True Crime with Kimbyr - Cut From The Womb: Evans Family Murder Part 2

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

In this gripping second part, Kim delves deeper into the horrifying story of Debra Evans, a pregnant mother of three, whose life was cruelly stolen in a crime beyond imagination. Just days before her due date, Debra was brutally attacked in her own home by individuals she knew, including her ex-boyfriend and his accomplices. In a shocking and violent act, they cut her unborn child from her womb, leaving Debra and two of her children tragically dead. Against all odds, the newborn and one surviving child made it through this terrifying ordeal. Kim investigates the dark motives that led to this unspeakable crime and the devastating aftermath that followed, shining a light on one of the most chilling cases of fetal abduction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Tees told police that a fetus can survive in the womb as long as the mother's heart is beating. After the mother's heart stops, the fetus can only survive for three to five minutes. That meant the killer or killers had to work very quickly to perform the C-section. The reason Dr. T's remarked that there could have been more than one person involved in this murder is because it usually takes more than one person to carry out a C-section delivery in a medical setting. We will get into this in just a moment because investigators consult with another doctor, Debbie's obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Christopher Olson, regarding the possibility of Elijah still being alive. They had Dr. Olson look over Debbie's autopsy and the crime scene, and he told the investigators that the blood spatters that were around Debbie's body suggested her heart was still beating when Elijah was cut out of her womb, which meant it was possible. for him to still be alive.

This further brought up the question, how many people did it take to perform the C-section on Debbie? Dr. Olson said that when a C-section is performed in an appropriate medical manner, three people are required to deliver a child, two physicians and one assistant. He said if there was no concern for the well-being of the mother and child,

like there clearly didn't seem to be in Debbie's case, sadly, then fewer people would be needed. Dr. Olson said, however, he believed more than two hands would be needed to deliver a baby by C-section, particularly if the horizontal incision, such as the one on Debbie's abdomen, was made. Dr. Olson further explained that the incision used to remove the baby from Debbie's uterus was at the back of the uterus. Therefore, the uterus must have been pulled to the side or lifted out of the abdomen to make this cut. So according to Dr. Olson, it was unlikely,

that this could have been accomplished by one person alone. And I'm so sorry that I had to explain it the way that I did because it's terrifying and it's tragic. And that's why I told you this can be very triggering. I didn't know how sad I was going to feel about thinking about what Debbie went through, being so excited and anticipating the birth of Elijah and then thinking of her last moments.

It makes me so upset. And now I know I just said that two medical professionals gave their expert opinions on how many people it would take to commit a successful fetal abduction. When I use the word successful, I mean that the baby remains alive, which is the goal that these perpetrators have in these types of cases.

But what I want to point out is even though both doctors believe that it could have been more than one person, there have unfortunately been babies stolen from women who have been killed, and their babies have survived, and the C-sections were carried out by just. just one person. So it is possible. Investigators have a lot to figure out here because they're trying to think of the most likely suspect or suspects. You may have heard that the number one reason a pregnant woman is murdered is due to intimate partner violence. And the killer is usually their

spouse, boyfriend, or partner. Someone close to them that either doesn't want the baby or maybe the couple has broken up and the man doesn't want the woman raising the baby with someone else. The list goes on. But those are not fetal abductions. Those are murders of a woman and their child. Fetal abductions are quite different. In these cases, the perpetrator are usually women. Most times, they're women who can't get pregnant

due to medical conditions or other reasons, and they really desire a baby of their own. So they resort to killing a pregnant woman and stealing the baby right from the womb. In fetal abductions, the killer usually pretends that they're pregnant, they're pregnant for months until they can kidnap that baby. The whole idea is that they want to pass the baby off as their own as much as possible.

They often go through painstaking effort, creating things like fake ultrasound pictures and social media posts showing them looking pregnant. And they go to great lengths to make sure that their family and even their partner are duped. And many times, they'll have baby showers, among other events, to prepare for their new baby. all the while, what they're really planning for is to murder their victim and kidnap their unborn child. And sadly, one of the number one reasons women resort to this is to keep the man that they're with. Yeah. In a lot of these cases, their partner wants a child, or a child of a particular gender, for example, and they can't give it to him. So they think that he's going to leave. In order to make him stay, they can cock the plan to say to

steal someone else's child. Adoption's not an option because they want the baby to be passed off as their partner's child and fool him into thinking it is. All of this being said, investigators in Debbie's case are trying to figure out whether this is a true fetal abduction or more of a family murder where the killer intended to wipe out as many people in Debbie's life as they could, including her unborn child. But the fact that the baby was taken out the way that it was, led them to believe the perpetrator wanted the baby alive and not dead.

Since their only person of interest so far is Vern Ward, they wonder if they're on the right track. Sure, he wanted time with Jordan, who he claimed was his son and who Debbie initially claimed belonged to Vern. But we know that both of them have also made claims that he wasn't his. So why leave 22-month-old Jordan behind? You'd think the father of his own child, who had just been fighting with Debbie to see him would have taken him and that opportunity just snatch him up. Why take seven-year-old Josh? Why kill Samantha and Debbie and leave Jordan behind? It was a very complicated case.

But it stands to reason whoever took Josh, took Elijah too. So the hunt for these two boys is in the forefront of this investigation. Time is of the essence and it's ticking away. By nine o'clock in the morning, officers had arrived at Joshua's elementary school, hoping to gain access to not only information about friends Josh could be staying with, but contact information for anyone that knew Josh and could provide any information about his whereabouts, but they also wanted to inquire about whether the school had any insight into what the Evans' kids' home life was like. This is when things get a little contradictory from what investigators

had initially gleaned from family and friends of Debbie. They speak with the school's social worker Linda Claff, and she advised the investigators, that she had been speaking with Joshua regarding his home life. He confided in her that he didn't know who his biological father was and his mother lived with several men over the last few years, including her most recent boyfriend James Edwards. But here's the thing. Joshua would have no reason to lie about this,

told her that James had gotten physical towards him, that he'd slap him. He'd kicked him on numerous occasions. She said that Joshua had told her the beating stopped when James moved out last time and that Joshua called these beatings, whoopings. She said that she understood that James had moved back in the previous June, and that some of these whoppings had started again.

Linda also let the officers know that Joshua had fallen out of a tree in early September and broken his arm. She confirmed that he had a green cast on his forearm, which was just removed on November 16th at an unknown doctor's office. And I mentioned that earlier. On the same day the Evans family was last seen, Josh had just gotten his cast off his arm. Now, I don't think she was insinuating

that Josh's broken arm was a result of these whoopings from James, but she did mention the two together. Nevertheless, investigators make a note to not entirely rule out the possibility that James was somehow involved. It didn't seem likely given the timeline unless he had someone carry out these murders

on his behalf. The other information that was gathered from the school consisted of friends, of Josh that he hung out with, including their names and their parents' contact information. In case, Josh had somehow fled his home during the time his mother and sister were being attacked and went to a friend. Those individuals were contacted, but unfortunately, they had no information regarding Josh's whereabouts.

But soon a major tip was about to come in that would lead this investigation in the right direction and crack open this entire case, clue by clue. A 911 call came in around 1230 p.m. on November 17th. This is still the first day that investigators have been working on this case. Everything happened pretty quickly. So much was going on at once. This 911 call came in from a man named Dwight Pruitt. He said they was calling from a pay phone in the city of Villa Park,

which is about 10 minutes away from Addison, where Debbie's apartment was located. According to this caller, he had been watching the news. He saw a picture of Joshua Ryan Evans, and it was in that moment he realized he recognized that little boy. His girlfriend, Patrice Scott, had been babysitting a little boy the night before that looked exactly like him and had the same name. However, at the time, Dwight was calling, he told the operator that his girlfriend had left their apartment with that little boy

and that someone came to their apartment and took him, and Patrice went with them. He has no idea where they're headed. The dispatcher sent out two investigators and marked Villa Park police cars to the address provided by Dwight, 1649 South Michigan Unit No. 105. By the time they got there, Patrice was back. As you heard, Joshua's picture had been on TV

just a few hours after the murders. This case was one of the top stories in Chicago. And sadly, Debbie's family didn't know that her unborn baby was cut from her womb. Can you imagine finding out that way on the news? How heartbreaking. It was during a news conference. An officer explained that someone opened up Debbie's stomach

and removed the newborn that she planned to name Elijah. Just as Debbie's father, Sam, was seeing this on the news. His phone rang and it was a detective relaying the same heartbreaking information. Sam could not believe it. He was so upset. He asked, where's the baby? And the detective tells him, they do not know that they've been checking everywhere in bushes, trash cans, and dumpsters because they believe that he's probably dead.

And they're turning now to the media for help, hoping that someone out there has information about who could have done this. Investigators are hoping Dwight and Patrice can help. Dwight starts by talking to Detective Wall and his partner, first telling them what he remembers about Joshua being at their apartment. He told investigators it was one o'clock in the morning. He was on the couch in the living room watching TV. The heat of the night show was on when all of a sudden there was a loud knocking coming from the window in the front of their apartment.

Dwight looked out there and saw who he described to the police as, quote, a black female friend of Patrice's, end quote. He got up. He went to the bedroom. He told Patrice to come to the door and speak with her friend. She did. And Dwight said the two women talk for a few minutes. and then he saw Patrice bringing a small white boy who he now recognizes as Joshua into their apartment.

And the first thing Dwight notices is that Joshua's only wearing a t-shirt, boots, a jacket, and underwear. And he wasn't wearing any pants. And for whatever reason, Dwight called out to the boy and asked him, why are you dressed like that? And he said, because that's all he had to put on before he left.

At this point, investigators now turn to Patrice, for a complete understanding of why this child was supposedly dropped off at her apartment in the middle of the night. And she is reluctant to talk. She tells them she doesn't want to get anybody in trouble, and she doesn't want to get in trouble either. But before investigators could even press her on this matter, Dwight interrupted, and he began to yell at Patrice saying, quote, all the officers want is to find that boy. How would you feel if this was your child, you're going to tell them everything you know and you're going to tell them. them now."

Patrice explained that she lived there with her boyfriend Dwight and their three daughters, one of which was only about a month old at the time. As Dwight had already said, they got a knock at one o'clock in the morning and it was her friend Annette Williams, who was there to ask Patrice for help. Annette explained, her friend Debbie had been shot in a drug deal gone wrong and that Debbie's son Josh ran to her as he was running from the shooter. Annette tells Patrice she needs to find out about Debbie's condition and possibly go to the hospital and be by her side.

So she asked Patrice to please hold on to Josh until she could figure out what was going on. Patrice asked her, why did you bring him here? And Annette explained, the shooting happened on the west side and Patrice's house was close by. She promised she would be back at 9 a.m. to come retrieve Josh. When asked if Patrice noticed anything unusual about Annette's appearance, she said, not really. She had on a blue baseball cap and a green. dress, but it did look like she could have had some blood on that dress. There was kind of a brown stain on it.

Patrice tells the investigator she brought Joshua into the apartment and closed the door, and that's when Josh asked her, are you going to lock the door? The burglars are going to come looking for me. Patrice, even though this wasn't her normal habit, she locked the door so that Josh would calm down because he was really shaken up. She made a bed for him out in the living room, and Patrice stated that, Josh started to wake up crying hysterically at about 6 o'clock that morning. She asked him what was wrong.

She was trying to comfort him. And that's when Josh told her that four black men had come into his mom's apartment. Two men climbed through a bedroom window. His mom was pregnant and she was dead. And they cut her stomach. And they cut his sister. And there was blood all over and he had to go back and get his baby brother who was still in the apartment. Patrice stated that she asked Josh where he lived.

and he said, Indian Trails Pebble Ridge. She said, that's Addison. And he said, yeah, in Addison. Then Patrice asked Josh how he got away. And he told her that when the bad men left, he ran outside and that's when he saw Annette. And he ran to her and went with her. Investigators want to know who this Annette person is

and how she would be connected to Debbie. So Patrice explained they were friends, and they knew one another through Debbie's ex, Vern, that Annette is Vern's cousin. I know this is a lot to take in. The most important part is finding out where Josh is now. Remember how Dwight said to the 911 operator that he saw Josh leave with Patrice and her friend? Well, investigators want to know what Patrice can tell them about where they went with Josh and where he is now.

She explained that Annette did come back as she promised at 9 a.m. with her boyfriend Fidel, and they were driving their gray mercury sable. Patrice was in shock of what the little boy had told her happened to Debbie's. So she confronted Annette as soon as she got there asking what really happened. What is going on? She wanted to understand because she didn't want to be involved in any of this. And now she felt like Annette was putting her in the middle. Well, Annette gets really angry.

She told Patrice, don't listen to him. He's a liar. Annette stayed and talked to Patrice for a little while. And then she said she needed to go get something from Walmart and drop off Josh. Concerned for his safety, Patrice goes with them. Patrice tells investigators she knows they drove and she a town near where Annette lives in Schomburg near Hoffman Estates. Then she thinks they drove to Melrose Park down Charles Road. And Annette dropped Josh off at a house that had a gangway and a gray chain-link fence

in the front with a gate. Patrice explained that she does not know the address, but she knows she can take them there because she will remember it if she sees the area. And of course, time is taking by. So Patrice, Dwight, their baby daughter, and the two detectives get into a squad and they started to head in the direction that Patrice is instructing them to drive. Meanwhile, Detective Wall calls Detective Sergeant Somers and explains they need backup. They inform him of the situation and the location that they're going to be investigating

as a potential area where Joshua Evans could be. So Somer sends additional investigators out to that vicinity to assist with this search. After driving for about 20 minutes, they make it to a town called Maywood and they drove up been down the alleys as Patrice tried to recall where she saw Josh get dropped off. All of a sudden, Detective Wall thinks he sees something. He almost jumped out of the car while he was still moving. They stopped, and in the distance was what appeared to be a young boy that matched Josh's description lying on the ground in an alleyway between 20th and 21st streets

in Maywood. He radioed the other detectives, and they convened in that alley. There on the ground was a white male child with blonde hair, wearing a green, green jacket, no pants, bloodstained jockey-type underwear, and brown boots who appeared to be lifeless. It looked like he had been thrown from a vehicle and was now lying next to a possible abandoned house on the west side of this alley. Investigators called the Mayport Police Department for assistance and advised that they believed they had just located the deceased body of Joshua Ryan Evans from the Addison double murder. Wow, this is unbelievable. Detective Wall, Dwight Pruitt and Patrice Scott traveled to the Maywood Police Department for interviews,

and at the same time, Cook County Mobile Crime Lab officers were called in to conduct an extensive processing of the body before it was removed and brought in for an autopsy. Josh was dead. This was now a triple homicide. And still, there's no one in custody. It's unreal. It just keeps getting worse. And they still haven't located baby Elijah.

But at least they have some possible leads. Two new names, Annette Williams, who we know is Vern's cousin, and her boyfriend, Fidel, Kathy. So again, Vern's name is connected to this case. They need to track all of them down. In order to find Vern, they look up his current girlfriend, Laura Hughes, and her apartment in Wheaton, at 1709, Roosevelt, Unit 265, and they head out there. When they arrive, her roommate Jeff Leida answers the door. He tells investigators that he resides with Laura and her three daughters, but Laura's boyfriend, Vern had also been staying there. They asked Jeff, when's the last time you've seen him?

And he said that he saw Vern locked out of their apartment around 1015 the night before. He explained that they usually leave a window open to get in and out when Laura or her adult daughter, Christina, weren't home, but someone closed it. So Jeff used an ID to unlock their door. And he said that Vern was home for the rest of the night. And then they went to bed. And then at 4 a.m., Verne woke Jeff up, told him to drive him out of the door. the Chicago in Laura's car because he couldn't drive manual transmission and he wanted to go pick up some things and party. He said they were home by 8 o'clock in the morning.

He's not really sure what Vern did after that, but he knows that Laura got up around that time and he doesn't know where they are now. As the investigators are interviewing Laura's daughters and looking around the apartment with Jeff's permission, guess who pulls up out front? Laura and Vern. Laura was driving and Vern was partially laying down in the back seat. no one was in the front passenger seat. They immediately told Vern not to move and for Laura to stop the vehicle. Then they instructed Vern to exit the car

with his hands in sight. He cooperated. They patted him down and then they placed him into the back of a police car to be brought to Addison for questioning. Laura willingly comes down to be interviewed as well. It is now 2 p.m. They ask her if she knows Debbie and how she knows Vern

and what her relationship is to them. Laura explains that she's been dating Vern and he's been living with her and her three daughters and her roommate, Jeff. She says she knows Debbie as one of Vern's exes and the mother of his son Jordan and that she's currently pregnant. However, Laura said that it appeared that when Deborah was getting along with Vern, she would tell him that the baby she was carrying was his. But when she was not getting along with Vern,

she would tell him that the baby was James' baby. And according to other people Laura talked to, like Vern's cousins, Tina and Annette and other family members, They were told by Debbie that the unborn baby was Vern's. Nobody knew for sure. And Laura personally does not know much about Debbie, but said that she remembered her coming by her place with Josh and Jordan during the summer when Vern was meeting them for a picnic for Jordan's birthday. Now investigators want to know where Laura was the night before. Laura said she was working from 3.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.

and she spoke to Vern a few times during her shift. At one point he came by around 4,000, around 4 or 430, picked her up a salad. And then he went to his friends Malcolm's for a bit, and he called her from there. Then he called her again when he was at his cousin, Tina's house. Remember Tina was interviewed? She was the one that let the investigators look through her caller ID box. We already know that Vern was over at Tina's for a little while that night. While there, he apparently yelled at Laura over the phone because she had him locked out of the house.

Vern told her he was just going to be hanging out of people's houses until she or Christina. could come unlock the door. Laura expected Christina to come pick her up from work. And meanwhile, no one showed up to help Fern. So he made another angry phone call to her around 9.30 or 10 saying it was really cold outside. And he was waiting for her at the white hen across the street from their house.

Laura's daughter picked her up from work at 11.30 and Laura drove back home to drop her off and then proceeded to meet some coworkers for pizza, followed by going to a store. And then she returned home around 3 a.m. And when she did, she said she said, she saw Vern eating some bacon and sitting in bed watching TV. He explained that he and Jeff ended up having to use an ID to get into the locked door earlier,

and that ended up becoming an argument. Laura said they were fighting for at least an hour while everyone in the apartment was sleeping, including her daughters and their roommate Jeff. But after this, Vern woke Jeff up and the two of them left the house to head to Chicago to party, which means to go pick up and also use drugs. She said he didn't return until 8 in the morning, and that's that's when he woke Laura up to go visit his uncle that was in town from Alabama. So they drove all the way back out to Chicago and returned home that afternoon when investigators

caught up with them. So when would Vern have had time to go over Debbie's to kill her and her daughter and steal her unborn baby in Addison? He seemed to be calling Laura multiple times a night over at his cousins that evening at friends' houses back at Laura's house at 10 and then out to Chicago with Jeff. and again with Laura, which is about that same time they got that call from Dwight about seeing Patrice with Josh. They still need to track down Annette and her boyfriend Fidel and question them about why they were last seen with Josh Evans. When Vern was informed about the reason they brought

him to the station that Debbie and her daughter Samantha and her son, Josh, had been killed, Verne adamantly denied that he had anything to do with these murders and he said he would never harm a child. That's when the police mentioned they think his cousin Annette and her boyfriend Fidel are involved in these murders. Verne did become a little defensive, but he did agree to continue to cooperate and he stated the station to answer more questions if they needed it. They asked him to recount his entire day on the 16th into the 17th before police made contact with him and I am not going to go into every little detail that this man provided. I told you he has a lot of family members in this area. I've already told you about several of them. And throughout the past two days,

he was all over the place, house to house, city to city, hanging out, partying, hooking up with women, going back to Laura's, and a bunch of different places in between. But for the most part, when investigators reached out to confirm Vern had been all these spots, the individuals said they mentioned seeing him there. But a couple of them mentioned seeing him with Annette and Fidel on more than one occasion on the 16th, which would have been the last time that anyone saw Debbie and her kids alive. He admitted that he did see them, and it was about 3.30 or so. He was driving with his other cousin, John, and they spotted Annette and Fidel in their gray sable at a stoplight.

They talked for a minute, and then they turned around to follow John and Vern back to Vern's apartment complex parking lot. Annette was letting him know it was one of her daughter's birthdays that day, and she was also going to watch her son's basketball game at Franklin Middle School, with Fidel and her going out to dinner later to celebrate. Vern told her he would try to make it to the game. They parted ways, and then him and John proceeded to go hang out with friends, have some beers, and then he stopped by Loras to drop off that salad.

Remember that? Then he went to Malcolm's for a while, and he did stop by the middle school. He looked for Annette and Fidel around 7 p.m., and he couldn't find them. Some kids were standing outside. They let him know the game was already over. That's when he arrived back at Laura's to find out he was locked out. So he hitched her ride back to his Aunt Martha's house. And that's where Tina lives.

Tina is actually Annette's sister. They don't share the same name. Annette is 29. She's no longer living at home. She's been married and divorced. Vern said while he was at Tina's, he made several calls. One was to his current girlfriend, Laura, but he also called a few of his exes. We heard about Cynthia. But he said he called Debbie and Brandy and Cassandra. He said he didn't get a hold of Debbie at first, but she was

She eventually called him back, and all he did was talk about Jordan. He said it was a normal conversation. He stayed over his aunt's house maybe until nine, and that's when he walked back to Laura's. And he finally met Jeff outside and the two unlocked the door with the ID card, and the rest of the story was the same as Loras and Jeff's. Even though it seems like all of Vern's time is accounted for, it really isn't. There are so many holes in his timeline. But Vern remained at the station while investigators were continuing to search. for Fidel and Annette.

Now they call Vern's cousin back, Tina Martin, Annette's sister. She comes down to the station hoping that she could help them fill in some blanks and also track them down. For one, investigators want to know more about Annette and Fidel. So through Tina and others and doing a background check, here's what they found out. Vern is actually very close friends

with Annette's boyfriend, Fidel Kaffee. That's actually how Annette met Fidel through Vern. Annette's legal name is actually Jacqueline. Her middle name is Annette. She was born in 1966, and her home life was tainted from the very beginning due to her parents' bitter divorce. This was before her mother was married to Vern's uncle. Martha wanted a fresh start, so they moved from Alabama to Chicago,

but because of the gang violence that was happening there, they moved to the safer suburb of Wheaton. Martha tried her very best to keep Annette on the straight and narrow, but by 16, she was already involved with drugs, and men. Martha still tried to control her, but by 17, Annette had dropped out of high school and was pregnant. By the time she was 20, she already had three children and a husband, and she made the decision to get her tubes tied because they were already struggling and on welfare. But three years later, she became a single mom, and she was doing worse than ever. That's when she

started turning to petty crime to make ends meet. She went to jail in 1991 for theft, and she was arrested again not too long after getting out of jail for writing bad checks. But something good seemed to come out of this. While she was on probation, she enrolled in a nursing program and got her certification as a nursing assistant. She was turning her life around and things were looking up until she met Fidel Kathy, who was only two years out of high school at the time, and she was 27. He already had gun charges, violence against women. He'd struck a man over the head with a bottle, had a number of narcotic charges and was overall not a great guy. Fidel was born in 1973 in Schaumburg, Illinois.

He had a chaotic home life. He grew up with his mother and his maternal grandmother, both of which had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Fidel's everyday home life consisted of constant screaming, yelling, and very delusional behavior. He witnessed things like feces being smeared across the walls of their home. His mother and grandmother dunking each other's head in the toilet. in the toilet and possibly had this done to him as well.

He had to endure very disturbing and bizarre behaviors that he probably assumed were normal because it was all that he knew. Fidel's father had rejected him saying that he thought his mom cheated while they were together and Fidel was not his. The only male father figure he had was his grandpa, but he proved to have his own setbacks. To try to escape the chaos, his granddad carried on a relationship with another woman and he would leave Fidel behind and stay over there when things got rough. The two disturbed women Fidel was left with. His mom and grandma, those were the only constants in his life. And his grandpa, who was the closest thing he had to a dad, ended up

dying in 1991. And this brought Fidel to a new low. He started doing and selling drugs and ended up fathering a child with his high school girlfriend. But that relationship ended. And Fidel continued to turn to the streets. He needed someone to help him work some of his territory. and that is where his good friend Vern comes in. He hired him to be one of his drug runners, and just two years later, he ends up meeting Vern's cousin, Annette. They got together pretty quickly,

and soon Annette was living with Fidel, but they had a very toxic relationship. It appeared as though Fidel would seek out women who would bring utter chaos into his life. It was a trauma response, something that was familiar to him, something that he'd been used to for so long, that he easily put up with it.

Annette had violent mood swings. She was extremely jealous of other women, especially when it came to Fidel's exes, and Annette would cause a lot of drama. But for some reason, it seemed somewhat comforting to Fidel, as weird as that may sound, Annette was very manipulative. She would threaten to harm herself

if she found out that he was with another woman. And oddly, to Fidel, this came off as endearing, as proof that Annette truly loved him, that she was willing to go to such great lengths, even take her own life. She loved him so much. She would lay down her life for him. And it gets weirder still. Besides the lying, control, and manipulation, Annette also practiced voodoo.

And she would use her rituals to make Fidel submit to her. She dominated him and would make him drink her menstrual blood because she believed it helped her gain even more control of him. It was normal for Annette to fly into a jealous rage. she once even ran over one of his girlfriends with her car. She would violently clawed his face, leaving scratch marks behind, and his mother did the same things to men in her life.

Fidel and Annette had trauma bonds, and she was in constant fear of losing him, especially when she found out that Fidel had a one-year-old daughter by his former girlfriend, Trina. Annette was jealous of Trina's relationship with Fidel, which led to her having physical and verbal altercations with Trina from 19. 1994 through 1995.

Annette and Fidel got into the habit of getting physical with each other as well. In 1994, Annette made two complaints of domestic altercations against Fidel. She told police that he threw bricks at her, and he pushed her and had struck her in the face. And based on these allegations, Fidel was charged with criminal damage to property and domestic battery. Then in that January of 1995, Annette stabbed Fidel, and his lung was punctured. She said it was an accident. Despite Annette's criminal history and instances of violence, this woman was allowed to work as a certified nurse's aide.

Wow. They really let that slip through the cracks. Tina also tells investigators that back in February, Annette claimed that she was pregnant and that she should have been due around August or September. At first, Annette's friends and family did not believe her because, remember, she had a procedure many years ago and had been surgically sterilized, but not everyone knew that.

But of course, Tina, being Annette's younger sister, she wanted to be there for her. And she actually did think it was possible that Annette could be pregnant, even though there were times in the past when Annette thought she was, but it either turned out she was lying or it was just a false alarm. But this time, Annette actually looked pregnant. Her face was swollen, her belly was protruding, according to Tina, and she was convinced that Annette was actually, actually expecting a baby. And she even held a baby shower for her. All her friends and family came

to celebrate and a bunch of them bought her new items for the baby boy that she planned to name Fidel Jr. The thing is, Annette didn't end up having her baby in August or September, which seemed odd. That's when she started saying that her doctor miscalculated and then they had the amniocentesis done and they adjusted her due date to around October 14th. Investigators asked Tina, she knew who Annette's doctor was or which hospital she intended to deliver the baby, but Tina stated she had no idea. Now I know that this sounds like a broken record, but October comes and still no baby. However, Annette still claimed that she was pregnant and she was even hanging out with other pregnant friends like Patrice and Debbie since they had that in common.

Well, since investigators still have Patrice at the station, she and Dwight were brought over from Maywood PD to Addison. They want to know all about Annette's pregnancy, because they have a considering Patrice has admitted that Annette was one of her very close friends. Surely she would know if her BFF was really with child. But I'm sure you're putting two and two together. And so were the investigators. It's really suspicious that Annette was hanging out with two pregnant women, two that we know of, and Annette kept changing her supposed due date.

I don't know if you remember this, but Patrice has a young child. She had just given birth like a month before Annette showed up on her doorstep. with Joshua Evans in the middle of the night. Patrice had a newborn baby girl that would have been born very recently. You got what I'm trying to say here, right? So Patrice tells investigators that it's true. She and Annette were pregnant at the same time,

and at first, Annette was interested in hanging out with Patrice and which she was excited about the birth of her baby. But once Patrice told Annette that the ultrasound said that Patrice was going to have a girl, Annette was less excited and argued with her, saying that ultrasounds are not always correct, and Annette may still have a boy. At this time, it probably sounded like Annette was just disappointed

that they wouldn't both be boy moms. That's what you'd think. But it's way more sinister than that. When Patrice ended up having a girl, Annette didn't want anything to do with her or her baby anymore. Investigators asked Patrice, why do you think that is? And Patrice said that she thought it may have something to do with the fact that Fidel had a baby girl with his ex,

And Annette did not hide the fact that she hated Fidel's ex-Trina and the baby that they had together. Patrice said she recalled having a conversation with Annette where she said that Fidel's one-year-old daughter was ugly and that the baby didn't look like Fidel at all because he was light-skinned. At that moment, Annette admitted she hated the baby because of how dark her skin was. She said it was too dark. So it struck everyone as very odd that she would make such a strong statement. But it started to make perfect sense when investigators began to connect the dots. It seemed as though Annette was only interested in a light-skinned baby, which was exactly what

baby Elijah would look like. Considering Debbie was white and James or Vern are black, since we don't know who the father is, I'm just pointing out that they both have the same complexion. Well, once Patrice realized that her life and her baby's life could have been in danger by hanging around Annette, the truth begins to come out. There was way more to the story about what happened when Annette dropped Joshua off at her apartment. Patrice just hadn't come clean yet. The truth is a lot more gruesome, heartless, and terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

It made my stomach turn when I read about it. When Josh was examined at the scene, he had visible ligature marks around his neck and at least two stab wounds to his throat. The investigators informed Patrice about Josh's injuries and at the same time, They called the local police where Patrice's apartment is, and they requested that her two older daughter, who were six and seven, be picked up from school and taken to the station for their own protection. They had no idea what Annette,

and whoever else did this to Debbie's family, were capable of, especially if they found out that Patrice and Dwight were talking. Investigators go back in and they speak with Tina now. They asked her whether she knew if her sister eventually gave birth to a baby. And shockingly, Tina says, yes, she's actually seen the baby. Flabbergasted at this point, the investigators asked, well, when was this baby born?

And that is when their hearts dropped into their stomach. Tina said that at 3.30 a.m. that very morning, Annette called Tina to tell her she'd just given birth to a baby boy and was now with Fidel and her friend, Vicki LeColo. Vicki even got on the phone and repeated that Annette had just given birth. Tina asked Vicki to put Fidel on the phone. Fidel on the phone. And when Fidel picked up, Tina asked, is there really a baby there? And he said, yes, of course. Well, Tina was excited, so she told her mother, and they quickly went over to Vicki's to see

the baby and to be with Annette. When they arrived, Vicki explains that Annette had gone into labor while she was at Vicki's house, and she drove Annette to the hospital because the head of the baby had started to come out while Annette was there. Tina said that Annette explained, Vicki gave her a shot of Demerol, which knocked her out, and When she woke up, she realized she delivered the baby. Afterward, Vicki gave her some Tylenol and coding for the pain. But this contradicted what Vicki told Tina about them driving to the hospital to deliver.

Nevertheless, the excitement of seeing the baby superseded any concerns they had about the story at the time. However, investigators asked Tina what Annette's other births were like. And Tina said that all of Annette's three prior children were delivered by a sister. So it stands to reason she would have not had a vaginal birth, especially without a doctor being present. And she wouldn't already be home if she indeed went to a hospital. But then Tina said when she saw the baby, he was dressed in a sleeper and a little hat, but she didn't think it was Annette's baby and her mother didn't either.

Tina explained that when Martha went over to see Annette's baby, she reached for him. But then she stopped and she looked at Annette's. and she says, whose baby is this really? The baby was very pale. It even looked like it had some light hair peeking out from under its little hat. At that point, Vicky turned and stated, well, obviously Fidel's because it looks Cuban. And that's when Martha laughed at her and said,

Fidel is not Cuban. He's black. His other children are not light skin like this. So Annette also piped up and said all of her children were pale when they were born. But Annette's mom and sister were not convinced. After about 10 or 15 minutes, Tina and Martha left and they went home. And that's when Tina called hospitals to see if Annette had given birth, and she didn't find any record of that happening.

So at this point, it's pretty clear what happened here. Annette has somehow gained possession of Deborah's newborn son, Elijah, and she's trying to pass him off as her own.