Let’s say you’re a mother with a daughter from a previous relationship you have a new boyfriend that you end up having another beautiful daughter with you still love and cherish your first little girl just the same wouldn’t you you wouldn’t automatically resent her mistreat her force her to live in squalor you wouldn’t subject her to the things that would lead to her demise right today’s story is about a horrible mother and her bum boyfriend that did just that Candace Renee Diaz didn’t have the best upbringing while growing up in Western
Kentucky in 1998 when she was just four years old her mother Oriana Diaz left her in the care for alcoholic grandmother it was during one of these days with her grandmother that Candace sustained severe burns all over her body during a house fire which required multiple surgeries to correct arena and the grandmother were later arrested and charged with second-degree criminal abuse due to the injuries that the little girl suffered and they were incarcerated at the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville Kentucky during her
mother’s incarceration Candace was placed in the custody of a relative and guardian Cynthia Diaz in June of 2000 Oriana lost parental rights to seven-year-old Candace after Cynthia filed a petition for custody citing that the mother provided no support and had almost had no contact with her daughter in two years while incarcerated Oriana made a few phone calls to Candace but of eventually she stopped doing so but where was Candace’s father Timothy Mullins while all of this was going on well at the time he too was incarcerated
although the reasons for that incarceration are unclear later he sought to contest the petition for custody filed by Cynthia but later withdrew his objections much like roina Timothy did nothing to financially support his little girl for two years after the petition although Cynthia adopted Candace provided for her and gave her a stable home life some of the trauma that Candace suffered as a little girl caught up with her and she went on to follow in her biological mother’s footsteps with regards to poor decision making it should be noted that
during the course of our story Cynthia and Candace uprooted from Kentucky to Michigan it should also be noted that other creators on YouTube have stated that Candace went on to live with her biological mother roina as an adult this is false and we’ll make sure to have our sources linked for you in the show notes as an adult Candace and her boyfriend Kyle Barrett stayed in Cynthia’s home after the couple welcomed their first baby Gabrielle Renee into the world on July 3 2013.
friends and family referred to the little girl as Gabby unfortunately like many young couples their relationship was very short-lived and Kyle left in 2014 when Gabby was only three or four months old in early 2015 when Gabby 18 months old Candace met and began a relationship with a man named Brad Edward Fields who was four years for senior soon Candace would begin spending less time in Cynthia’s home and more time in Brad’s the couple moved a few times before settling in the rawsonville Woods mobile home Community located in Belleville Michigan a town 20 miles
Southeast of Ann Arbor and 37 miles Southwest of Detroit Gabby was left with Cynthia while her mother was out gallivanting with her new bow and honestly Cynthia was a good provider for the little girl this would have been the more desired outcome however when Gabby turned four Cynthia was unable to enroll her into pre-K in her school district due to not being her legal guardian as such Gabby went to live with Candace and Brad in his trailer for this reason but the honeymoon stage with bread wouldn’t last long in 2016 Candace called 9-1-1
after running from their shared trailer and seeking refuge in a community Clubhouse after Brad allegedly punched her in the face smashed her cell phone shot the family dog shot himself in the leg and as she was fleeing to safety told her see if you can outrun these bullets it’s unknown if the dog survived when police responded to the scene they noted the extreme uncleanliness of the home flies were everywhere there was a pungent smell due to old garbage that had not been disposed of decaying Foods stacks of unclean dishes piling up in
the sink dog wastes on both the living room floor and in the kids bedroom and a pet rabbit living in a squalid cage that had not been cleaned in addition to General squalor there was blood all over the floor a search of the trailer yielded a taser prescription pills a box containing drug paraphernalia including scales a camouflage bag containing an assortment of knives a 40 caliber Glock handgun with two magazines a Smith and Wesson 38 special and one magazine for a nine millimeter handgun that was not located in the search the guns have been
hidden in the heater floor grates of both the bathroom and the living room one of which had its serial number scratched off and the other was unregistered Brad was initially arrested and charged with DV however three days later Candice went down to the police station and requested that these charges be dropped she claimed that her boyfriend was schizophrenic and had not been taking his medication additionally Candace went on to claim that the two Firearms seized from the home were hers due to one being unregistered and one
having its serial number scratched off Candace incriminated herself and she in turn was arrested the Candace’s poor decision-making doesn’t end here while being searched in booking a blank Prescription Pad was found in her possession Candace was charged and pled guilty to altering firearms and the possession of the prescription pad and she received two years of probation there’s an awful lot to unpack here and we’re not even that deep into today’s story yet even if Candace decided to drop the domestic charges against Brad
you’d think there would still will be other charges he’d have to answer for maybe Brad could have gotten disorderly conduct or gotten in trouble for discharging the weapon within the township allow me to quote the Van Buren Charter Township which applies to Wayne County Michigan where Belleville is located Chapter 58 article 7 division 2 Section 58-338 States quote it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge any firearm or other instrument producing a like effect and Noise Within the township except in the lawful defense of his
person or property or is otherwise permitted by law end quote so with that in mind the D.A could have still easily continued to prosecute Brad on other charges right apparently this wasn’t the case it’s unclear why Brad wasn’t charged for firing a gun recklessly in a trailer park where many other people easily heard the gunshots beyond the handgun incident involving Candace Brad was guilty of animal cruelty for shooting the family dog in addition to the poor condition that the rabbit was kept in but he wasn’t charged for that
either one would only hope that the poor dog survived the ordeal and that the rabbit was seized from the home but there isn’t any information available regarding their status however due to the fact that the kids were allowed to remain in a home filled with squalor where shots were fired I really don’t think anything was done to rescue the family pets unfortunately and that is kids plural during this time Candace had a baby with Brad a little girl with the name Zoe by all accounts Zoe was loved and well taken care of but the same
could not be said for Gabby a lot of the mistreatment of Gabby seemed to center around bathroom accidents that she was having she was only four years old now at the time Gabby was potty trained Cynthia saw to that she was out of diapers at 18 months old but she’d still have the occasional accident like many toddlers do however a lot of her accidents seem to occur at home as it was noted by her Pre-K teaching assistant Gabby didn’t have these type of accidents in the classroom now I’m sure you can think back to pre-k or
kindergarten where the classrooms had their own bathrooms for students to use within the classroom that was Gabby’s setup so she didn’t have any issues going to the bathroom on her own sometimes bathroom related issues in young kids can be assigned there’s mistreatment going on in the home it’s a stress response which only gets worse if the parent responds to the accidents through yelling or physical harm as Gabby wasn’t having these issues at school or with Cynthia and she didn’t have any underlying medical issues one
could speculate what the problem was and that problem will become as plain as day to see as our story progresses rather than lovingly supporting Gabby Candace and Brad would do the following repeatedly strike Gabby in the the face in other parts of her body frequently subjecting her to ice cold baths forcefully scratching her back with their nails forcing her to ingest unprescribed Adderall despite her suffering from side effects from the drug and finally shanking her with a fork and that last one was in Brad’s own
words per his admission he said that he shanked her with a fork Brad and Candace would force Gabby to wear a garbage bag take away her pants strip her of her bedding and force her to sleep in the cold living room and would keep her in soiled diapers additionally Brad and Candace would document their mistreatment of Gabby via Facebook Messenger with Brad threatening to drown the little girl with his own bodily waist and forcing her to eat her own excrement in one such message Brad sent video to Candace of him mistreating her
daughter by making her wear a trash bag around the home to which she responded asking Brad if he’d like anything from McDonald’s a new a new EVE of 2017 Brad and Candace shared a picture of themselves holding baby Zoe wishing everyone a Happy New Year but there was one person missing from the family picture Little Gabby on New Year’s Day 2018 Little Gabby Barrett suffered for the final time at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriends the copper filled up the tub with scalding water and placed the toddler inside essentially boiling her
skin off of her body when she became unresponsive rather than calling 9-1-1 Candice called her adoptive mother Cynthia at 10 05 am Cynthia made a 30-minute drive to the couple’s home where she attempted CPR at 10 41 am 9-1-1 was finally called called you on New Year’s Day my daughter Candace would she [Music] described her to me the only thing I can tell you is she was crying and she said Gabby wasn’t responding and all I know is I said I’m on my way since I was in Westland you walk into the trailer no what happened Candace met me at the
door and opened it and we went back to the bathroom and when you went back to the bathroom what did You observe my granddaughter on the floor Did You observe any other adults yes Ben was in there giving her CPR did you see her coloring the coloring looked normal to me yeah the color part was skin excuse me how long did the compressions from Brad go on in the bathroom until I took over how long before you took over probably two three minutes did you um instruct anybody to make any other phone calls yes I told Candice to call 9-1-1 at any
of the point that you were doing CPR did your granddaughter respond no did your propeller still look just right here it looked the same as when I came in which is why normal to me so you remained in the bathroom was that right for a while I remained in the bathroom until the police took over the CBR did you notice any water in that bathroom at all no no you did not notice no there was no water in the bathroom there was no water in the bathroom thing at all right on the floor not in the Tom’s old man and there was was getting wedded no it was
your daughter wet at all no was Brad wetted off to my knowledge no did you see anything wrong with her skin or physically wrong with her in the bathroom all I saw was the red marks behind her calf on each leg and on her back side where her butt is and where did you when did you notice that when I took over a CPR was she laying on her stomach or her back she was on her back how did you see the red marks on her behind and so on I’m sorry they came to the front of towards the front of her stomach we are able to tell what those red marks
looked like the only thing I can tell you is on the legs it was like there was a little bit of the skin like when you get a blister and on the back it was a little better but other than that that’s all I could tell you and what were you told me daddy that she had passed away Candace claimed that Gabby had a habit of sneaking off and starting her own baths in the day prior she started a bath for herself that was far too hot resulting in her being scalded she claimed that she wanted to take another bath that day so Candace obliged her and
filled the tub up about halfway with lukewarm water put the little girl inside and left her unattended to go make pancakes this is of course by Candace’s own admission according to Candace Gabby loved baths and was not uncommon for her to spend an hour or two playing in the water now Candace claims she left her unattended for about that long and when she returned to check on her Gabby was face up in the water unresponsive according to Candace she pulled her out from the tub and Gabby began to throw up according to police
that responded to the scene none of the adults were performing CPR in the little girl when they arrived and there was no water to be found in the bathtub aside from Gabby’s hair appearing to be slightly damp and a few wet towels there was no water in the tub on the floor and none of the adults appeared to have any water on their clothes which was extremely suspicious as they had been called to the scene for a suspected drowning there was no vomit on the floor either but there were burns on Gabby’s body according to paramedics they
couldn’t tell exactly when the injuries took place but they were indeed second-degree burns and they were past the blistering stage the top layer of skin was totally missing leaving red wounds in its place paramedics also found damning evidence that contradicted Candace’s version of events while in the ambulance Gabby was intubated and no water was found in her lungs additionally Gabby’s fingers lacked pruning a Telltale sign that one’s been submerged in water for an extended period of time if Gabby had been in the
water for two hours pruning would have been present Candace decided to ride to the hospital with the paramedic in the ambulance while Brad stayed at home Zoe all the while the couple texted damning messages to one another with the police present Candace told Brad that she was probably going to jail and to get rid of everything ASAP she inferred that if Gabby lived she’d probably be taken from her because she’d tell the mandated reporters that she wasn’t being taken care of she closed her message letting Brad know that she was done and that she
was going to kill herself Brad responded that the police were trying to search him and Zoe and that he was probably going to jail because he wouldn’t consent to the trailer being searched luckily for the police they were able to obtain a warrant and they didn’t need Brad’s permission the couple’s cell phones were later seized and all of the incriminating messages that they’d been sending to each other throughout the day and in the past were discovered the search of the trailer uncovered chunks of skin and clumps of hair later
identified as belonging to Gabby in the bathtub drain a garbage bag with several pieces of bloody gauze clumps of hair with blood stains plastic gloves an empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide and boxes of topical ointment were found in the laundry room the clumps of hair were found to have DNA belonging to Gabby while Brad and Gabby’s DNA were found on several pairs of the recovered gloves there was no bedding whatsoever in Gabby’s bedroom and her bed was leaned up against the wall a white powdery illicit substance was also discovered in
the home Gabrielle Renee Diaz was transported to St Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor Michigan where she was declared dead her cause of death was listed as septic shock and battered child syndrome with her manner of death listed as homicide but this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the horrors that four-year-old Gabby Diaz was subjected to Gabby suffered from multiple inflicted injuries including blunt force trauma a fatal burn pattern thermal and asphyxia injuries and she had indications of having been
suffocated by a hand placed over her mouth and nose a toxicology report revealed the presence of caffeine and amphetamines her hair was matted and lice ridden with several contusions to her scalp it was surmised that due to these contusions Gabby’s hair had been forcibly pulled from her scalp she was covered in second degree scalding Burns at various locations on her body and it’s unfortunately been noted that Gabby’s big toe had completely melted off suffered from malnourishment and had some degree of Decay or necrosis in all
of her teeth her body was covered in numerous lacerations and other injuries in various stages of healing with significant bruising among other injuries it was the opinion of the pathologist who performed the autopsy that Gabby would have been in extreme pain from all of her injuries furthermore there was nothing characteristic of a death by Drowning found in the autopsy this means Gabby was in terrible Agony until her very last moments on this Earth a few days later a warrant for the arrest of Candace Diaz and Brad Fields was
authorized however the couple was nowhere to be found at all points bulletin was put out for their black 2002 Chevy Cavalier with the Michigan plate DTR 1854 days later the two were found and arrested in Lowndes County Georgia near the Florida Georgia Line while in custody Brad stated that all of this was just a misunderstanding and that they were on their way back to Michigan to turn themselves into the U.
S Marshal’s office while on trial the pair cited their many severe mental illnesses for which they admitted to not be treating Candace who was now 24 years old claimed to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder post-traumatic stress disorder depression and anxiety she also cited her poor upbringing at the hands of her biological mother Brad who was now 28 claimed to be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder social anxiety agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder in court Candace’s adoptive mother Cynthia appeared to be trying to
cover for her daughter given what we know about Gabby’s condition at the time of her death Cynthia’s account of her granddaughter didn’t seem to make sense when did you see her the week of um Thanksgiving I had her the whole week and what was her condition at that point fine notice anything about what her weight no did you notice anything about her hair no what about her mouth and teeth they were fine how was her behavior Natalie it was great when she toilet trained that week yes were there accidents that week no so she
was away for a week in November the week of Thanksgiving with you is that right yes he saw nothing that would cause you to be concerned especially about that yeah is that right yes um when’s the next time you saw her after that um Christmas day and what did you notice about her that day because she was happy because I was there so we could open a presents would you see anything physical about her no no problems that even then is that your testimony yes ma’am what about her hair it was fine did you notice anything in
it no I know she had lice but you can’t see lice from where I’m sitting to where you are and she was just was she just her same happy South yes she was Brad Edward Fields was charged with first degree felony homicide second-degree homicide first degree CA and torture his defense team argued that he was not involved in Gabby’s mistreatment however the messages he sent back and forth with Candace proved otherwise on October 9th 2018 he was found guilty on all charges and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole
Candace Renee Diaz was charged with all the same charges as Brad however on December 5th 2018 she took a plea deal which reduced her charges to just second-degree homicide and first degree CA all other charges were dropped she was sentenced to 30 to 60 years behind bar let us know in the comments if you think she deserved a lighter sentence than Brad or if she even should have been offered a plea deal in the first place at sentencing Justice Vonda Evans completely let her have it when a woman gives birth she’s closer to death than
life her body opens up to reveal another life it is one of the most beautiful and fulfilling parts a mother’s job is to train and nurture her child into adulthood it’s her gift to humanity The Gift of Life you killed your daughter for the love of a bomb name brand an unemployed drug taken manipulative loser your beautiful daughter Gabby was a sacrifice you gave that bomb bread to fulfill his sick and demonic sense of love and control you allowed him to put your child in a garbage bag when she wet herself to give her drugs
your response was Brad be her ass what crime could this Precious Child commit that would cause such severe punishment none after he showed you a video of him torturing their child a garbage bag you your response was do you want some McDonald’s you were never a mother to your child you are a female burrito who neglected your child for the love of a bump name brand never in my 21 years on the bench have I seen seen a child sustain the injuries inflicted upon her dental decay burn injuries on her behind vomit in her
lungs immersion Burns resulting in her being placed in scalding hot water and traumatic alopecia her hair was pulled out from her scalp while she was alive the ultimate cause of death was septic shock her little body couldn’t take it any more abuse visitation for Gabby was held at the Ute Funeral Home in Westland Michigan with a private funeral held the following day as the little girl was cremated its unknown whether or not she was laid to rest in a public setting in the aftermath of Gabby’s death Zoe was taken away by the state of Michigan and
her whereabouts remain sealed one can only hope that she’s safe loved and in good hands Gabby’s father 26 year old Kyle Barrett had no idea of what was going on inside of the trailer where his daughter lived with Candace and Brad the last time he’d seen Gabby was just before he turned himself into Authorities on a warrant in September sadly Kyle was released from the Washtenaw County Jail on January 3rd two days after his daughter’s death his final memory of Gabby is that he was able to give her a hug and a kiss he got
to tell her that he loved her according to Kyle’s father Jerry Barrett his granddaughter had an upbeat personality and loved the movie Frozen he described her as a little angel Jerry said the last time he saw his granddaughter was a week or two before Halloween he said he didn’t know precisely where Gabby lives and had no idea what conditions were like in the home until he heard news reports following her death his first time there was for a candlelight vigil he stated quote we didn’t know we would have gone and removed her from the home
if I had known I would have been there in a heartbeat end quote foreign
