The Misery Machine - Why Are New York Parents Killing Their Kids?

Episode Date: November 28, 2021

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss two tragic cases out of New York City in which two girls, Nadine Lockwood and Nixzmary Brown, were systematically abused and starved. Despite DHHS involvement, both young girls died at the hands of those who were supposed to be caring for them.  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://www.child-abuse-effects.com/child-abuse-of-nadine-lockwood.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Nadine_Lockwood https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1996/09/03/mother-let-girl-4-starve-as-she-fed-other-children https://www.deseret.com/1996/9/8/19264335/starved-girl-s-family-trod-a-troubled-path http://www.angelizdsplace.com/faceless9.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Scoppetta https://www.foundagrave.com/grave/nadine-lockwood/ https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nixzmary-brown-killer-told-stepson-sex-kin-source-article-1.1902820 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nixzmary-brown-father-settlement-child-abuse-death-2006/420143/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Nixzmary_Brown

Four-year-old Nadine Lockwood lived with her mother, 32-year-old Carla, and six other siblings in an apartment in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Carla was a drug addict, and Nadine and her sister Natasha were both born addicted to cocaine. Carla wanted to put Nadine up for adoption, but decided against it. Nadine's father, Leroy Dickerson, was an absentee father and lived separately from the family. Nadine was systematically starved over the course of a year, and specifically singled out for abuse by her mother, who admitted to police that she had hated the little girl, whom she referred to as it. Nadine lived in squalor, spending most of her life locked in a dark room on a foam rubber mattress instead of a rickety crib that had been covered with a blanket.

This was so that Carla did not have to look at her own child, who was often covered in her own bodily waists. Nadine was said to have peaked out from her prison from time to time so she could watch her brothers and sisters play. Sadly, but not surprisingly, Nadine was found dead on August 31, 1996, just a week shy of her fifth birthday. The city's medical examiner ruled that Nadine had died from malnutrition and dehydration. At a time when the little girl should have been getting ready to start kindergarten, Nadine's tiny body had been reduced nearly to bones. she weighed 15 pounds at the time of her death. Carla told police that she had not fed Nadine regularly for a year and did not seek medical help even when she realized the little girl was dying.

Even after the death of Nadine, Leroy Dickerson stated that he had walked away from his family and his responsibilities to them. Leroy had not seen his wife or his children in about four months and some reports state that they found just chicken bones in the crib with Nadine. Many neighbors said that while they knew the family's other children, they did not even know Nadine existed until after she died.

However, a few neighbors did know of the little girl. According to neighbor Catherine McDaniel, quote, she looked like a starving Ethiopian kid, end quote. That's her words, not ours. McDaniel said the authorities did show up, but apparently never saw Nadine. According to another neighbor, Leslie Forbes, she had been calling child welfare authorities regularly since Nadine's birth.

However, according to Children's Services Administration Commissioner Nicholas Scopetta, the agency had closed its files on the family. He said the family's last contact with the child welfare authorities was May 25, 1995. However, multiple agencies across the city had opportunities to save Nadine, but failed. In 1991, Carlo was provided an apartment by children's children's. Aid Society, which was a private nonprofit organization that actually had Skopeta as its president. According to that agency's records, Nadine was a month old when she arrived with four siblings and her mother in a renovated apartment on West 118th Street. The family stayed for eight months

at that apartment, during which time Carla was offered daycare, health services, job training, and other resources. According to staff members, Carla was disdainable. described as an overwhelmed parent. Carla often failed to get her children organized for school, and attendance was a recurring problem. She repeatedly refused to participate in parenting classes and job training seminars, and despite the offer of free medical care, it was difficult for the staff to have the children examined. Despite Nadine and her sister being born with cocaine in their systems, prompting investigations, that information was never shared with the children's AIDS Society.

The Lockwood family had been sent to the agency. as a housing referral. In some sources that I've found, the eldest daughter, her name was Nicole. Apparently, she had missed an average of 80 days of school per year and by sixth grade totally didn't show up at all. You think there'd be truancy calls. Around here in Maine, you get truancy calls

even missing like a day sometimes without any contact from the parents. Mm-hmm. So Carlo Lockwood was arrested and eventually pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Nadine's father, Leroy Dickerson, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life

for depraved indifference towards Nadine's life. Two of Nadine's teenage siblings testified against their father in court stating that he had been equally complicit in the abuse of Nadine. They also stated that they were encouraged not to tell anyone about the abuse and were instructed to say that Nadine

was visiting a relative in another state. allegedly while playing with his children Leroy threw Nading up against the ceiling and injured her back At one point when Nading was crying he said he would give her something to cry about Leroy stuffed Nading into a plastic bag and swung it around until the bag broke Nading's tiny body slammed into a nearby dresser causing a big gash above her eyebrow It was alleged that Leroy did nothing to help his daughter So I've also read that Leroy did show up to Nadeon

Nadine's funeral and it was in a chapel in Harlem and apparently there was a huge protest outside of folks that were there because of the treatment of Nadine and her death and a lot of them were screaming at Leroy that he should be in jail to or he should be dead to. Nadine became known in New York-based tabloids such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post due to the circumstances surrounding her death. The news media referred to her as the girl who was never loved, and followed the trials of both of her parents closely. Her story was also publicized because it greatly paralleled that of Elisa Isquiredo, who had been murdered by her mother nine months earlier. You might remember Elisa's case from her episode back in June. Both girls

have been singled out among their numerous siblings for abuse. The mishandling of Nadine's case was one of the factors that prompted a major overhaul of New York City's child protective services and protocols for investigating abuse allegations. So another really sad thing. We see this in a lot of child abuse cases that we cover. There's no pictures. There's no pictures at all. And I couldn't find any pictures of Carla, of Leroy, or of Nadine. And that is because they never took pictures of Nadine. Currently, there's a picture of a baby that they're attributing to Nadine online, but it's actually not even her. And some podcasts and other true crime publications online are posting a picture of a woman

they're claiming to be Carla, just because her name is Carla Lockwood. It's not her. I mean, that's not exactly an uncommon name. So it's kind of really irresponsible to take somebody's random picture and put that up as her. Yeah, it's a whole other woman who clearly isn't in jail, but they're attributing her picture to this case. This is one of my bigger problems of the true crime community is people just want a picture and they don't care if it's accurate or not. They'll just put it up. Yeah.

It's just really strange. She's Carla Lockwood that they're going after is a white woman. Carla and her family were African American. And the only reason I know this is because I found three clippings from the news. And that's all I have on this case in terms of imagery. And the baby that they're posting, I believe, looks Asian. and dissent. This could have easily been the situation with Brianna Lopez had that detective not taking the post-mortem photos and doctored them up. We only have a picture of her coffin, correct?

Yeah, the only picture known of Nadine is the picture of her coffin. That's so sad. When discussing both Nadine and Elisa's deaths, folks also bring up the case of Nix Mary Brown. So who was Nix Mary Brown? She was a seven-year-old child from the bedside section of Brooklyn with long brown hair and big brown eyes. The little girl had been confined to a spare room with dirty mattresses, a broken radiator, and an old wooden school chair which she was often bound to, as well as a litter box that she was forced to use as a bathroom. Brown had endured torture and was later learned to have been bound, molested, beaten,

and killed by her stepfather, Caesar Rodriguez, in a state of rage that began over a cup of yogurt and a broken printer. On the night of January 10, 2006, Rodriguez beat Nix Mary to death with both of his fists and his thick leather belt. Her mother, Nixili Santiago, ignored Rodriguez as he slammed her daughter's head into a bathtub and doused her with cold water. Nix Mary weighed just 36 pounds when police found her beaten to death, but her family's fridge was anything but empty. The refrigerator was full of milk, pancake mix, salami, tortillas, cream cheese, lettuce, and the yogurt that Nix Mary was punished for stealing the night she died. The New York City Administration for Children's Services, or ACS for short, had received two

complaints about Nix Mary's family. The first, made in 2004, remained unsubstantiated. The second complaint was made on December 1st, 2005, when Nix Mary showed up at school with a black eye. Blaine was eventually assigned to the ACS by the news media and six children's services employees were disciplined. There were also stories that investigators were swamped with cases, and the Bloomberg administration noted that the ACS was responding by hiring 525 more workers. In March 2006, a city panel created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in response to Brown's death advocated multiple changes, some of which included better communication with school officials regarding absenteeism, a 24-hour hotline, instant response teams, and new training for police

personnel regarding sensitivity to abused children. Under the changes, the police for the first time would assign a full-time supervisor to child welfare headquarters to be a liaison between the two agencies. Caseworkers would be required to seek entry orders when denied access to a home of a child suspected to be at risk of neglect or abuse, and school officials would have more license to alert the authorities when a student had too many unexplained absences. Nick's Mary Brown's funeral was held at St. Mary's Church on Manhattan's Lower East Side. There was considerable anger during her burial, with two sides of Nix Mary's family present. Caesar Rodriguez's sister, Iris, showed up unexpectedly, and her appearance prompted shouts by others to leave,

and at least one comment of her not being welcome. Nick's Mary's law was proposed in January of 2006 by New York State Senator Joseph Bruno shortly after the events. The law is designed to deter or prevent child abuse-related crimes by charging parents connected to the crime of the death of the death of the, their children with first-degree murder, the maximum punishment for which a New York state would be 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On March 18, 2008, Caesar Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. Rodriguez faced a maximum of 29 years for the manslaughter charge, as well as weapons possession and endangering the welfare of a child. On April 3rd, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice El Priscilla Hall sentenced Caesar Rodriguez to a term of 26 to 29

years in prison. He was given 25 years for first-degree manslaughter and one to four years for false imprisonment. Nixili Santiago was found guilty of manslaughter, the same verdict that Rodriguez had received. She was also acquitted on the more serious charge of second-degree murder. However, because she was previously convicted on four lesser crimes, which were assault for binding Brown with a bungee cord, blackening her eye, unlawful imprisonment and endangering her welfare, Santiago would face more time when sentenced on November 5th, 2008. A protection order was put in place to prevent her from seeing her other children. Santiago was sentenced on November 12, 2008 to 43 years in prison. However, on appeal, Santiago's sentence was reduced to 28 to 33 years. But our story does not end here, unfortunately, as a protection

order was not put in place to prevent Caesar Rodriguez from having contact with the children. In 2014, Nix Mary's 15-year-old brother was arrested after his adoptive mother told police that he sexually abused two relatives. And it had been reported that the teenager's stepfather, Caesar Rodriguez, had ordered him to commit the abuse. So, in closing, in 2017, Nix Mary's biological father received a $750,000 settlement from the city of New York after he alleged the city failed to protect her. These two are just many, many cases that we could have covered from the state of New York. If you want us to cover your own home state, or if you know of a case that we might have overlooked in a state we've already covered, please let us know either in the comment section or send it to us at MiseryMachine Podcasts at gmail.com. And if you've not heard our Elisa Iskirdo episode, please check it out.

I'll have it linked in the show notes. It's incredibly sad. As always, sharing this video, sharing our channel, sharing our podcast goes a long way to help our growth, as well as get these out here. These aren't very popular on YouTube, and YouTube, and I have the analytics to prove this, does not share these cases with non-subscribers as they do other cases we might do. This is a sacrifice we have to do to shining a light on cases like these, so what can you do in return to help us? You can share this case, share this with somebody that you think would appreciate it,

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