The Misery Machine - Mom Lets Creepy New Boyfriend Kill Her Daughter

Starting point is 00:00:00 In her obituary, the four-year-old's family says she will be sadly missed. Prosecators say her final months inside the South Milwaukee home were filled with pain. Her body covered in bruises inflicted at the hands of 22-year-old Jerome Millen. The girl was found dead there Friday. Millen beat her, held her underwater, even bit her. Authorities say the girl's mother failed to get help. On Friday, February 28th, 2020, at 7 in the morning, Police officers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were dispatched to a two-story home on the 400 block of Montana Avenue in South Milwaukee.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Police were greeted by 21-year-old Christina Collado, who advised the responding officers that her daughter didn't have a pulse and was not breathing, and that she had found her in this state. The four-year-old in question was Autumn Marie Horrick, an adorable little girl with bright eyes and curly red hair. And although first responders attempted life-saving measures, Autumn was beyond help and pronounced. dead at the scene. Now the death of a little girl who hasn't even had the chance to go to school and make friends and grow up is beyond tragic. But what police and first responders responded to was much more than just an unfortunate accidental death. Dressed in only a diaper, little autumn's pale skin was littered with purple bruises, including a large bruise on her head, bruises on either side of her jaw that were circular in shape, as well as bruising on her forearms and sternum. Additionally,

Starting point is 00:01:28 Autumn had a large burn on her knee and what police described as human bite marks on her thigh. Like many mothers that we've covered in past episodes, Christina first tried to explain away her daughter's injuries to police's mere accidents. However, she eventually admitted that her boyfriend, 22-year-old Jerome Millen Jr., had been systematically harming Autumn. Christina told police that she had seen Jerome bite autumn two separate times and admitted that if she had properly protected her daughter, the little girl would still be alive.

Starting point is 00:02:00 And again, like in a few cases we've covered in the past, most notably that of Amber Bobo, we have a situation where the mother's boyfriend is yet again causing harm to their partner's kids. And that is kids, plural. Aside from four-year-old Autumn, who now was deceased, Christina shared a one-year-old son named Grayson with Autumn's father, Kyle Horrick, and currently was pregnant with Jerome's baby. It is important to note that 21-year-old Christina and 22-year-old Jerome, had only been dating for eight months the time of Autumn's death, and Christina was already at the end of her second trimester,

Starting point is 00:02:34 according to a post she made on Facebook three days prior to her daughter's death. Now, this is not a slight against young mothers with multiple kids. There are many amazing moms out there of all ages, and there are bad moms of all ages too. However, with the information that we currently have in front of us, I think it is safe to say that Christina wasn't making the best life choices, especially not for her kids who relied upon her to make proper decisions. Christina went on to describe to the officers the scene that played out that

Starting point is 00:03:02 morning. She went to make a bottle for her son, heard a loud banging noise, and went on to described seeing Jerome going too far while trying to force Autumn to go to sleep. Now, what Christina meant by going too far was Jerome was slamming her daughter's head into the floor twice, and then he proceeded to smother her with a pillow. But where was Jerome, you may ask? Well, Well, Jerome took off prior to the 911 call and was later apprehended at a friend's house. When officers questioned him about what happened, he didn't mince words. He admitted to harming autumn and told them specifically that he had covered her mouth on multiple occasions in an attempt to get her to sleep.

Starting point is 00:03:41 And when police informed him that she was dead, Jerome's response was, so my life is over. He then went on to say, quote, If all the injuries caused her to die, it's my fault. If she suffocated, that is my responsibility. And I killed that child. An autopsy performed by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office revealed that Autumn's death was a homicide caused by suffocation. Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbenson said that if allegations against Jerome and Christina are true,

Starting point is 00:04:12 Autumn was tortured over a period of months. Now, it wasn't just Jerome and Christina that failed Autumn. A whole cast of characters knew that Jerome had been hurting this little girl and no one did anything to stop it. According to police, Christina's father, Jason Collado, had told them he thought Jerome had been harming his granddaughter for some time. Jerome's own mother told police that her son sometimes disciplined Autumn harder than it should have been. One of the most egregious cases a failure to report was probably that of Jerome's own sister, who told police that she often heard Jerome yelling at autumn and striking her, followed by the little girl bursting into tears and that she often saw bruises on her body on multiple occasions.

Starting point is 00:04:53 The sister also mentioned to police that Jerome threatened to cut out the little girl's tongue when he thought that she was lying. She told police, I knew something like this was going to happen. Allegedly, about a month prior to Autumn's death, she tried to bathe the little girl, who began to freak out, as she put it. This wasn't the normal protests of a toddler that didn't want to take a bath either. When asked why she didn't want one, Autumn told, Jerome's sister that she was afraid of baths because Jerome would hold her head underwater so she couldn't breathe. The sister told police that she had never confronted Jerome about the misconduct or reported to authorities because she was afraid of him. She then went on to state, quote,

Starting point is 00:05:34 Autumn is dead and I guarantee my brother did it. He deserves to be behind bars. It was way overboard. I should have called CPS because maybe she wouldn't be dead. Jerome was charged with CA resulting in death. Christina was charged with chronic neglect of a minor resulting in death, which is a Class B felony. Ultimately, Jerome was found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, along with two counts of CA intentionally causing harm, which are all felonies. According to the state of Wisconsin Department of Corrections' inmate listing, Jerome's release date is scheduled for November 25, 25, 25, 2003, with the maximum discharge date of May 25, 2067. Christina was found guilty of felony chronic neglect of a minor causing death. She is due to be released on February 25, 2025, with a maximum discharge date of February 25, 2030.

Starting point is 00:06:27 Autumn's father, Kyle Horrick, gave an emotional statement in court, stating, quote, they ruined more than one life. They ruined so many peoples who she was their first grandchild, first niece, so many people confused, so many kids her age, and I just don't feel like, 45 years is enough. Kyle also told news sources that Christina was keeping autumn from him and that he hadn't seen his daughter since late January. They had no idea she was being mistreated by Jerome.

Starting point is 00:06:56 He said, quote, I want people to know her memory because I don't want her memory to ever go away. I know it won't with me and my family. But people need to know that too. She was the best little thing ever. She didn't deserve this. End quote. As we mentioned prior, Kyle and Christina also had a one-year-old son, Grayson, to

Starting point is 00:07:14 At the time of Autumn's death, Grayson was placed in foster care and Kyle was fighting to regain custody of his son. Although there aren't any official reports confirming this, it appears that Kyle succeeded in regaining custody based on pictures he's posted on his Facebook page. Kyle's family started a fundraiser on Facebook to cover some of Autumn's funeral cost, which raised $5,616 of its $7,500 goal. As we always state in cases like this, if you see something, say something, Five adults failed Autumn Horick, and these weren't adults that just had a hunch or weren't sure what was going on. These were adults that witnessed this young girl being harmed. Autumn's grandparents both saw it with their own eyes. Jerome's sister even admitted she knew that eventually Autumn would be killed,

Starting point is 00:08:02 that Autumn had even confided in her what had happened. And still, the idea that she was about to be killed was not enough of a reason for Jerome's sister to make that call to save her. There is absolutely no reason that this little girl should be dead right now. We always try to close with any information that we could share about those who were killed, and unfortunately there was very little that we could share regarding Autumn. However, we did find a little bit about her and her obituary that shined a light on who she was in life. Autumn was born in Milwaukee on October 6, 2015. Autumn's family described her as a chatterbox, who loved talking to anyone and everyone.

Starting point is 00:08:39 She enjoyed taking trips to the zoo and days spent playing at the park. Autumn had a creative imagination and loved books and being read to. She liked to watch Paw Patrol and educational videos on YouTube, and she adored Minnie Mouse. Above all, Autumn loved spending time with her favorite and most important person, her baby brother Grayson, who unfortunately will probably not have much of a memory of his older sister as he gets older. If you appreciate what we do, please consider subscribing. Bain, it goes a long way to help us raise our platform. We also have a very wonderful group of people going that extra step to support us on Patreon.

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The Misery Machine - Mom Lets Creepy New Boyfriend Kill Her Daughter

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