In 2017, Brooke Skylar Richardson was accused of murdering her newborn daughter just a few days after her high school prom. She was 18-years-old at the time.
The reports show that the cheerleader smashed in her baby's skull, set her on fire, and then buried the charred little body out in her garden.
Richardson, who is now 20-years-old, has been slammed with several charges that include: aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. She is set to appear in front of a jury on September 3rd.
As a woman pregnant with a little girl, this story is gut-wrenching to me. How anyone could murder their child, and in such a grotesque manner, is beyond me.
The prosecution alleges when she was 18 she gave birth to a healthy baby, named Annabelle, which she then killed in Carlisle, Ohio
They further accused her of possibly even trying to burn the corpse before burying her in the back yard.
Richardson, known as Skylar to her friends and family, claims the infant was stillborn.
Her case will come to trial on September 3 after a judge threw out three motions from the defence that would have further delayed it.
Authorities first learned of the baby from a doctor Richardson had visited just a few weeks before she gave birth.
They found the remains of the baby shortly after being alerted of her existence. Richardson delivered the full term baby in her bathroom before murdering and burying her.
County Prosecutor David Fornshell believes that the Richardson family is obsessed with appearance and was worried about how their community would react to a baby born out-of-wedlock.
“Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances and how things appeared to the outside world." He said, “You have a situation where, you know, she's a cute high school, recent high school graduate; she was a cheerleader described (as) a good girl by her attorney as you heard after the arraignment."
“And I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate,” Fornshell added.
Motions filed last week by the defense seeking to ban Richardson's diary and lighter fluid found in her family home from being presented as evidence were also dismissed by the judge.
Richardson claims the baby was stillborn.
Her defense attorneys have blasted prosecutors for 'a false narrative' that sensationalized the case.
They say she didn't kill the baby, and that an expert witness concluded there was no sign of burning or of trauma that would have caused the baby's death.
Richardson's attorneys said, "What started as an 18-year-old high school girl who was frightened and saddened because of giving birth to a stillborn baby whom she named Annabelle and then telling her doctor of the stillborn and burial in the backyard turned into something sinister and grotesque."
Here's what I'd like to know: if she's as innocent as they claim, then why would she crush the skull of a stillborn baby, and then set it on fire before burying it in the yard? An innocent person would not go through the trouble of doing all that. It doesn't add up.