The Misery Machine - Why Are Maine Parents STILL Killing Their Kids?

Episode Date: November 14, 2021

This week, Yergy and Drewby review two new cases of child neglect and death in Maine, and provide you with an update on the three cases from our first Maine Child Deaths story from June.  To report suspected child abuse and/or neglect call Intake 1-800-452-1999, if you are deaf or hard of hearing call 711 (Maine Relay). A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Levi's Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/6b9e4f07 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Buy Us A Coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/miserymachine Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/11/08/news/central-maine/oxford-county-3-year-old-overdoses-on-heroin/ https://bangordailynews.com/2021/11/08/news/central-maine/childs-death-leads-to-700k-drug-seizure-in-oakland/ https://bangordailynews.com/2021/10/18/news/midcoast/maddox-williams-mom-pleads-not-guilty-to-her-sons-murder/ https://lawandcrime.com/crime/maine-woman-indicted-for-depraved-indifference-murder-of-3-year-old-daughter-who-overdosed-on-fentanyl/ https://bangordailynews.com/2021/06/04/news/bangor/prosecutor-brewer-father-was-handed-happy-cooing-baby-who-was-unresponsive-15-minutes-later/    

It's been six months since we first started our series on child deaths across the United States, starting with a few cases that made news in our own state of Maine. Today, we have some updates for you on the cases that we covered previously in June, and other cases of children being harmed that occurred more recently. So just this week, a three-year-old child overdosed on heroin in Brownfield, Maine. Brownfield, Maine is a small town on the New Hampshire border right by Freiburg, which is where one of the biggest fairs in Maine takes. place I was just there, but thankfully, this toddler is expected to make a full recovery.

So the child's mother, 29-year-old Jocelyn Henry, had left her unintended in a room at their Main Street apartment, and when Henry returned to check on her daughter, the child was unconscious from ingesting heroin that was left within her reach. Thankfully, the child was taken to Bridgden Hospital where staff were able to save her life. Henry was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and a lawful possession of scheduled drugs. Child Protective Services were notified, but there hasn't been any information released on whether or not any action will be taking place against Jocelyn Henry. Yeah, parents, please keep medicine, drugs, whatever, out of the reach of children. This happens more often than you think.

It does. And I'm not even just talking about illicit drugs, just anything. Keep it out of the reach of kids. When I was one years old, I almost died because an older relative was taking care of me. and they found me on the bathroom floor completely downing a bottle of blood pressure pills. And thankfully, I threw it all up because I wouldn't be here. Yeah, you weren't even taken to the hospital. No, I wasn't, but I digress. In another sad case, 21-year-old Ashley Malloy of Oakland, Maine, called 911 on the afternoon of November 2nd to get help for her 14-month-old son, Carson,

who was pronounced dead after arriving at Inland Hospital in Waterville. Police said the cause of death has not yet been determined. However, after a preliminary investigation, police procured a search warrant for the home they shared and found fentanyl, methamphetamine, and crack cocaine, as well as over $2,000 in cash. The estimated value of the drug seized was roughly $700,000. Malloy was charged on November 4, 2021, with Class A aggravated trafficking and schedule. W drugs. She was arrested and released on unsecured bond. So it doesn't actually say why Carson died, but I am going to go ahead and assume maybe he got into drugs as well. That's the rumor. That is the rumor. So let's give some updates from the last episode. So 35-year-old Jessica

Trefithin of Stockton Springs. You may remember her from our thumbnail, the last main child case. She pleaded not guilty in the death of her three-year-old son, Maddox Williams. Trefithin was charged by police in June with depraved indifference murder after an autopsy showed Maddox had suffered a fractured spine, bruises on his arms, legs, belly, and head, as well as bleeding in his brain, a ruptured bowel and other injuries. She was also indicted on the same charge in July by the Waldo County grand jury. Trephathan, accompanied by her attorney, Caitlin Smith, responded to the questions posed to her by Justice Robert Murray. He asked if she understood that, if found guilty, she could be sentenced to as long as life in prison, to which she responded that she did. Maddox's grandmother, Sherry Johnson of Stockton Springs, also was charged in the aftermath of his death

after allegedly concealing Treffithin's whereabouts from police. It's been nearly four months since Trefithin, who has five children, brought Maddox to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, Maine. She told emergency room staff that he had been knocked down by a daughter. log leash and kicked by his eight-year-old sister. But Maddox wasn't breathing when he got there, and hospital employees were unable to resuscitate him. The cause of his death was determined by the main medical examiner's office to be multiple blunt force trauma that was inflicted non-accidentally. Trephathan, who disappeared for a few days after her son's death, later told police that Maddox had been knocked down by a puppy and had fallen off a trampoline as well. But again, the

The medical examiner's office told detectives that all the boy's injuries could not have been caused by falling off a trampoline or being knocked over by a dog. Maddox also had three partially healed abrasions on his face and forehead that were covered with temporary stick-on tattoos. He also had deep tissue bruising in his buttocks and was missing three teeth from what appeared to be at least two different events. So I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to understand reading the description, hearing the description of this. This was caused by abuse. Yeah, we had some folks comment

prior that, you know, everyone should be deemed innocent until proven guilty and, you know, folks might be very surprised this could have been an accident, but this does not, and I reiterate, not sound like some sort of accident. No, it doesn't. Children are fairly resilient when it comes to falls or, let's say, getting knocked over by a puppy. They don't break bones. And, and get their teeth knocked out in just the amount of trauma. Especially off a trampoline. The number of times I can count as a teenager or a kid watching one of my friends fall off a trampoline

in a way that would probably cripple an older adult. It's hard for me to think that this type of damage, these types of injuries came from falling off a trampoline or being run into by a dog. I just don't buy it. No, I don't either. So 36-year-old Ronald Harding of Brewer was charged with manslaughter

in his infant child's death. Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robin told Superior Court Justice William Anderson that the baby, who was not named in court, died from being shaken violently. She also said that the infant's mother saw what happened to the baby while in the father's care.

Harding, who has no criminal history, was not asked to enter a plea to the charge. because he had not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury. A trial is not expected to be held before the next year due to the tremendous backlog of criminal cases stemming from the curtailing of court activities during the pandemic. Harding called 911 a Memorial Day to report that his infant was unresponsive and not breathing. The baby was taken to northern light eastern Maine medical center in critical condition, and unfortunately was pronounced dead the following day.

Two days later, police arrested Harding. Justice Anderson set bail at $3,000 cash and ordered that Harding have no contact with his wife or children under the age of 12. Three older children who are not Harding's are with relatives in Northern Maine. Conditions under Harding's contract with Maine pretrial services also include not possessing dangerous weapons and a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., unless he must be gone overnight for work. And it found guilty honestly, I don't think he's going to do much time. Unfortunately not. And if this surprises you, take a look at previous incidents of parents killing their children. How much time do they actually get? I can't think of one who did life in prison.

I'm sure it's happened, but it's rare. It's very rare. He's only going to get a few years, if that. If that. If that. So this next one, we actually got a whole bunch of information on. 28-year-old Hillary Goating of Old Town has been charged with depraved indifference murder in the death of her child because she did not immediately seek medical treatment for the three-year-old after she overdosed on fentanyl.

At approximately 10.45 p.m. on June 4th, paramedics with the emergency medical services in Old Town responded to a call at Hillary Goetting's residence located at 149 center. Street, where they found her daughter Haley unresponsive. The child was transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for treatment, but she was pronounced dead two days later. Following Haley's death, officers took Hillary into custody and initially charged her with manslaughter. A judge set her bond at $50,000. The bond was later revoked after police said she called a potential witness in the case at least 12 times while she was being detained at the Pinaab Scott County Jail, and she was hit with an additional charge of violating the conditions of her release. An autopsy performed on Haley determined that her cause of death was a brain injury that was consistent with an opioid overdose,

and a toxicology report said that a urine samples screened at the hospital confirmed that the child had fentanyl in her system. Officers reviewed surveillance camera footage from Goding's apartment complex and provided a rough timeline of the events that took place on June 4th, which appear to indicate that Hillary spent approximately 20 hours carrying around Haley's limp and lifeless body before she placed the call for medical assistance. At approximately 4 a.m., a woman can be heard crying inside of Gauding's apartment. Moments later, Hillary emerges from the apartment carrying Haley, who was described as limp and exits the building. Approximately 20 minutes later, Hillary can be seen re-entering the building. she was reportedly still carrying Haley, whose arms and legs hung motionless and appeared lifeless.

They have her on tape. This is basically dead to rights at this point, in my opinion. Hillary then entered and exited her apartment multiple times before dawn. At one point, she could reportedly be heard saying, quote, you don't understand, what am I going to do? End quote. Then exits for several hours and returned at approximately 1 p.m. She was reportedly still carrying Haley,

who was once again described as appearing lifeless. Hillary doesn't appear on camera again until just before 8 p.m. where she was reportedly seen in the building's main hallway, still carrying her daughter's body. Phone records allegedly show that Hillary did not place the call to 9-1-1 until 10.48 p.m. And I guess we should mention, if you're wondering if this is potentially a postpartum thing, wait till you hear this next part.

So Hillary reportedly told police that she thought Haley had ingested heroin, which often contains varying amounts of fentanyl, after the child got into a plastic straw that Hillary used to take the drug. She allegedly said that Haley's behavior then began to change so she put the child to bed. She told police that as she put her down, Haley's breathing became raspy. It's also been reported that the main department of health and human services had been in touch with Hillary goading in the past, because Haley had previously. been treated after ingesting illegal drugs once before. And still, despite this, she was allowed to have custody of her child. So that one is just insane, completely preventable. Like we mentioned with cases like Brianna Lopez, not all of these are preventable,

but I would like to think most are preventable. And I'd argue every single one in here, absolutely preventable. In my personal opinion, when a child has ingested drugs once before, I think that the parent should be mandated to come in for drug screening on a very regular basis to make sure they're not using anymore. Not to mention be mandated to go through some sort of rehabilitation program. Absolutely. It's not even a matter of personal choice for an adult. It has to do with the safety of a child that doesn't know any better. say what you will about people using drugs or whatever your opinion on that is,

but now when you have a child that's dependent on you, that doesn't know what they're getting into, there needs to be some sort of accountability in order for you to protect them, in my opinion. So we'll have more updates for you as more information comes in regarding these cases. All of them are still obviously pending. I'm sure there'll be more in the news that we can share with you as a lot. comes up. And their trials probably won't be until next year, just given the speeds of the courts and everything. We ask every time we do this series, your thoughts on this. What can we do to prevent things like this? Whether you're from Maine or you're from elsewhere, what can we do to make sure

child protective services does their job? What can we do to prevent things like this from happening? I never growing up ever heard of a child overdosing on heroin. Not in my teenage years, not even in my 20s. And now this is something that I am more commonly hearing about. I mean, this is too, if we're going to assume the one child died of a heroin overdose, that's two in a week, basically. Yeah, that's frightening. And I have a hard time chalking that up just to coincidence.

It's very interesting because I might. myself and very much a person that's for treatment of drug addicts for harm reduction. But like you said, there has to be accountability when there's children involved. Absolutely. And I don't necessarily think that children need to be taken away, but there needs to be safeguards in place to make sure that the children are safe and that the parents are getting help to get clean. There needs to be strict screening.

Yes. If a parent who is an addict wants custody of their kids, I could see that working out. And I know we've had people in our comments come in. They're like, I was a former addict. And, you know, thank God I was able to have custody of my baby still. And I did everything right going forward. And now everything's great. That's wonderful.

But we have to make sure that the child is protected. And that doesn't necessarily mean taken away. But there needs to be screening and monitoring to make sure everything is being done right. Because that child cannot protect themselves. That child cannot defend themselves. and that child oftentimes either doesn't have a voice or doesn't know the language in order to speak up when things get dangerous. Going back to the story that we covered with the child death in Oakland's, the mother who was potentially selling $700,000 worth of drugs. Oakland appears to be kind of a small country town nestled between some larger towns or cities.

I mean, anybody out of a state would call them just towns anyway. it has a really sticky pass to it. So we had a listener contact us with knowledge of that school district. And they have told me many times that they have parents coming in on all sorts of levels of drugs screaming. A lot of the kids come in unwashed, unfed with lice, just like an extreme poverty and neglect. And down the street from the school, a couple years back, they're,

was a humongous mass murder that happened. Somebody came in and killed everybody in the house, and I believe it was over drugs in front of a toddler and then left the toddler there with the dead parents. So the fact that there was someone there selling almost a million dollars worth of drugs, this doesn't surprise me. I mean, especially in an area where some people barely make a million dollars in their lifetime. Even when I was in high school in the aughts, we had kids bringing in oxy cotton and things like that, that they stole from their grandparents, parents, you name it, because it was more prevalent then. And even still, our school was not considered to have a drug problem, even though I felt it was pretty rampant in our school. And the more rural schools out in western Maine,

northern Maine, people would talk about those places as being drug havens. And I'm not exaggerating at all. When you get further into rural Maine, there is not much else to do other than drugs. Yeah, it's just really weird how within about 20 years it went this way because it used to be a better school district. I'll just put it that way. It's a very strange dichotomy there because I briefly went to school there my senior year in the Oakland area and you have rural poverty and you have rural wealth. And there isn't much in between. I was like the strange kind of outsider. There's a big gap. A big gap. And so where I went to high school, which was levitt area high school in terms. This is a place that outside of the Lewiston-Auburn area, but still close to one of the bigger cities, and I use that term loosely, but it is considered a city. And there was definitely a gap there as well. But it wasn't as drastic as what you're talking about because we had more access to decent paying jobs where we were in driving distance. Yeah, it's very interesting. So you went to love it. the first part of my senior year, I went to Messalonski. That's the school district up there. But it went from, you know, kids who drove Rangerovers to school and went skiing every weekend to

kids and beat up cars and trailers. And we all know areas like that everywhere. But the problem is, is that this happens. And now we have these drug cases like you've highlighted and parents not really taking care of their kids. And these areas, especially, especially, when it's very rural Maine, just become forgotten. Add on top of that and overworked, understaffed child protective services, it's just a recipe for kids falling through the cracks. It is. Like the amount of work that they have to do in the school system to kind of support the

children because parents don't take care of them is insane. Do you know if all these kids are remote or back to school or some combination between the two? I think they're back to school. I think a lot of schools in Maine. and probably around the country have situations where they get sent back and forth. But from what I understood, they're mostly back in school. So if there's another thing I could ask all of the listeners, besides sharing your stories and your

thoughts in the comments section, it's to share this video with somebody else who would appreciate it. Because if any of our previous child episodes are any clue, this is going to get deranked by YouTube. Our comments are going to get turned off a lot. And this is just going to get hidden in search features. So if you appreciate this, please share this with someone who likes it. Like and subscribe. These things go a long way to help us.

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We love you. Bye.