Crime Weekly - S3 Ep183: Crime Weekly News: Woman Puts Baby In Oven

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

On February 9th, police in Kansas City arrested 26 year old Mariah Thomas on suspicion of killing her one month old baby by placing her in the oven. She would be charged with first degree endangering the welfare of a child, as well as death of a child. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're going to get right into it today. This is a sad one. I hate cases that involve children. But that's what we're here for. We're here to talk about these cases and kind of discuss them at length. So let's get right into it because this won't be a fun one. On February 9th, police in Kansas City arrested 26-year-old Mariah Thomas on suspicion of killing her one-month-old baby by placing her in the oven. Terrible. Stephanie, fill us in on the details, please. So the details are still pretty sparse, but I wanted to talk about this case today because I think it's been a

representation of what I've seen in the news as far as crimes go. And that is this pattern of, it feels like so many people are committing these violent crimes, not against strangers, not even for some financial motive like we've seen in the past. It seems like people are lashing out violently against their own family members. You have many, many stories of parents. And honestly, I'm scrolling through and it was very disheartening for me. I mean, my patrons can attest to this, that last week when I was looking at these cases, I got very upset because it's just one case after another. Parent kills child, child kills parent, brother attacking brother, things like that. And it's just a very, I think, sad representation of where we are as a society right now, where there's so much anger, so much chaos that people are now lashing out and harming those closest to them. And in this case with Mariah Thomas, you know, she says she placed her child in the oven accidentally, which obviously we don't believe that.

So according to the probable cause affidavit, Thomas told her grandfather that she accidentally placed the baby in her oven because she thought she was putting her baby down for a nap in the crib. So instead of putting this one month old baby in the crib, she put her in the oven and then turned it on. And so we're supposed to believe that she actually mistook the oven for the crib. The baby girl was reportedly found in her car seat near the front door when police arrived, and the affidavit said she had sustained apparent thermal injuries on various parts of her body, and her clothing appeared to have melted onto her diaper.

Obviously, this one-month-old baby did not survive. Investigators also located a baby blanket with significant burn marks, and it was the grandfather who called 911, not the mother, Mariah. And Mariah Thomas was arrested and charged with first degree endangering the welfare of a child and death of a child. So a judge has set a $200,000 cash bond for Thomas, and she's not allowed to have any contact with witnesses in this case if she does post bond. The judge also ordered her to take any medication as prescribed and complete a mental health evaluation. So I'm not sure if this judge is referring to previous prescriptions Mariah Thomas has been on or if Mariah is getting some mental health help while she's in custody and they're going to prescribe her medication at that point, this little sentence from a recent news story has kind of given me an indication that this woman, Mariah Thomas, is going to try and plead, you know, not guilty by reason of mental insanity or something like that.

She may try to go the postpartum or PPD route. Postpartum psychosis, maybe. Maybe postpartum psychosis. But at this point, it's like, I wouldn't buy that. I would not buy that because you put your baby in an oven and then turn the oven on or you turn the oven on and then put your baby in the oven. And then you sat there in the house while your child died in the most arguably inarguably, I think, horrific way possible. The most horrific way possible. This was not this was not quick. This was not painless. This was torture for this one-month-old baby girl. So I hope I'm not being too controversial by saying that I hope Miss Mariah Thomas fries. Like, whereas at Kansas City, I don't know what their death penalty situation is like, but I wouldn't mind seeing her hit the electric chair and get a little taste of

her own medicine, to be honest. Can I say that? I don't know, but I just did. I don't know how you feel about it. So I could see a world, I don't just say the opposite just to say the opposite. I mean, I could see a world where this is a case of postpartum psychosis. We've talked about other cases in the past where there appeared to be more premeditation that went into the whole situation before. leading up to the event, I could see a world where this turns out to be a case of postpartum psychosis. But to make it more broad, the world's in a bad place. The world's in a bad place. Globally, we got multiple wars going on. More here in the home front, we got just a country economically that's completely screwed up. There's a lot of divisiveness amongst the country as far as on different issues, socially, politically, we have a border crisis.

We have just a lot of things going on. And whenever you turn on the news, all you do is hear about bad things. I mean, we just had the Superbowl champions. It's, you know, the irony of talking about Kansas city just had a parade where you have a mass shooting at the celebratory event because a couple idiots decided to make it about themselves. And the reason I bring all of that up is to say, we definitely have a mental health crisis in this country as well. And I think a lot of those issues that people are experiencing are being compounded by them turning on the news and seeing nothing but bad things. I think it just really puts even the strongest-minded people in a bad headspace.

I agree. It put me in a terrible headspace last week. I wrote to my Patreons because I was going to do a Coffee and Crime Time, which is usually current cases, and I said, I can't do this right now. I'm going to read to you right now. I'm scrolling through. Illinois father sentenced for fatally drowning three young children as retaliation against their mom. Man arrested for allegedly fatally shooting newlyweds during robbery. Mom who jumped onto Ohio train tracks after twins were found dead in car arrested. Tennessee man served life in prison for killing girlfriend's two-year-old. A missing five-year-old boy's body found in sewer drain near Cleveland. His foster mother took him. Idaho man gets life for killing and nearly decapitating his mother. You know,

and there's just one after another, a lot having to do with parents killing kids, honestly. And eight-year-old boy in Virginia in coma after being shot in the head while playing video games. This is horrible. And I told my patrons, I said, I have to pick an older case right now to do next because literally mentally, I felt so crushed that I was in a state of freeze for an hour. I just kind of sat at my desk and I was like, I can't do anything right now. And I do. We do this stuff all the time. So when that happens to me, it's a sign to me of like, this isn't just me perceiving things to be extra bad right now. They are extra bad right now. They are.

They are. And if you're already going into it in a bad space and then you read everything going on around you and it's bad, bad after bad after bad. I do think it can exacerbate a bad issue already and make you and really make you wonder, like, why am I here? Why am I here? Or maybe what's the point? Yeah. Should I have should I have children here in this world? So I don't know what was going on in her head at the time of this incident. But I think overall what you're're saying here, not necessarily this specific case, but more importantly, the news that you're seeing, like you just said, going scrolling page after page, hearing about these different types of crimes specifically against

their own children, and you ask yourself, why? Why is this happening? And by no means are we going to have those answers. Well, I think I have psychologically in times of very strong chaos and despondence when people feel out of control of their lives, which I can safely say. I mean, I I feel often during the day and, you know, I'm like, what is what am I? I don't even make I don't feel like I make any decisions that actually everything's decided for me based on my schedule and based on what I have to do. And I'm starting to feel and that's why I stay up late. Right. Psychologically, if you stay up late, later than you know you should, it's because you're trying to almost gain back some control over their situations, over their future, they lose hope. And what they will do is they'll strike out at those who are weaker than them, those who have less control and less power. And it gives them a sense of being back in control again and having some sort of power. And it's like in this angry lashing out thing at somebody who's smaller and weaker than you. And that's the same thing with bullies. That's why bullies do it, you know, hurt people hurt people, that kind of thing.

So I understand why in these times where people are struggling to pay their bills, when people can't find jobs, when people are consistently just angry with each other. You know, I can't even go out without somebody getting in a fight at a store or being rude to a cashier or yelling at a waitress or something like that. It just feels like everybody's angry and it feels like the pot's boiling and it's about to boil over. So what do you suggest when people are feeling this way? How do you suggest that they kind of cope with it and stay in the moment so that they do not do something like this or something not even as bad as this, but just yelling at people, road rage, getting into, you know, fights in public. How do you suggest that they kind's a lot of people who are experiencing some type of mental health some of the traumatic things that I went through and how I got through them. More surface level, what I will say, and it's related to these road rage incidents that we see that result in death and things like that.

What I have found, specifically with things like social media, all those different situations, is when you have this impulsivity to react, what I would recommend doing, and again, and this is exactly what I wrote about in my book, and I can't take credit for it because I got it from the guy that I was seeing at the time, Richard Carino, who was a police therapist or psychologist. He kind of worked with me on some things, was to take a walk or take a, just a pause and wait about five or 10 minutes before saying or doing what you initially thought was the right thing to do. And as you sit there, at least what I have found is as you sit there and think about it, you start to think about the potential ramifications of your actions because you got nothing but time. You want to just get it out,

but you're waiting and now you're thinking, okay, well, if I say it, they're probably going to do this or they're probably going to do that. Well, what happens if they do this? What happens if they do that? And by the time that five minutes is over, 10 minutes is over, a lot of what you were feeling has dissipated and you no longer feel that urge to react the way you were planning on reacting, whether that's saying something or doing something. And even like for a road rage incident, I would always recommend don't do it. It's just not worth it. We see all the time now where you don't know who you're interacting with.

They could have a weapon on them. And is someone cutting you off and responding to them really worth your life? Obviously, the answer is no, emphatically no. So I would just say in general, we all just have to step back, take a deep breath. And I feel like being grateful for the position you're in and acknowledging that not everything's gonna be perfect ever and it's not about trying to solve every single problem that you're dealing with immediately that day. It's about taking them as they come

and as cliche as the statement sounds, just putting one foot in front of the other, you know, day by day. We're all going through it and I think that should actually bring us more together. Understanding that we're all going through our. And I think that should actually bring us more together. Understanding that we're all going through our own battles mentally, personally, financially, and then obviously socially. We're all, we all have the same fears. You know, a lot of you guys come and watch us

or listen to us and think, you know, where you're, I hate to say it, but like your entertainment for the day. And I think sometimes, especially when you guys meet us at CrimeCon, it's like, oh, I can't believe like I'm meeting you. And it's like, we're just like you. The only difference is our job entails sitting in front of a camera and talking about it with other people watching. But Stephanie and I have the same issues and same problems that you guys have. And we have maybe in some cases more. Yeah, I was just going to say, I feel like I have. As Stephanie's sitting here playing with like a stress ball slash putty to try to control her anxiety. I mean, we're definitely going through it, folks. That's what I was going to say. Like you said, this should bring us all closer together, right? And that's one of the main problems is that we no longer even hang out with people in person, right? So something that I have really come to

understand is the difference between like when you and I were young, because we're both 40, you know, let's just say we're 40. I know it's disgusting. I hate it. We're 40. We just turned 40 this month. And I remember a time when things were so much simpler and that was before smartphones. You know, you'd wake up and you'd hang out with your friends in person and you'd play, you know, you could even play video games or computer games with your friends, but you'd be with them in person doing it. You'd go to the mall together. You'd go driving together. You'd go out to eat together. You were outside.

Now we all sit in our houses, put on headphones or VR goggles, and we play with our friends this way, but we're alone. We don't necessarily feel alone, but in general, we are alone. We're not connecting on a human level. We're not having those experiences that we would have if we're actively hanging out with other humans on a day-to-day basis. We don't get enough sun because everyone's inside. We don't go out. We have DoorDash. It brings us our food. Everything gets delivered to us. We don't have to go out. We don't have to. We have DoorDash. It brings us our food. Everything gets delivered to us. We don't have to go out. We don't have to interact with people. And at the end of the day, yeah, that's causing a big thing. Our faces are constantly in our phone. And if we don't think

that our faces constantly being in our phones is affecting our mental health, then we have another thing coming. Because I guarantee you, down the road, I don't know how long, but they're going to put out studies that are like, oh, why did this whole entire generation of people just suddenly develop depression and anxiety? And, you know, and all of a sudden it's like on the rise. Yes, it has a lot to do with how the world is, but the world's been bad before. Look at World War II. You know, you think people were running around happy then, but right now, not only do we have everything going on, but we have what we consider to be an escape in our cell phone, but is it an escape or is it another prison? And that's

what I want you to ask yourselves today. Boom, mic drop. Go outside, get some sun. Go outside, get some sun. Go outside, get some sun and just remember we're all going through it. We're all going through it together. It's hard. It's hard. Find someone you can talk to about it or just be here with us. And we're telling you right now to your faces and if you're listening, to your ears, we're going through it too. We're concerned about the same things that you guys are concerned about. We're looking at the world around us and even close to home, our backyards. And we have children and we're parents and we have the same fears that you have each and every day. I mean, just the other day they were talking about this new potential threat from space with Russia and nuclear weapons that could take out our satellites and kill.

It's always something. So worry about the things you can control and put the things that you can't aside because creating this level of anxiety about something that you can't change, it's not really worth it. It's not worth it and all it's going to do is stress you out and it's going to bleed over into other areas of your life. And that's what you were talking about earlier,

perspective, right? Yeah. Be thankful for what you have and that's like whatever, but it's just perspective, which is like, I cannot change the world. But in this small circle of my family, my friends, my community, I can make a positive change. And that's going to have to be enough. And I can do that by being nice to people, being kind to people, volunteering if I can,

making sure that the people in my life have everything that they need. And that's going to make you feel good. But it is about perspective, being in the moment, which is incredibly hard for me. And I do scroll past those. I saw something about the Russia thing. I saw like there's a meteor that's supposed to hit soon or something. And then there's like, yeah. And then they're talking about like China and Russia have like these bombs that can like disturb like our electronics and stuff.

And they're just going to like shut down the power grid. And every time like you're watching and you're like, oh, this is interesting. I should know this stuff. But at the same time, you can feel like your heart rate go up and you're having a physiological reaction as well as a psychological reaction. So sometimes if you're in a certain like frail state and it's OK to be in a frail state mentally, 2023 has been the hardest year of my life as far as like a personal and like mental health level. It can't get worse, I feel. That's what I have to say. And it can only go up. I have to do things and I have to

figure out ways to not allow myself to spiral down. And I guess what we want to tell you though is it's going to be okay no matter what. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And kind of bring this back full circle because we kind of went off there, but I think it's important that we did. Mariah Thomas, my final words on her is if there's any proof whatsoever that she wasn't in the right mind state and that this was a conscious decision, what you said earlier, I don't think I need to say it again. I'm on board with you. I feel the exact same way. If we find that there's a- You mean the death penalty? Because Missouri is one of the handful of states that has consistently executed people

in the last five years. I know some people don't believe in the death penalty. I do. I think you do. For this? If you purposely put a one month old baby in the oven and turned it on and there was no, yes, and there was no, and you have no evidence or proof that it was like a psychological thing and she had no control over herself.

If she actively and consciously put that baby in the oven and let it burn to death and tortured it like that, then yes, yes, you do not deserve to live. And honestly, doing something like that, I feel like you kind of knew that already, right? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to see how it plays out. How can you do something like that and live with yourself? I of knew that already, right? Like, yeah, I mean, it's how can you do something like that and live with yourself? I don't even understand. I could never. I think what it comes back to is most people listening or watching this are going to say, how could someone under the right mind frame do something like this? There has to be something wrong. And on the surface, I would agree with you. We'll have to let it see how it plays out. I'm sure there's going to be defense for her as there should be. And we'll see what the court decides.

I remember back in the day, like the days of like Casey Anthony and stuff, you know, nobody was like, oh, there has to be something wrong with Casey for her to do that to her child. You know, I know she's not guilty and whatever, but like all of a sudden, is this happening more because so many people are using mental illness as an excuse for why they did it and they're getting off? That's the question I would like to know because we can't excuse every time somebody kills their child and say like, oh, they must not be right in the head. I mean, obviously, but not being right in your head doesn't mean that you're clinically and legally insane. So there's days I'm not right in

the head. I'm not like putting babies in ovens. No, I definitely think we have a serious issue on our hands. And I think it's why we've seen such an increase in the mass shootings and these types of crimes. I think there's a serious problem right now. I don't have the solutions for it. I think we just need to have better programs and resources available for people so that they can get the help they need because it's out of control. It's really out of control right now. And as parents, I think it's a scary time. It's a scary time to be in it. But as Stephanie said, we will get through this. We always do. Any final words, Stephanie? No, it is just that we will get through this. We always do. Any final words, Stephanie? No, it is just that we will get through this. All of you out there listening, we'll get through it.

And it feels hard, but you're not alone. And we all are kind of on the same page. We're all relating. And talk about it in the comment section if you're watching on YouTube. Our community and us will be here to support you, to listen, to talk, and to just even if we can't say anything productive, we can just say, yeah, we completely feel that. Like just having the understanding that somebody else understands what you're going through can help sometimes. Agreed. Just hang in there. Agreed. Hang in there, guys.

We appreciate you being here. Stay safe out there. We will see you later this week with a new case. And I'm not going to spoil it right now, but it'll be coming out on Friday for audio. Highly requested. Highly requested. Highly requested. There you go. There's your teaser. We'll see you Friday if you're on audio. See you Sunday if you're on YouTube. Stay safe out there. Have a good night. Bye.