DID THIS TEEN KILL HER BABY?
The case that rocked America.
By all outward appearances, Brooke “Skylar” Richardson lived a charmed life. Growing up in a comfortable home in suburban Carlisle, Ohio, the 18-year-old was a popular cheerleader at Carlisle High and an honour student planning to attend the University of Cincinnati to study nursing. Classmates noted that Richardson was always well put together. “Her makeup had to be just so,” says a classmate. “Her clothes had to be just so; her hair had to be perfect.”
But everything wasn’t perfect. A month after graduation, on July 14, 2017, Richardson’s seemingly charmed life came crashing down around her. After receiving a tip from a doctor’s office that Richardson may have delivered a stillborn baby, police searched the family’s property. Authorities found the charred remains of a newborn girl in Richardson’s backyard—and arrested the teen for aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. Richardson has pleaded not guilty and is out on $US50,000 bond while awaiting trial, which was postponed from April to a scheduled date of Sept. 11 after conflicts over the admissibility of evidence. Her lawyer has not publicly offered a defence but insists she did not kill the infant. Warren County common pleas court judge Donald E. Oda issued a gag order on the case on Aug. 10 2017.
In a press conference before the gag order, Warren County prosecutor David Fornshell said investigators believe that Richardson killed, burned and buried her child within hours of giving birth in early May, just two days after she had attended her senior prom. Investigators allege her obsession with perfection and outward appearances was her motive for the killing. “She’s a cute recent high school graduate,” Fornshell told reporters. “She was a cheerleader. She was described as a good girl, and I think that perception is one Skylar wanted to perpetuate.”
While the case has shocked tight-knit Carlisle, many in the community say they noticed constant striving for perfection in the Richardson family. “Her mom was always hanging over her, controlling her every move, all the way to what she ate and when she ate it,” says a neighbour whose daughter played sports with Richardson. “Her mom was always obsessed with her weight and appearance. Every calorie counted.” That pressure allegedly extended to Richardson’s social life as well. “It was like her mom felt like she always needed to be with someone,” says a classmate. “If she didn’t have a boyfriend, she needed to be talking to someone.”
But was that quest for a perfect life powerful enough to motivate Richardson to kill her own newborn daughter? Prosecutor Fornshell told reporters that she gave birth to a full-term baby who was born alive and then “purposely caused” the baby’s death. (The exact cause of death, he says, may never be known because of the burning and decomposition of the body.)
“Skylar and her mother were pretty obsessed with external appearances” — Prosecutor David Fornshell
Fornshell also alleged that “a significant number of people in her life” likely suspected that Richardson was pregnant, although no-one else has been charged with any wrongdoing. The father of her child has not been publicly identified.
In retrospect, members of the community say they should have seen warning signs that the pressure was getting to Richardson. “She was showing at prom,” says a classmate. “I didn’t realise it until people were talking about it. I looked at the pictures, and it was pretty obvious.”
In an interview with Cincinnati Magazine, members of her extended family claim Richardson suffered from eating disorders and delivered a stillborn daughter—and they dispute that the infant’s remains were burned. Many close to Richardson expressed shock and sadness for the teenager, lamenting the fact that the future she had planned for herself is now changed forever. “I feel like Skylar felt a lot of pressure,” says another classmate. “Even if she wanted that baby, I think she felt she didn’t have a choice.”