Skeleton Girl Tortured With Shock Device

Not much is known about Angelina Costello, as her birthday and her birthplace are a mystery. She was born premature and medically fragile to her parents, Miller Costello and Brenda O’Neill. She had an older brother and a younger sister. Very early on, Miller was warned against marrying Brenda. According to him, his parents told him she was evil and warned him that her family was very bad. But of course, he did not listen and did it anyway. Even though the couple later went on to have another daughter, Brenda didn’t want to keep Angelina because she was a girl. Allegedly, Brenda’s parents wanted her to terminate her pregnancy. When Angelina went on to be born premature, the family claimed that she was cursed and her perceived disability meant she brought bad luck to the family.

But the Emil family didn’t just direct their ill will at little Angelina, but also at Miller. Allegedly, Brenda’s father beat him up regularly and locked him in a room for a week after one particularly nasty beating. According to Miller, there was no more skin on his face because of these beatings. The family had self-proclaimed ties to the Roma community, with family members in California and Montana, as well as ties to Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Romania. At the time of our story, the family had left Billings, Montana, and had settled into a home in Ogden, Utah, a home that the couple lied in order to get approved for. Brenda claimed she was a single mother of two and Miller was just visiting her.

Afternoon on July 6, 2017, Mr. Sitka Harabel and Chris Bishop with the Ogden Police Department dispatched to a home located on the 2800 block of Grant Avenue due to a report of a child that was unconscious and not breathing. That child was three-year-old Angelina Costello. The little girl’s tiny body was wrapped tightly in a pink blanket, lying on the floor in a completely empty room. Not only was she unresponsive, but she was dead. Officers immediately recognized that the little girl had bruising, contusions, lacerations, burns, and open sores all over her body. She also appeared to be very malnourished. Brenda told officers that she found her daughter dead about the same time that police were contacted.

Angelina was cold to the touch and stiff, with the apparent onset of rigor mortis. Angelina’s clothing was removed during the on-scene cursory examination with the medical examiner. A large burn on her chest was observed, along with small circular burns on her back, legs, and feet, which were also covered in bruises and lacerations. Angelina’s stomach was sunken in and all of her ribs were visible. Her atrophied legs and arms appeared thin, with no visible muscle or fat. Her face looked much the same, almost skeletal, devoid of the chubby cheeks normally seen in girls of her age. Some of Angelina’s injuries appeared to be recent and acute, while others appeared to be in various stages of healing. But what the medical examiner found next proved to be even more bizarre.

Angelina was also covered in a thin layer of what appeared to be foundation in an attempt to conceal her injuries. According to Officer Bishop, Angelina’s was the worst case of CA (child abuse) that he had ever seen. In subsequent interviews with Brenda Emil and Miller Costello, both parents indicated that they were the sole primary caregiver of Angelina. Brenda admitted to covering her daughter in makeup to conceal some of her injuries so that way they didn’t look so bad. Brenda indicated that she was a stay-at-home mom, and Miller indicated he was the primary breadwinner.

A search of the couple’s cell phones revealed several pictures and videos which illustrate a progressive timeline of Angelina’s deteriorating health. Between January 2016 and June of 2017, videos show Miller and Brenda mistreating the little girl. In one video dated July 9, 2016, Brenda eats a plate of scrambled eggs, holding out forkfuls before her little girl’s mouth. Angelina sits quietly with a visible bruise on her cheek as her mother repeatedly asks her, “Do you want to eat?” and then pulls the food away from her, laughing, yelling, “I lied, it’s mine,” while giggling. And she further taunts her little girl, saying how good the food is.

In another video taken in August of 2016, Miller quizzes his daughter about who she likes and who she doesn’t. He asks Angelina, “Do you wish I was dead?” and “Are you evil?” And when the toddler answers back with a gleeful “Yeah,” Miller mutters back “evil” and calls the girl by an expletive. In another video, Miller used the feet of his other infant to kick Angelina in the face. The photos and videos taken in the following months show increasing bruising on Angelina’s face and arms. Her frame becomes skinnier and her hair thins, her eyes become sunken, a chunk is missing from the tip of her misshapen nose.

On April 15th, Miller and Brenda took a video of Angelina sitting on the floor in pink sweats, her legs tucked into her chest as she sucks on a slice of onion. The girl’s nose is bleeding as her father quizzes her about what she’s eating and whether she likes it. Over time, Angelina is seen wearing only long sleeves, long pants, and knit caps, even on an 82-degree day during a family trip to Disneyland in May of 2017. One video from that day shows Brenda laughing and fanning herself while commenting on the heat. Another Miller narrates that the family is on vacation and pans to Angelina, who is bundled from head to toe as she lays lethargic in a stroller with visible bruising on her face and her sunken eyes half-closed. Miller says, quote, “We’re in Disneyland, what’s nice girl doing nothing,” end quote. In a series of images after that, her outfit doesn’t seem to change for three days.

Angelina’s younger sister and older brother appear playful, healthy, energetic, and well-groomed throughout the videos. Other videos show the parents playing on a bed with Angelina’s older brother and younger sister as she stands in the corner of the room, facing away from her family. The footage shows bruises and scabbing on the girl’s arms and face.

While interviewing Miller, he stated that he had knowledge of Angelina’s deteriorating health and Brenda purposefully withholding food from her. He knew that his child was in need of medical attention and said he knew if she didn’t get that attention that she would die. He knew that this treatment of Angelina severely impaired her ability to function and thrive. Miller stated that when he returned home from work, he observed new injuries on Angelina. He claimed during this time she was in the sole care of Brenda. He claimed that according to Brenda, Angelina had been struck or otherwise injured by her siblings or had fallen down. He stated he did not seek medical attention and took no action to remove Angelina from the situation or make the police aware of what was going on.

According to Miller, Brenda knew of Angelina’s injuries and made no attempts to stop her siblings from striking her or keep her safe from falling down. Brenda allegedly told Miller that she did not want to get medical attention for the little girl because she did not want a police investigation or have her children taken away from her. He also claimed that his wife would get angry at him if he fed Angelina. When questioned, Brenda insisted that she never harmed her children and that Angelina’s bruising may have come from taking a tumble in a bounce house a few days prior. The burn marks, she said, were from sparklers that her children got too close to during a Fourth of July celebration.

She insisted that up until a few days before she died, Angelina had been as healthy as her siblings, with the exception of a bout of C. diff on the last days of her life. Brenda claimed that Angelina had been extremely tired, had diarrhea, and would not eat. She said, quote, “She just felt a little not herself, but not to the point that we were going to take her to the emergency room,” end quote. Miller explained that his job of buying scrap metal at auctions nationwide took him out of state with some frequency. He stated that the month prior he made approximately a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Due to the fact that he and Brenda had the means to flee the state or country and had international ties, they were considered a flight risk. Miller also had a pending warrant in Montana stemming from allegations of fraud and witness tampering in October of 2016. In addition, a search on BeenVerified.com revealed that the couple had many possible aliases, including but not limited to Sonny Frank, Robert S. Emil, Hamil Miller Marks, Chad M. Costello, Priscilla Puano, Sonny Michael Costello, Steven Tom Marks, and Londa Marks. All the names thought to be aliases have shared email addresses, social media accounts, and a laundry list of crimes committed in many states. Crimes following the possible aliases include various driving offenses, identity theft, and possession of illegal substances. In addition, some possible aliases had ties to different scrap metal yards and construction companies.

The couple were arrested on July 10, charged with aggravated homicide, and held without bail. They were booked at the Weber County Jail, where it was found that 25-year-old Miller had approximately twelve hundred dollars in cash and had an eight thousand dollar cashier’s check in his wallet. 23-year-old Brenda had thirty-six thousand one hundred ninety dollars in a purse purchased at Nordstrom for two thousand dollars a month prior. The couple’s two other children were placed in the care of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. It was obvious the family had all the money needed to provide for Angelina, but they deliberately chose not to.

At her official autopsy, it was found that Angelina weighed only 13.67 pounds, the weight of a three-month-old infant rather than a three-year-old toddler. She was in a horrible state of neglect and had poor hygiene. Angelina was left in soiled diapers for long periods of time, so much so that the skin touching the diaper had begun to erode. Her head and face sustained several blows and were covered in injuries. The skin around one of her nostrils was eroded, likely from being repeatedly pinched between fingernails. She had suffered abrasions in her ear canal. Her frenulum, which is the skin flap underneath your tongue inside of your mouth, was torn. Her baby teeth were chipped. She had a subdural brain hemorrhage and sustained a hemorrhage to the muscles of her neck.

Multiple injuries and fractures in various stages of healing were observed on her extremities. Angelina’s limbs and torso were covered in cigarette burns in addition to a healing burn appearing to be from a flat iron. Her torso was whipped so severely it was cut to the bone. She had a deep penetrating wound to her abdomen, which caused a hemorrhage in her small bowel and pancreas. The medical examiner could not pinpoint one specific cause of death. Several of her injuries could have proven fatal, and her physical malnourishment weakened her tiny body significantly. These injuries were not the result of one single act of rage of a parent losing their temper. She was systematically tortured for months.

According to Officer Sitka Harabel, in her words, Angelina looked like a Holocaust victim. Police detective Richard Childress, who oversaw the girl’s autopsy, added, again in his own words, the girl’s skeletal frame on the medical examiner’s table reminded him of children from concentration camps in the poorest countries of the Third World. It took a medical examiner four hours to document the extensive injuries, including internal injuries and massive hemorrhaging to the back of Angelina’s head. The cause of death was determined to be a combination of starvation and blunt force trauma.

During their preliminary hearing, Deputy Weber County Attorney Christopher Shaw told Second District Judge Michael DiReda that Angelina died from blunt force trauma, burns, starvation, and malnutrition. He stated that the little girl lived a life of torture at the hands of her parents. Much of the evidence hearing focused on the photos and videos that we discussed prior. Also during the hearing, an outburst from Brenda’s mother led to the woman’s arrest. 45-year-old Buffy Emil was asked to leave the courtroom because she may be called as a witness at trial. Several minutes later, she burst through the courtroom doors and screamed, quote, “You killed my baby, [__],” end quote. As such, Judge Michael DiReda ruled that she was in contempt of court and ordered her arrested.

In a bid to avoid the death penalty, Miller and Brenda pled guilty to all charges on October 5th, 2022. The defense tried filing multiple motions previously to remove capital punishment from the table, including suggesting that Miller had a low IQ. The couple were scheduled to be sentenced the week of October 15th, but right before the proceedings began, Brenda left the courtroom with defense attorney Martin Gravis and they returned. Attorney Gravis said Brenda wanted to withdraw her guilty plea.

In subsequent weeks, during multiple hearings, Brenda changed her story numerous times. In November, she told Judge DiReda that prior to pleading guilty in August, she received threats against her son during phone calls with her family members. When asked why she didn’t bring up the issue in August when she pled guilty and was asked multiple questions confirming whether she was being threatened or coerced about accepting the plea deal, Brenda said that her son’s life was more important than hers. She said she has since received assurance that her children are safe and added that the threats would be found in her jail phone calls.

But prosecutor Letitia Toombs said her team had combed through her jail phone calls and found no evidence of any threats against Brenda or her kids. At that point, Brenda said she no longer wanted to withdraw her guilty plea. But Judge DiReda said she had raised serious allegations about the safety of her children and about the circumstances under which she accepted the guilty plea. He asked that the phone calls be translated, as time-efficient as they may be, to avoid any doubt about how willingly she pled guilty. The judge said the calls couldn’t be translated because the court translator was unfamiliar with the Romanian dialect which Brenda and her mother sometimes spoke.

Prosecutor Toombs played a 12-minute phone call between Brenda and her mother from August 16th of 2022, in which her mother repeatedly pressured her daughter not to take the plea deal. Brenda is heard saying, quote, “I failed to protect a baby under my care. That’s all the jury members are going to look at. I’m pleading guilty for not doing my part as a mother,” end quote. After playing the phone call, prosecutor Toombs said Brenda knew before asking to change her plea that Miller, the person who she said was threatening her, was never getting out of jail. Further, Brenda told her mother repeatedly that she wanted to take the plea deal. The prosecutor said she never told the judge or her attorneys over the last year about the alleged threats, adding that Brenda couldn’t or wouldn’t pinpoint an exact time that the threats were made.

Brenda said the threats made her so anxious that she vomited and cried herself to sleep. She said, “I wanted to take it to trial and be a voice for my daughter,” but the alleged threat made her feel she couldn’t. Judge DiReda stated that he prides himself on being thorough in discussing pleas, asking additional questions not required by law. He said the court had been very patient with Brenda and even bent over backwards to investigate her claims. Still, through the months-long process, attorneys had never found a phone call from the jail containing even a suggestion that she was ever threatened. He said, quote, “The court simply cannot pick and choose which statements are true and which statements are not true. My view is that I simply cannot trust Ms. Emil’s communications,” end quote.

At the couple’s sentencing hearing in January of 2023, prosecutors read a letter to the court from the adoptive mother of the couple’s oldest child, a boy who was about four years old at the time of his sister’s death. She said the boy had struggled with grief and guilt because his birth parents ordered him to participate in this abuse. He said that he witnessed the starvation. He said that one time a piece of onion was on the floor and Angelina ate it because she was so hungry. The parents, the boy said, used to hit them with wires but directed most of their ire at Angelina. The boy, now almost 10 years old, hopes his biological parents never get out of prison because he fears if they do that they’ll kill him.

A letter from a social worker who counseled the boy said the child was the one who found Angelina dead in her bed. He got her favorite blanket because she was cold. After the parents realized the girl was dead, they ran around getting rid of drugs and other things they used to hurt her with. The boy said the parents had rigged a shock device they would attach to Angelina’s body as a method of torture. He added that he and Angelina were locked in a dark closet together for several days without food or water. According to the boy, Angelina started acting differently and looked like a sick doll as she started to decline.

The hearing ended with a contentious exchange about Officer Harabel’s testimony. When she was asked by prosecutor Nicholas Kane how the case had affected her, Officer Harabel said she had investigated hundreds of cases, then Angelina’s death. In her words, “I never saw anything like this. For me, this was a career-ender. I’m not a cop anymore after I had to watch what she went through.” She went on to add that she has PTSD and underwent counseling.

Defense attorney Randall Marshall said it was not appropriate for police officers to be allowed to offer victim testimony. But Judge DiReda overruled this objection, saying that Officer Harabel’s testimony about what she went through speaks volumes about the gravity of the case. However, the judge did disallow the reading of letters from two other police officers, saying Harabel’s testimony was sufficient.

After reviewing the evidence, the judge sentenced the couple to life without parole. He said neither Miller Costello nor Brenda Emil had shown remorse or taken responsibility for this horrific crime. He said, quote, “When protectors become tormentors, when nurturers become abusers, it’s nearly impossible to grasp, much less explain. It has been said that evil imaginations have no limits. In this case, it bears out that principle most egregiously,” end quote.

He concluded with a message to the couple, saying that although they will spend the rest of their lives in prison, they get to wake up each day, make friends, and have positive experiences. He said, quote, “Life itself is a gift, one that Angelina will never enjoy because you murdered her. So in a very real sense, this sentence is merciful because your lives have been spared,” end quote.

Not much is known about Angelina’s final resting place other than that she was cremated. She had no obituary and her funeral details are unknown, apart from the fact that both Miller and Brenda attempted to get a furlough in order to attend it. What is clear is that Angelina Costello never knew love in the three years that she lived in agony. Wherever she is now has to be better than what she experienced here on this Earth.