
And actually, you know, to step back just a second, when I first started reporting on this case,
I was told that the children's services agencies or one of them, something happened where the family had had some contact with a children's services agency in Gallia County.
And that is why they moved.
And so, you know, that was very curious when we heard that.
And so fast forward to what I was beginning to say about Gallia County.
The last time we knew that the kids were even registered in school, it was the six oldest children.
And that was back in 2021 because the school district went to court as they're required to do under the law and filed truancy complaints against Gary Jr. and Elizabeth.
And basically in those documents, the school district said, your children during this 2021, 2021, 2022 school year.
And it was October when they went and filed these have not been in school.
And they've exceeded the bar for truancy.
You know, they've missed 72 hours.
of school instruction time.
And so they filed these complaints and they said, you know, and you've been warned about this.
They said that.
You've been warned that your kids need to be in school.
So they go to serve these, the sheriff goes to serve these complaints on Gary Jr.
and Elizabeth.
And they go to the house, I guess, where they were living, the address listed on the complaints.
And they're gone.
They're not there.
So the kids would have to have been registered for school in order for them to be truant.
So somebody at some point registered those kids for school.
I'd like to know who.
I would tend to think it's possibly Elizabeth, the mother.
Why wouldn't you want your kids going to school?
You know, especially if you're poor, if you're poor, you can go to school and schools will offer services to children.
And a lot of times, and it's very sad.
I've said this many times that children who come from impoverished background,
or, you know, their families just don't have a lot of money.
Sometimes that's where they get their meals.
Is that school?
Let's be real.
Looking at the house they were taken from, schools got toilet paper.
Yeah.
Schools got running water.
Schools got air conditioning and heat.
Plus the meal.
Are you kidding?
They would not have missed a day of school if they could have helped it.
Of course.
And you really wonder how.
are these children functioning? Because, you know, you can't, you can't say you're homeschooling a child,
but then just keep them home and not let the state know. That's not how it works. So how literate
are these children? Are they able to write? I would, I would say the younger ones more than likely,
you know, especially the ones who are like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, you know,
how old they are. I would think they probably can't, but we don't know that for certain.
But we know that, you know, and we're wondering and still trying to figure that out,
we're the older ones ever in school, you know, because the 18-year-old in 2021, that's five years ago,
about five years ago, she would have been 13. So did she ever attend school at all?
And I'll tell you something that's amazing. It is a standard maneuver.
mover for families that they think social services is owned to them, they move.
Yep, most certainly.
I mean, that's not uncommon.
That's not uncommon.
But I think that it is uncommon to have 16 children who you are basically hiding in a house.
And that's the allegation here.
I mean, these children were not outside.
I spoke with a neighbor out there at the Omer Street address.
And I asked her, I said, you know, have you ever seen a child around?
here. And she said, well, a couple of years ago, she said a couple of years ago, she saw a couple of
children outside in the yard playing. And she said they were skinny. But she said when those children
saw her, they ran toward the house as if they were hiding. I mean, that's the feeling she got.
And so that was the only time. And that was two years ago. She said that she saw children outside
that home. She actually thought that the home was.
was vacant because it had been so long since she had seen somebody basically outside the house
and she drives by it all the time. She said that she used to see the grandpa, Gary Sr., sitting out
on a green bench that's out on the walkway. And she'd wave, you know, just neighborly thing to do.
You wave when you drive by. And he'd waved back. But she said she hadn't seen him in some time outside.
So she thought everybody moved out.
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Now, Anginette Levy, I know you have a sister.
I have four.
how long could you and your sister be stuck for a snow day or y'all got in trouble,
whatever the reason was you were stuck in your room? How long would that last? You know,
I don't know, not long. I'll tell you. Not long. I mean, you go to your room and think about what
you did. Maybe, okay, no, I'm going to my room and think about what I did you. Maybe, you know, when
you're a kid time moves so much more slowly, but I don't know, maybe an hour. I have no idea. But we,
you know, when we were kids, I remember even we were told, you know, get out of the house.
Go play. You know, go outside. Go play. Like we'd try to turn the TV on. My mom would walk
right up to that TV and turn it off and she'd say go outside. I'm just telling you, our neighbors
knew there were five girls in that house.
You know, we would have parties, we would play basketball,
we would roller skate.
I mean, we were out doing stuff all the time.
And I cannot fathom a small space with 16 children.
And then, again, with some of the reports that we've heard,
and we don't know what all is accurate to your point,
but some of the stuff that they pulled out into the yard,
it was pretty clear that it wasn't the greatest living condition,
but they have made reports of human waste and trash and cockroaches.
I mean, that's just nightmarish.
So, you know, you've got 20 people in a house,
and I can remember back in the days when Walt and I,
we might not have had too much money in college.
But, you know, we could get a condo at the beach
that had one bedroom get 15 people in there and have a great weekend.
Yeah.
I wouldn't want to do that today.
No.
But, you know, for a weekend and we're going to spend most of your time, you know, out in the beach and carrying on and then going to nightclubs and whatnot.
But for an extended period of time, you know, once it starts to go bad, there ain't no cleaning up.
And when you're talking about human waste, there's no way to make that okay.
Not at all.
And the human waste part of this is what we're talking about.
really I don't understand. It is beyond me how you have people and it appeared, Cheryl,
from the photos I've seen and none have officially been released, of course, but people have gone
into that house and some have been posted online. It appears that there's actual feces,
human feces, on the floor. That's what it looks like. And it looks like bugs and tracks.
And, you know, I don't care if you have a plumbing problem.
Like, figure it out.
Go call somebody, call your landlord.
But you can't call the landlord if you've trashed their house.
And you're had 16 children.
Correct.
So it makes about zero sense to me how this could have happened.
And Elizabeth, the mother, from everything we know, she was going to a diaper bank.
at the in Hamden there that, and it may, it may actually not have been in Hampton.
Actually, pardon me.
They're in Benton County.
The village of Hamden's very small, but she was going to a diaper bank at least once a
week.
And sometimes she would show up twice a week, but you're only supposed to go once a week.
She obviously needed items.
But the question I have, too, is why wasn't anybody working?
The older adults, the grandparents, I can have.
understand that they're not working but if you have 16 children why first of all i don't know how
anybody would do that in this day and age um i remember my grandfather he was one of 14 but this was way
back when you know when they didn't have birth control um and you know that they were they came over
from scotland in wales to his parents and they had 14 children and basically the old some of the
older children were practically like mom and dad to the younger kids because you're basically
the whole family's raising each other.
So that's a different kind of time in a different era that was in the early 1900s, of course.
But in this day and age, I don't know how anybody could raise 16 children.
And if you are raising 16 children, why isn't one of the parents going out and working
to support the family doing something.
That boggles my mind.
And let's just say that all four are on some type of Social Security because they can't work.
But if all four adults are in the same house, that's at least four checks.
You should at least have food.
You should have formula.
Yeah.
And we're still trying to gather information on that.
The formula, I think they might have been able to get at the diaper bank.
But I'm not sure there were four checks.
I've been trying to dig into that quite a bit.
And it's really hard to get that information from the Social Security Administration.
You know, it's private information.
It contains medical information if you're on a younger person who's got a disability.
But the older adults, for sure, grandma and grandpa were getting benefits.
And the prosecutor said those are the two that they know of who are receiving benefits.
And then another curious part of this was I went to the Dollar General and one of the employees told me they would come in and pay with.
a food card, which is basically a SNAP, EBT food stamp card, you know,
that's what we used to call food stamps.
Where did they get that?
Did it belong to the grandparents?
Was that their card?
Where are you getting the SNAP benefits?
Because that is something that should be tracked as well.
Here's was also blowing my mind.
I say this a lot.
Teachers to me are basically profilers.
Yes.
If you've been teaching seventh grade for 30,
of years, that kid hit your doorway, you know, this kid is an athlete or this kid is shy,
or this kid is going to be my problem, or this kid is going to be valedictorian. You know,
and you know in between, right? You can tell if somebody is a secondborn or the baby. You
already know. Day one, you ain't got to talk to them. Watch the way they come in your classroom.
I am stunned, but I'm sure COVID had something to do with it, that there isn't a teacher or two.
that was raising the alarm to say, where did they go if they haven't been registered somewhere else?
Because, you know, teachers are mandated reporters, as you know.
And I can't believe that a handful of teachers weren't pitching a fit.
Of course. And that's another thing, too.
Why weren't you sending your kids to school?
Well, because teachers are mandated reporters.
So what was going on in that house?
what was going on with that dynamic with that family,
that you wouldn't want to send your children to school.
Was there some sort of abuse taking place?
Of course, you know, keeping a kid home from school and not sending them to school and hiding them is abuse and neglect, most certainly.
But was there more going on?
Was this a physically abusive household?
Was this an emotionally abusive household?
Was there something else?
happening? We don't know. But some of the social media profiles, we are fairly certain are the
children, contain some information that really makes you wonder what was happening inside that
home. Well, it's pretty clear they were trained. If they ran toward that house when a neighbor
who had no reason to bother them at all, they knew stay hidden. They knew that. Well, that comes from
somewhere and it's not a good place. And any house that gets into that shape, I mean, this ain't in
my will house, but I can only imagine there has to be some type of mental issue going on for
anybody to live that way. Most certainly, you know, it goes beyond what I would think of as hoarding
or any type of thing like that where people who hoard, I've, you know, read a lot about. I've, you know, read a lot
about this, people who hoard material objects, they sometimes do so because they've got an emotional
attachment to that or it represents like a feeling that they have for somebody. And it's a very hard
disorder to treat. I actually had a family member who was a hoarder. It's very, very difficult to
treat when you go to a therapeutic setting. But, you know, they surround themselves with these items.
that is not what this is.
I mean, this is literally throwing trash on the floor.
You have trash service.
They had trash service.
So why was nobody in that house picking up trash?
And why are you letting people go to the bathroom on the floor and animals?
And it wasn't just that house, Cheryl.
We went to the house in Gallia County, the one where they tried to serve them with the paperwork for the truancy.
And, you know, I was, the photographer said that he, he met a woman and we're, you know,
we're out there talking to her. And she said that her boss rehabbed that house. It's on honeysuckle.
And that he had to rehab it when they moved out because it was so trashed. There was human feces,
urine, you know, animal feces. They had a lot of cats. So I'm assuming this was cat feces.
which is super gross.
I mean, like cats, you know, you've smelled cat stuff before.
It stinks to high heaven.
But it was the house had all of that in it.
And that there were kids clothes kind of up in the attic as if somebody had been living up there.
And she said, you know, her boss had to redo this house because it was so nasty after they left.
So you've got a pattern of living like that.
Where does that come from?
Because if I'm a woman, I don't care how tired I am.
I don't care how, you know, whatever is going on.
I'm not letting my house have trash all over the floor and poop on the floor.
Let's just be frank.
I don't want to be disgusting, but that's what it is.
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
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You have got seven children that when they were taken out of that house had to seek medical treatment.
one was airlifted, one was critical.
Well, again, that to me goes beyond, you know, okay, there was some trash.
No, the house is killing them.
That's an interesting point, too.
And I actually think it was, I thought that more, I knew at least one had to be airlifted.
I thought another one had been too.
But some of the children were taken to level one trauma centers.
And those are the most serious trauma centers that you can have as far as
hospital goes. So all of the children were taken to the hospital to be checked out. And some were
thankfully treated and evaluated and released. But then there were some that were in there a few days.
We don't know how many because they won't tell us all of that information. It's protected.
HIPAA information. But yes. I mean, one of the children had to be intubated, they said.
So you don't want to be somebody unless, you know, they're having trouble breathing.
That's right.
Well, Angelette Levy, let me tell you something.
I can let you get out of here without telling us about the child that you helped rescue.
So that's a crazy story.
It was a Monday.
And I remember I was so tired.
And it was right when, you know, our little guy, we had brought, you know, a couple months after we had brought him home from the hospital.
So, you're a new, you know, you're a new mom.
And you're not sleeping at night.
that I went to work and, you know, I go out on this story.
I already had my story shot for the day.
So we, my photographer and I, we were at a park wrapping up our shoot and we get a phone call from the news desk.
You need to go to, you know, Milford.
There's an Amber Alert for a child.
The child was taken by her stepbrother, her older stepbrother.
And they don't think he's going to.
to hurt her, but he's he's a man who's struggling with addiction. He was addicted to drugs. And he had
gone to a pawn shop to sell a TV to buy drugs. And his mother saw him take the TV out of his
biological father's home and she knew what he was going to do. So she drove to the pawn shop to stop him
and to tell the pawn shop, do not give him money. He's an addict. So don't buy that from him. He just took it out of his
dad's house. So while this whole thing is going on, her son, she left her keys in her car.
Her son jumps in the car, takes the car and goes downtown to buy drugs. And the child was in the car.
So they don't think he's going to hurt the child, but they can't find the child anywhere.
They can't find the child anywhere. And they're freaking out. Of course. They're like,
oh, my God, bring my toddler back. Like, what are you going to do to our toddler? So I go out to the
neighborhood. I start knocking on doors and, you know, the parents didn't want to talk. They were so
upset. And of course, you know, you're just waiting. Like, where's my car? Where's my child? Where's my son?
You know, the whole nine yards. So I said, well, I'm going to go down and knock on the father's door.
And somebody was like, well, he's out of town. He's not going to answer. Like, okay, well, guess what?
You do it anyway. It doesn't matter. So I walked down the street with my photographer. Actually, we drove. And he was, he said, just come get me if you need.
me. And I said, okay. So I walked up to the door and I knock on the door. And all of a sudden,
this dog just starts going crazy and barking. And I hear a child crying. And I'm like, and it,
it didn't really click for a second. And then all of a sudden, I knock again and the dog's going
crazy again, starts barking. And the child's screaming and crying, you know, the whole thing.
So I look through the window because they had some Venetian blinds and I see a little girl standing in the middle of the floor and a dog just kind of walking around her in circles and barking.
And I was like, oh my God, that's got to be the baby.
Unbelievable.
What is going on?
So like my hands are like shaking and I'm like, oh my God, I think this is the baby.
So I call her, I call the mom because I had gotten their phone number.
And I said, hi, I know you don't want to talk to me.
I was just at your house, but I think I found your daughter.
And so I run over to the car and I'm like banging.
I was freaking out because I'm like, oh my God.
Like, because you're still covering the story.
And so I bang on my, the news car window.
And I'm like, Brian, get out of the car.
Get the camera.
get out. I said, I think I found the baby. And he was like, what? And he's free, he just jumps out of the car, grabs the camera out of the trunk. I like go back to the, I go back to the window of the house. And I'm trying to get in there because I'm like, how do you get this baby out of the house? I was afraid the dog was going to hurt her. So I put my hands up against the window. And I'm like sliding the glass, trying to open it with my hands to get the window open. And then, um,
The mom comes running down the street, the dad, and the dad, he tries to bust open the door.
And I was like, don't do that.
You're going to hurt yourself.
I'm opening the window.
And the dog's like poking its head out.
And then a neighbor's like, oh, the dad jumped head first through the window of the house.
This is all on camera.
I might have messed up a couple of details, but I don't think I did.
And then mom had gone around the back and gone in the back of the house, got the baby, and they came out.
Unbelievable.
And you're just rolling tape the whole time.
Right.
And then I called the police chief.
It's so funny.
I called the police chief.
And he's like, I said, I found the baby.
He's like, what?
And I was like, I found the baby.
Because I had called him earlier.
He's like, what do you mean you found the baby?
And he's like, where did she?
I said she was at, she was.
at, you know, the kid's dad's house down the street.
And he's like, what are you talking about?
We looked there.
I'm like, well, I don't think you looked enough.
Yeah.
Because the baby was in the house.
Sitting here looking at her, sir.
So I call.
And then he called me back later.
And I was shell shocked.
Like, I was just like, I couldn't believe this.
I was so like, I can't believe this just happened.
It freaked me out.
I was like, like my skin was tingling.
And I remember the police chief called me back.
And he was like,
Can you tell me again what happened, like how you found that?
I was like, I literally went and knocked on the door and she was crying.
She was there.
He's like, we looked.
I'm like, well, you must not have because she was there.
So there you have it.
Unbelievable.
And here you were a brand new mama.
So you understood that feeling she must be having.
I mean, you would be losing your mind if your child wasn't in front of you where you could see them.
And that, and that, I think that's why it shook me up so much.
because I know like just from there were times where my little guy would run off in the store,
you know, like we were in a shoot carnival one time and he ran down an aisle and I couldn't,
I was like, come back here and I couldn't find him for like 30 seconds in my heart.
Yep, I get it.
But you know, what great advice for anybody listening if they're a reporter, if they're a young detective,
if they're a rookie officer, if they're a new teacher, go anyway.
Yeah.
It doesn't matter if something.
somebody says they're not home.
They're not home.
They've already looked.
Go anyway.
Fabulous advice.
Well, thank you so much.
I tell you what.
And Jeanette, just, I love what you do.
I love the way you do it.
And I appreciate you being with us to talk about a case that I think is going to get a little more horrifying before it gets good.
But I just appreciate you.
And you did tell me when we were speaking off air that the children are in.
foster care that has some type of rehabilitation? Yeah, it's called therapeutic foster care.
And yeah, those parents are trained to deal with kids who have emotional and behavioral issues.
So they have a, it's additional training above and beyond what a typical foster parent would
receive. Well, angels walk among us, y'all. There's some right there. But,
Ingenet Levy, thank you, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Cheryl, I appreciate it.
Y'all, I'm going to end Zone 7 the way that I always do with a quote.
Even if they survive the squall, they emerge broken, having lost one of the things that
matters the most in the process, their childhood.
Anna Demir Poulet.
I'm Cheryl McCollum, and this is Zone 7.
This is an I-Heart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
