Dad’s New GF Claims Toddler’s Shattered Body “Just an Accident”
Hazel Journey Homan, nicknamed “Hazel Bug,” was born on March 13th, 2016, in Shelton, Washington. Her mother, Madora Peterson, was just 17 years old at the time of her birth. Her father, Brandon Homan, was 26. Brandon called Hazel his miracle baby. She was born purple and blue via emergency C-section, but doctors were able to get her breathing.
Hazel was a sweet little girl with long brown hair and big brown eyes that looked even bigger behind her round eyeglasses. Her family said she lit up the room. She loved to dance and sing the song “Baby Shark.” She also loved chicken nuggets and the movie Moana. Hazel was adored by her family. Even though she was young, Hazel was described as kind and caring. She would try to comfort anyone who seemed sad and crawl up onto their lap and hum. She would ask, “You okay?” anytime she heard someone cough or sneeze.
Hazel’s parents lived with Madora’s family when she was first born but eventually moved to an apartment on Queen Street in Bellingham, Washington, located almost 2 hours north of Seattle. However, both parents struggled with addiction, and Brandon had a past history of trouble with the law. It wouldn’t be long until both parents found themselves in hot water.
On November 2nd, 2017, a concerned family member called the police. Allegedly, the couple was arguing, and Brandon had given Madora a black eye. The family member was particularly concerned because Hazel, who was only 19 months old at the time, was in the apartment. When police arrived, Brandon wouldn’t let them in and wouldn’t let Madora leave. Because of this, a hostage negotiator had to be called to the scene. After a 5-hour standoff, police arrested Brandon, who was charged with fourth-degree assault.
Police placed Hazel in protective custody and called the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), who decided Hazel wouldn’t be safe with her parents. Understandably, Brandon’s mother, Tammy, and her husband, Dale Mortenson, agreed to care for their granddaughter at their home in Olympia. According to family members, the grandparents were told they had to sign the paperwork, or they wouldn’t be allowed to take Hazel home. Their agreement meant that DCYF had complete control over when and how the little girl was returned to her parents.
Although Hazel was in the custody of her grandparents, she was still a ward of the state. Hazel’s teeth were rotten, and she had cold sores on her mouth. She often woke up with night terrors. Tammy and Dale would stay up all night offering comfort to the scared little girl. They took her to the doctor and the dentist. Hazel was loved and supported by her entire extended family. For 1 year and 7 months, she thrived in her grandparents’ care.
To regain custody of Hazel, Brandon and Madora needed to make a lot of changes. First, they needed to stay away from one another, and a no-contact order was put in place. Despite this, Madora kept seeing Brandon, even though the order had been established for her safety. In addition, they both needed treatment for substance abuse problems. Department policy also required they complete parenting classes and mental health counseling.
Madora struggled to comply. She didn’t go to her appointments. She started a program that included parenting classes but quit after one week. She missed her scheduled visitation to see Hazel; even though DCYF arranged and paid for her to travel to Olympia and back, Madora could not be bothered. Around the fall of 2018, she moved back to Iowa to live with her mother. She made no further contact with DCYF.
Brandon didn’t do much better. He tried to fight Hazel’s removal, but he really didn’t have a leg to stand on because of his actions. He had put her in the middle of a 5-hour standoff, and he refused to participate in any of the required programs. He also could not manage to stay out of trouble. In March of 2018, he was charged with disorderly conduct, displaying a weapon, and fourth-degree assault.
In April, he started communicating with DCYF and the court-appointed special advocate. Brandon agreed to start doing what he needed to do in order to get his daughter back. In May, he asked if his girlfriend, Cammy Dixon, could visit Hazel with him. DCYF ran a background check, and in the past, Cammy had legal troubles of her own. In 2012, she was convicted of theft and trespassing. In 2017, she was convicted of witness tampering. Much like Brandon, she also struggled with drug addiction. Because of her history, DCYF made her participate in several programs. They also wanted her to get a job. Once the department was satisfied, she was allowed supervised visitation along with Brandon. Even though she had her own apartment about 15 minutes away in Bellingham, she still considered herself part of Brandon’s household.
In July, the charges against Brandon were dropped because Madora would not cooperate with police. In the following months, Brandon did some of what DCYF asked him to do, but not everything. At a meeting in December, they said he hadn’t made consistent and measurable progress the previous year. After that meeting, his behavior changed. He got a full-time job and a place to live. He was meeting with his probation officer and passing drug tests. In turn, he asked to spend more time with Hazel.
In February of 2019, DCYF did a health and safety walkthrough of Brandon’s home in Ferndale. Cammy and her son were there, and Brandon told the social worker that they planned to marry soon. Cammy was considered a support to Brandon and a positive influence to the family. After the walkthrough, Hazel’s visitation was expanded to overnights and weekends in March.
In May, a meeting was held to discuss returning Hazel to Brandon’s custody. The court-appointed special advocate and caseworker involved were pleased with his progress. Brandon had completed some required treatments and was on the waitlist for others. He was still working full-time and hadn’t committed any new crimes. The overnight and weekly visits with Hazel were going well. Surprise home visits found no safety concerns whatsoever.
On June 19th, Hazel was returned to Brandon for a trial reunification. Cammy posted pictures of Hazel’s room on social media that day. The room was decorated in pink and gold with Disney princesses on the wall. Cammy called the room “a little girl’s fantasy.” That month, she also posted several pictures of Hazel sleeping and other pictures of Hazel posing in cute outfits. At this point in our story, Hazel was 3 years old.
Hazel’s case was transferred to a new Child and Family Welfare Services caseworker. Because Hazel was so young, the caseworker had to visit the home twice a month to make sure she was okay. Brandon worked long hours 6 days a week; he was often at work. Cammy handled the home visits, but no problems were reported. The home seemed safe, and Hazel was going to daycare regularly.
On August 3rd, a family member was babysitting Hazel and noticed concerning marks on the little girl. She took pictures of several odd bruises on her chest and her back, and also photographed what looked like a healing cigarette burn. Later in August, Cammy’s friend Autumn Tucker witnessed a frightening incident. Cammy made Hazel take a cold shower as punishment for wetting her pants. Cammy left Hazel in the shower for a long time—so long the toddler was shaking and clenching her teeth. Thankfully, Autumn made Cammy stop.
At the same time, Hazel started missing lots of days at daycare, even though Cammy’s son was still attending his daycare regularly. Brandon’s participation in the required programs also started to slip; he wasn’t going to his parenting classes. In September, Hazel’s case was transferred to yet another new caseworker. They noted Brandon still needed to complete a mental health evaluation and his parenting plan.
When the new caseworker contacted Brandon on September 30th to arrange a safety visit, Brandon told him that Hazel had burned her hand on the stove while the family was cooking. This burn covered her entire hand; her palm and her fingers were red and blistered. It happened almost a week earlier, but they hadn’t taken her to the doctor. Cammy said that she had tried, but since she was not her legal guardian, she was not allowed to.
When Hazel finally saw a doctor on October 3rd, she was referred to the Seattle Children’s Hospital Clinic. This burn was so severe that they thought that Hazel might need physical therapy. The hospital reported the incident to Child Protective Services (CPS), but they decided to let Hazel’s caseworker handle the issue instead of assigning it to a CPS investigator.
Brandon and Cammy took Hazel to a follow-up appointment for her hand on October 14th. The next day, Brandon called the caseworker to report that Hazel may have sprayed something, potentially hairspray, in her eye. At the emergency room, doctors found she had an alkaline chemical burn. This is a very serious injury that can quickly lead to permanent blindness, and hairspray could not have caused such an injury. This kind of chemical burn is caused by a strong base—something like Drano, bleach, or an oven cleaner.
Doctors flushed her eye and recommended weekly follow-ups with an ophthalmologist because she may have permanent blindness. Brandon agreed to store all cleaning and beauty products out of her reach, and the caseworker visited the next day to make sure that they had all been stored. The caseworker also asked Hazel about her hand. She said it was okay, but the caseworker noted that she still couldn’t put weight on it. There was no discussion of her eye injury beyond confirming a follow-up visit scheduled for October 23rd.
On October 31st, Cammy posted a Halloween picture on social media. She was dressed up as Cruella de Vil, Brandon was Jasper (one of Cruella’s henchmen), and the kids were dressed as small spotted Dalmatians.
On November 13th, Brandon had a health and safety visit. He reported using new shampoo because Hazel’s hair was thinning. Thinning hair sometimes can be an indication of child abuse, but the caseworker did not examine Hazel’s hair or scalp. However, the caseworker did tell Brandon he was not in good standing for the court case coming up in December. He still hadn’t gotten his required mental health evaluation. He still wasn’t going to the required parenting classes.
Brandon claimed that he was going to a parenting class the next day, and he had scheduled his mental health evaluation for November 21st. He said Hazel was supposed to be going back into full-time daycare on November 27th. The next day, he missed another parenting class.
On November 27th, Hazel did not go back to full-time daycare. Instead, Cammy left Brandon’s home in Ferndale around 8:15 a.m. and took Hazel to her apartment in Bellingham. Later that morning, Cammy called 911 and told them Hazel had choked on food and was not breathing. Cammy did not have a phone, so in order to make this call, she carried Hazel to a neighbor’s apartment and used their phone.
When paramedics arrived, Hazel was naked, wet, and unresponsive. She was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital with a temperature of only 86°F, where she was immediately treated for hypothermia. Doctors also noted multiple bruises and a cigarette burn on her body. After further examination, the medical staff realized Hazel had a brain bleed. She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center. Hazel was diagnosed with an anoxic brain injury and a bilateral subdural hemorrhage. That meant she had bleeding on both sides of her brain and a complete lack of oxygen. She showed no signs of choking.
After two brain death assessments, Hazel was pronounced dead on November 30th, 2019. She was kept on life support until December 4th to keep her organs alive for donation. Her heart, kidney, and liver were able to help three families—one for each year of her short life.
Cammy was arrested on December 5th, 2019. Her bond was set for $1 million. On December 13th, she was charged with homicide by abuse and second-degree homicide. The trial began in April of 2022 and lasted for 95 days. During the trial, prosecutors said Cammy was Hazel’s primary caretaker for the last 6 months of her life. They said Cammy kept Hazel isolated from family, friends, and daycare in order to hide her bruises and injuries.
Cammy’s friend Autumn testified to an incident that occurred when she was babysitting. Hazel had an accident and had soiled her pants, and she texted Cammy to ask how she should handle it. Cammy was extremely angry and accused the three-year-old of soiling her pants on purpose. She texted, “She’s trying to beef with me and she knows it will piss me off.”
On June 7th, Brandon testified. He wept on the stand while watching videos of Hazel and Cammy. He said Hazel never showed pain, distress, or irritation except for the instance with her hand and eye. He said he was unaware of her extensive injuries. Prosecutors asked him about the bruises that occurred on November 20th. He admitted Cammy texted him about the bruises but did not report the bruising to CPS. Overall, it didn’t seem like Brandon really felt like his girlfriend was capable of harming his daughter.
“This is a tragic situation and I hurt more than anyone, okay? I’m the father, that was my baby girl, and I want answers too, but don’t place blame.”
At trial, Cammy testified that she loved Hazel and talked about happier times like taking Hazel and her son to the trampoline zone. She also described two times that Hazel fell down concrete stairs at the apartment building. She blamed Hazel’s multiple injuries on the second fall, which Cammy said happened in November. On the day of the 911 call, she said she helped Hazel shower at her Bellingham apartment. She then wrapped her in a blanket and gave her a breakfast sandwich to eat on the couch. She came back in the room, and she claimed that Hazel was slumped up against the couch.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know what was… I didn’t know what was going on. Um, I knew something was very, very wrong when I looked at Hazel. It was like the lights… the lights in her eyes were off. I remember grabbing her body and throwing it over my arm and pounding on her back, thinking maybe some food would come up or something. That didn’t… that didn’t help. So then I’m like, what do I do? Do I do CPR? So, I am not a medical professional, I’m not trained, and I wish that I would have been, but I figured if she wasn’t choking then she needed some CPR, so I… I began to do CPR.”
But what Cammy claimed happened that morning didn’t align with the story that Hazel’s broken body was telling. The King County Medical Examiner, Dr. Nikki Yared, found 50 injuries in various stages of healing all over Hazel’s body. She determined that injuries had occurred over a period of 5 months and that none of this was an accident. Dr. Yared found bruises on Hazel’s chin, body, neck, chest, and groin. She had head wounds, a broken leg, a broken knee, a broken hip, a broken arm, a broken finger, and fractures in her spine. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head—trauma consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
In closing arguments, Eric Sigmar, the Whatcom County Deputy Prosecutor, said:
“The defense would have you believe that the head trauma is just a coincidence. The multiple bruises—just a coincidence. 50 blows—just a coincidence. Multiple fractures—just a coincidence. Hand burn—just a coincidence. Serious chemical alkaline burn—just a coincidence. Bruising noticed by Hazel’s cousin—just a coincidence. Bruising noticed by the defendant’s best friend—just a coincidence.”
Some witnesses told police that Cammy had relapsed and begun using heroin again in the months before Hazel’s death. Another said she admitted to being frustrated the morning of the 911 call because she was experiencing withdrawals. That information was never mentioned at her trial.
On June 28th, 2022, the jury found Cammy guilty of one charge but deadlocked on the other. The judge asked them to continue deliberating, but they still deadlocked. On June 30th, they announced their verdict: Cammy was guilty of homicide by abuse. They found that she used her position of trust to commit homicide by abuse against a vulnerable victim. The second-degree murder charge was dismissed without prejudice, which means she could be tried again. The prosecutor sought a longer sentence because of the unique circumstances of the case. On August 2nd, Cammy was sentenced to 34 years in prison with 3 years of probation.
At the time of Hazel’s death, no one knew how to contact her mother, Madora. That was until she was arrested for trespassing in Polk County, Iowa. Since then, she has been charged with probation violations and several assault charges. She is currently in prison until 2026.
DCYF conducted a child fatality review after Hazel’s death. They noted several areas that could have been handled better. Caseworkers never directly assessed Cammy. They did not know about her bonding, discipline style, or interactions with Hazel. If they had, they may have been able to provide her with support to address her needs as a caregiver.
Now, speaking of caseworkers, three different caseworkers handled Hazel’s case over the course of 6 months. Hazel’s last caseworker was managing 24 cases—the most in the department at the time. They also believed that Hazel’s language skills may have decreased in the months before her death. This was a problem because the caseworkers assumed Hazel could speak for herself, so they didn’t consistently double-check information to make sure Hazel was getting the care she needed.
They concluded that letting the caseworker investigate the burn was a mistake; it should have been assigned to CPS. The caseworker focused on getting Hazel to the doctor for treatment but didn’t get a medical consultation with an expert in child abuse. An expert would know better if it was an accidental injury or not. Communication between the caseworker, CPS, and the court-appointed special advocate was delayed. The court-appointed special advocate didn’t have critical information they needed to make informed decisions. The committee in charge of the review recommended more training to help provide better care to children in the future.
Hazel’s funeral was held on December 17th, 2019, at Christ the King Community Church in Bellingham. In the wake of her death, Hazel’s Aunt, Ashley Bartell, partnered with the organization Light the Way to help raise awareness for child abuse prevention. Ashley organized a peaceful protest at the capitol in Olympia on April 23rd, 2023. Her goal was giving children their voices back.
Light the Way’s website has a section dedicated to Hazel that includes a statement from Ashley and her family. Hazel Journey, as her family refers to her, is terribly missed. They feel as though the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families failed her and continues to fail the vulnerable children of Washington. They urged the Washington legislature to support policy change because Hazel’s voice mattered, the voices of all children matter, and we have to do better.
