Alleged Child Predator Claims Baby “Fatally Burned Herself in Hot Water”

Alleged Child Predator Claims Baby “Fatally Burned Herself in Hot Water”

Introduction Harley Ray Williams was born in Oklahoma on September 24th, 2015, to parents Ivan Williams and Shelby Love. Harley had short red hair, a soft smile, and pale blue eyes. According to Shoria Good, who took care of the toddler at daycare, she was a happy and lovable little girl. She said she was just the happiest kid, always smiling, never any issues with her—she was just a sweet little girl and everyone that she came in contact with just loved her. Caretakers described her as a free spirit and a bundle of energy. They said Harley loved going to the beach and loved being outside. One of the pictures her family shared online showed her on a sandy beach with waves breaking in the background; she wore a blue dress with pink buttons and smiled for the camera.

Shelby and Ivan had a troubled relationship. They got married around 2013, were only married for three years, and didn’t stay together long after Harley was born. In August of 2016, Shelby filed for a protective order against Ivan, claiming that he had hurt her. In September, just a month after the judge granted that order, Ivan violated it by driving by the place where Shelby worked. Around that time, their divorce was finalized and she was given full custody of Harley. As a result, Ivan was allowed visitation with his daughter, but not until he took court-ordered parenting classes. He didn’t complete those classes, but soon that didn’t even matter. Even though she had full custody, Shelby was supposed to let Ivan know if she moved out of Oklahoma. Instead, she disappeared, leaving Ivan and his family searching for Harley for more than a year.

By early 2018, Shelby had moved to the state of Virginia and was living with Harley in the Sandy Beach Towers Apartment Complex in the East Ocean View section of Norfolk. She claimed she left Oklahoma because she was fleeing a relationship marked by domestic violence, but it didn’t take her long to find an even worse relationship with her new boyfriend, John Tucker Hardy.

The History of John Tucker Hardy

John Hardy had three kids of his own, but he wasn’t allowed to see any of them. In fact, he wasn’t allowed to be unsupervised around children at all because he was still on probation for domestic violence and child abuse. In 2011, he was in a relationship with Jaclyn Coats, who was 14 weeks pregnant with his son when they got into a fight that turned physical. John was planning a trip out of town with his friends, and Jaclyn was angry about his plans, telling him to leave the house. They fought, and during the argument, John threw a cell phone, aiming at and hitting her directly in her pregnant belly. He told her that he wished the baby would die. Jaclyn got a protective order against John because of that incident, but that only protected her. Five months later, when the baby was born, his father still had the right to seek custody.

That seems to be exactly what he did. In March of 2013, an unnamed girlfriend called the police and Child Protective Services (CPS) because John had strangled her and abandoned his 14-month-old baby. She turned the toddler over to CPS, who noted the boy was dehydrated and unkempt. He could sit and crawl but wasn’t walking yet. He appeared to be underfed, and investigators believed he had been physically neglected as well as medically neglected. His last doctor’s visit had been when he was only six months old, and he had missed several important appointments. He wasn’t growing or gaining weight like he should have and seemed to be developmentally delayed.

The girlfriend told investigators that she saw John hold the baby up by the neck with one hand, and that they often had to keep the baby home from social events because of the severe bruising. She also showed them a text message John had sent her saying he would kill the infant if he didn’t stop crying.

Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk examined the toddler and found dozens of serious injuries. He had what they described as an extensive skull fracture with scalp swelling that wasn’t caused by an accident. The medical report explained that he had been hit on purpose, stating:

“Fractures to the back of the skull and ones that cross suture lines, such as this one, require a great deal of force. This non-ambulatory child would not be capable of producing that degree of force on his own. It is also not the result of a short fall, such as a fall from a couch. He has suffered a significant blow to the head.”

They also found that the boy had broken vertebrae in his back, noting fractures to his T8, T9, and T10 vertebrae, likely caused by forcefully slamming him into a seated position. They said that type of injury is typically seen when a child is dropped or forced onto their buttocks, forcefully collapsing the vertebrae. The damage to the spine would never fully heal and caused a permanent loss of height that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life.

His right tibia, or shin bone, had also been broken and was in the process of healing. He could not bear weight on that leg, and doctors thought that might have interfered with him learning to walk. In addition to the broken bones, doctors found extensive bruising. He had multiple bruises on his face, including a pair of circular bruises on both sides of his jaw that were consistent with the story the girlfriend told of witnessing John holding the baby up by the neck. He had bruises on both cheeks, the tip of his nose, under his bottom lip, and on his right ear. They found more bruises on his upper right arm, both shoulders, on his back, and on his abdomen. He had a band of petechiae, or broken blood vessels, across his abdomen from under his belly button stretching to his hips. He also had a bruise on his adrenal gland, an organ deep within the body. This type of internal bruise was very unusual and normally only seen in children who had been in severe accidents. According to the doctors, the adrenal bruise would have required force well outside that of normal play or parenting.

The report also mentioned that the toddler’s feet all the way up to his ankles were bright red, but the doctors didn’t have an explanation for that finding at the time. They noted the boy had observed domestic violence occurring in the home based on the report the girlfriend gave that John had hit and strangled her, but the injuries to the boy didn’t happen accidentally while John was committing violence against his girlfriend. After observing the extent of his injuries, doctors concluded that the toddler appeared to have been targeted for violence.

While investigating the situation, police enlisted the girlfriend to participate in a phone sting aimed at getting a confession out of John. During their taped phone call, John admitted he hit his son, saying, “So what? I smacked him in his face because he ate dog food four times.”

In 2014, John pleaded guilty to strangulation, neglect, and child abuse. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but with 12 years suspended for good behavior. This effectively put him right back on the street. One of the conditions of his parole was that he was to have no contact with minors. Counting the time he spent before his sentencing and his good behavior credits, by early 2016, John was already out on parole. Instead of living at the approved address he listed with his probation officer, he was staying at a home where three children lived, in direct violation of his parole conditions. Yet, he didn’t get into any trouble. Inexplicably, in May, a judge reaffirmed his probation through 2029 instead of sending him back to jail.

None of this makes any sense. He admitted he beat a 14-month-old toddler so badly that his skull was broken, his spine was permanently damaged, and he had to wear a neck brace for months while he recovered, but the system treated it as if it were a minor offense, releasing John less than three years later and failing to enforce his basic parole conditions.

The Unspeakable Crime Against Harley

That same month, December of 2017, John met Shelby. It’s unclear whether he waited until after he was dumped or if he dated both women at the same time, but in the early months of 2018, he and Shelby got closer. Two months after they first met, in February of 2018, he moved in with Shelby and 2-year-old Harley. Now, he had access to another child he could target for violence, and he often had unsupervised access to the toddler because Shelby frequently let him watch Harley by himself while she was at work.

Two months after he moved in, on April 23rd, Shelby again left Harley alone with John while she went to work. Sometime during that afternoon, something terrible happened in the apartment. At 4:29 p.m., John sent Shelby a text message that said, “I’m going to prison.” At 4:41 p.m., he texted again, telling her she should hurry home.

When she finally got home at 5:20 p.m., Shelby said he handed Harley to her and said, “Please don’t break up with me.” John told her Harley had been accidentally burned by hot bath water. He claimed he was getting her ready for a bath, stepped away for just a few seconds, and that the injury occurred during that short window of time.

According to John, Shelby didn’t think the burns were significant initially, so the couple decided to treat her at home. He claimed she sent him to the drugstore to pick up medical supplies, leaving her there with Harley. The couple soaked rags in apple cider vinegar and applied them to her burns. They also gave the toddler Tylenol and Pedialyte, and applied Vaseline and burn creams that contained lidocaine.

Shelby told a different story. She said she realized Harley had severe burns the moment she saw her daughter and wanted to call 911, but John was terrified he would be arrested. She stated he took her cell phone and wouldn’t let her call, and because she was so afraid of him, she felt forced to treat Harley’s injuries at home.

Sometime that evening, two texts were sent from Shelby’s cell phone, though it is unclear who actually wrote them. Both went to one of Shelby’s friends. In the first, the friend was told Harley had been scalded by hot water but that the burns had already been examined by a doctor, which was completely untrue. In the second text, the friend was told the injuries had occurred at a domestic violence shelter and not at the apartment.

At around 3:30 in the morning—about 11 hours after the first text to Shelby—John said he noticed Harley was shaking, struggling to breathe, and unable to wake up. He called 911, and police and paramedics quickly arrived. When they got there, Harley was having a active seizure and was completely unresponsive. Responders could see right away that she was burned all over, estimating between 30% and 50% of her body had been scalded. They noted that her injuries were so severe that her skin had begun sloughing off. In the body camera footage of one of the responding officers, paramedics can be heard discussing the skin falling off her feet. She also had other physical injuries, including a large bruise on the back of her head—injuries that could not be explained by hot bath water.

She was rushed to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, but she was already too far gone. Shortly after she arrived at the emergency room, Harley Ray Williams was pronounced dead. John continued to insist it was an accident and blamed a faulty water heater.

Harley’s mother’s mother, Lois Love, was notified about Harley’s death and was granted next-of-kin rights. Harley’s father, Ivan, who hadn’t seen his daughter since Shelby had left the state with her, didn’t find out until a week after the initial hearing. No one called to tell him; instead, he found out through an acquaintance who had heard what happened from Lois.

Arrests, Charges, and Legal Proceedings

John and Shelby were both arrested the day Harley died. At their first bond hearing, the judge said she was at a loss for words after looking at pictures of the burns covering the toddler’s back, legs, arms, bottom, and feet. She called the incident horrific and denied the request for bond. They were both held in the Norfolk City Jail, though within a month or so, John was moved by the sheriff to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, where he was held on behalf of the city.

John and Shelby were both initially charged with felony child abuse and neglect. Their charges were upgraded in November of 2018 to include felony murder for both of them, as medical experts believed Harley could have survived if she had received prompt medical treatment. John was also charged with second-degree murder and two counts of malicious wounding.

In February of 2019, Shelby’s attorneys filed a motion stating they planned to argue that she suffered from battered woman’s syndrome and that her fear of John kept her from getting help for her daughter’s injuries. They stated he was so dangerous that she genuinely feared for her life. In their motion, they detailed that she had suffered several traumas in her past, including two sexual assaults and previous domestic violence. They claimed those incidents informed her psychological state and her decision to remain in an abusive relationship with Hardy. However, her case never reached the trial stage because she pleaded guilty to felony murder and child neglect on October 28th, 2020, agreeing to testify against John at his trial.

In 2021, John filed a lawsuit against the city of Norfolk, the sheriff, the Commonwealth’s attorneys, and basically anyone else he could think of because he had been moved to the Hampton Roads jail. Among his complaints, he listed that he had contracted the virus that was prevalent in 2020, and he argued he would not have gotten sick if he had been left at the Norfolk City Jail. The court found that he had no constitutional right to be housed in the facility of his choosing and dismissed his case as frivolous. Later, he filed another complaint claiming some of his mail had been opened inappropriately, but that case was also dismissed.

Finally, in July of 2022, his trial for Harley’s murder began. He chose a bench trial instead of a jury trial, leaving Judge John R. Doyle III alone to decide his guilt. One of the prosecutors, Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi, told the judge: “The crime that the defendant committed against this little girl is one of the worst I have ever seen. My heart breaks for that little girl.”

As agreed upon in her plea deal, Shelby testified at the trial. She stated that she and John had been living together for about two months and told the judge she regularly allowed John to watch Harley while she was at work. She confirmed he was completely alone with Harley when the child suffered the burns. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jill Harris revealed the explicit details surrounding his 2014 conviction for child abuse and told the judge John was still on probation for that offense, emphasizing that he wasn’t supposed to be around children and at no point did he take responsibility.

Prosecutors also brought in forensic experts to explain Harley’s autopsy report. In addition to the severe burns covering large sections of her body, the autopsy showed she suffered multiple blunt force injuries. She wasn’t just burned; she had also been beaten. She had a 7-inch contusion, or large bruise, on the back of her head, along with serious bruising on her chest and ear. She also had a substantial bruise on her abdomen and an internal injury to her small intestine.

Experts testified that the bruising was entirely consistent with physical child abuse. The prosecutor pointed out that many of Harley’s injuries were mirror images of the injuries John’s son had suffered when he was beaten and punched in the head at the hands of his own father, who also had bruising to the back of his head and ear, as well as abdominal injuries and internal bleeding.

Doctors explained that toxic amounts of lidocaine were found in Harley’s blood from the over-the-counter medicines applied directly to her extensive open wounds. She only weighed 26 pounds, and her tiny body was ravaged by severe burns covering roughly 42% of her skin, including her legs, back, arms, bottom, feet, and left ear. A pediatrician who specializes in identifying child abuse testified that her burns were consistent with immersion burn injuries, meaning the type of burns that happen when skin is forced and submerged into scalding hot water. Chillingly, he also noted the total absence of splash marks, which would be expected if she were moving around trying to escape the hot water. Overall, her injuries were consistent with lying completely immobile in a bathtub.

This finding did not match the story John told, wherein she allegedly turned on the hot water herself. Coupled with the extensive bruising on her body, it made it seem highly likely that she was either unconscious in the tub or held down with enough force to keep her from moving. Though this wasn’t explicitly stated in the testimony, the evidence raised the question of whether he had hit her so hard in the head that she was already unconscious when he put her in the bathtub. Her official cause of death was ruled as complications of scalding with several bruises on her body and a large contusion on her scalp.

After causing these severe injuries, John waited hours before calling 911. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Harris pointed out that John and Shelby covered her wounds with vinegar-soaked rags, which would have been incredibly painful. They waited so long to call for help that by the time first responders showed up, her severely burned skin was peeling away and she was suffering from profound seizures.

In his closing statements, Commonwealth’s Attorney Fatehi called this one of the worst cases he had ever seen in his career, stating:

“The violence John Hardy inflicted on little Harley, the burns he forced her to suffer, and the treatment of her injuries that was worse than torture is one of the most depraved I have seen in my career. Little Harley lived her last hours in agony. Had she gotten medical help, she might have lived. Instead, she suffered and she died. Mr. Hardy has earned his sentence. We will remember Harley.”

On July 13th, Judge Doyle found John guilty of child abuse, malicious wounding, and second-degree murder. He was prepared to sentence him soon after the verdict, but John filed a motion requesting a new attorney, claiming his current counsel did not adequately defend him. In particular, he argued his attorney failed to call an expert to testify about the broken water heater in the apartment. His attorney was replaced, and because the new counsel needed additional time to get up to speed on the case, the sentencing was delayed.

Jailhouse Interview and Final Sentences

On October 28th, John agreed to do a jailhouse interview with a local Virginia television station, 13News Now, an ABC affiliate. During the interview, he repeatedly insisted he was innocent. He told the reporter: “It is horrible that Harley is gone. There is no getting her back, but I can’t go away for the rest of my life for something I didn’t do.” He also denied mistreating or intimidating Shelby, adding, “I did not murder Harley. This was not my intent. No one held her down. No one stopped her mother from taking her to the hospital. None of that.”

The news broadcast went as follows:

“A man convicted of killing a child is speaking out for the first time, and we want to warn you, some of the details in this story are disturbing. John Hardy was found guilty of murder over the summer for the death of 2-year-old Harley Williams in 2018. Today, a judge delayed Hardy’s sentencing after he asked for a new lawyer. Hardy maintained his innocence when he spoke to Allison Bazil from behind bars.”

“It just… it was a horrible accident,” Hardy said.

“In July, a judge convicted John Hardy of felony murder, felony child neglect, and malicious wounding for the death of Harley Williams. Prosecutors said Hardy scalded the 2-year-old girl with hot water, and it happened in April 2018. But Hardy says he sat the child in the bathtub and walked away briefly.”

“I checked the temperature, and this was literally about 60 to 70 seconds that I was away from her before hearing her yell,” Hardy stated.

“That’s when Hardy says he grabbed the girl from the tub, noticed burns, and immediately texted her mother.”

“And I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to prison,’ and ‘Hurry home,'” Hardy recounted.

“Prosecutors said Hardy and the child’s mother, Shelby Love, failed to get the child proper care for several hours following the incident. They say the child’s skin was coming off. Love pleaded guilty to felony murder and child neglect in 2020. The night of the incident, Hardy says Love sent him to the drugstore to get medical supplies. Investigators say the couple called 911 around 3:30 in the morning when the child had a seizure. She later died at the hospital.”

“I… I did not murder Harley. That… that was not my intent,” Hardy insisted.

“Hardy says his apartment had a faulty hot water heater. He says his attorneys didn’t call any witnesses during the trial, including an expert who would testify about the heater, so he asked for a new lawyer in court today. A Norfolk judge granted Hardy’s request. Hardy hopes the new lawyer can help his case.”

“I mean, it’s horrible that Harley’s gone. There’s no getting her back, but I can’t go away for the rest of my life for something that I didn’t do,” Hardy concluded.

However, he did seem to make a critical logical error. According to the original story he told Shelby, he was getting ready to run a bath for the toddler but stepped out of the room to make a quick phone call. In that version of events, he seemed to imply the water wasn’t running yet and Harley had turned it on herself while he was out of the room. When he talked to the reporter, though, he stated he checked the temperature himself and was away from her for literally 60 to 70 seconds before hearing her yell. In this second version, he openly admitted he turned the water on. While it might seem like a small detail, it is exactly the kind of inconsistency that happens when someone is telling a fabricated story instead of remembering the truth.

Finally, on May 26th of 2023, Judge Doyle sentenced John Hardy to what amounts to 35 years in active prison. He was given 10 years for the charge of malicious wounding, 10 years for child abuse, and 25 years for second-degree murder with 10 years suspended. The sentence handed down was six years longer than the state sentencing guidelines suggested for second-degree murder, but to many, it still didn’t seem long enough.

After his release, he will have to spend 10 years on supervised probation, during which he must have absolutely no contact with minors. This condition felt like a sick joke to those following the case, since that was the exact same probation condition he was blatantly disregarding when he murdered Harley. He was 38 years old at the time of his sentencing, meaning he will be 73 years old when he is finally eligible for release. Hopefully, his future parole officer will ensure he stays far away from vulnerable children.

On June 23rd, 2023, Shelby Love was sentenced to 15 years in prison for her secondary role in her daughter’s murder.

Family Grief and The Custody Dispute

Harley’s father, Ivan, and his family were completely grief-stricken after they learned of her death. Ivan’s sister, also named Shelby, said: “We are devastated. My brother cannot eat, cannot sleep, and is heartbroken. He loved his daughter very much. We all love Harley.”

The grief was amplified because Ivan disagreed strongly with the maternal grandmother, Lois, regarding how Harley should be laid to rest. After Lois was appointed next of kin, Ivan emailed a formal message to the judge explaining how no one had even told him about Harley’s death. He wrote:

“Shelby never contacted us about it nor claimed Harley. As soon as we were told about it from an acquaintance of Lois, I called the medical examiner’s office to claim my daughter and set up arrangements and paid for them. Also, three separate times Lois has intervened with a paper stating she had custody of Harley. The Metropolitan Funeral Home said it looked fishy. We learned Lois petitioned for an emergency hearing for custody of poor Harley’s remains. Is there any way of possibly stopping this order? We have been looking for her for over a year when her mother fled with her. This makes the whole situation even more disgusting and sickening. I just want to lay my daughter to rest.”

Both families wanted Harley to be brought back to Oklahoma, where most of her family lived, but they clashed over what should happen when she got there. Ivan wanted a lock of his daughter’s hair and wanted to have her cremated, with her ashes interred in a nearby cemetery so her half-sisters and extended family could visit her. Her grandmother wanted her to have a traditional burial instead.

Though the family did not hold a public service, they ultimately came to a compromise. Harley was buried at Plainview Cemetery in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Her headstone reads: Harley Ray Love Williams – Deeply loved daughter, sister, and granddaughter. Images of flowers, seashells, and a wave hitting a beach are engraved on the plaque in remembrance of the things that little Harley loved during her short life.

Community Vigil and Advocacy for Change

About a week after Harley’s death, residents from her Ocean View neighborhood gathered to honor her memory and offer comfort to her distant family. Even though the family lived far away in Oklahoma, vigil organizer Shannon Hawkins hoped the gathering would let them know that Norfolk, Virginia, was not just a place of ambient sadness. She stated, “They’ll know we came together as a community and did something. We want to let them know we care.”

At the vigil, attendees looked at pictures of Harley, blew bubbles, wrote messages on rocks, and set up a wooden cross with her name on it before holding a moment of silence in the toddler’s honor. Aaron Ferguson, who knew both John and Shelby, wrote “Fly High Beautiful” on her rock. Faith Gatun, who knew John, said, “It’s hard to think anybody you know could do something like this. And we all have children, so if it was one of our children, we would want the same support.”

In Ocean View, residents expressed that harming a child is an unnecessary, heinous crime. Neighbors chose to write uplifting thoughts on these stones, wishing the family love and prayers, to remember a 2-year-old girl whose smile they never saw in person, but came to know through pictures. They wanted her extended family to know the community cared and that Harley Ray was gone but not forgotten.

The organizers noted that Harley’s father and extended family in Oklahoma would eventually receive these memorial stones. However, they stated they were not going to stop writing and advocating until systematic changes occurred—specifically, implementing a new law that would bring more awareness to people who cause child abuse.

Hawkins expressed deep disgust that John Hardy, a man already convicted of harming his own child, was able to live unmonitored in a neighborhood with other children. She proposed a petition asking government officials to create a National Child Abuse Registry, similar to the one that already exists for sex offenders, stating: “They will have to register so that we will know when a child is in our neighborhood, so that no other face like Harley’s has to be remembered with bubbles and grief. It has to stop. It is up to us to speak up for Harley the way she could not.”

Systemic Failures in Norfolk

If this call for a National Child Abuse Registry sounds familiar, it might be because the exact same proposal was raised following the murder of Heaven Watkins—another young girl who was murdered by her mother’s boyfriend in the exact same city of Norfolk, Virginia, on May 18th, 2018, less than a month after Harley’s murder. Sadly, the proposal for a registry was shot down by politicians and did not advance.

Two Norfolk children were killed in just two months: Heaven Watkins and Harley Ray Williams, their lives ended far too soon by the individuals who were supposed to care for them. Investigative reporter Laura Geller sat down with child safety advocates to examine the systemic problems within the child protection system—a system that loved ones say completely failed these children.

Heaven Watkins was just an 11-year-old child who became an innocent victim. Investigations showed Heaven’s family had a documented history with child protection services in Minnesota. When the family moved to Norfolk, local CPS became involved in February but chose to keep the little girl in her home. Just three months later, Heaven was dead. Her mother, Latoya Smith, and Smith’s boyfriend, Demonte Harris, were subsequently charged in her death. Heaven’s family publicly stated that while the abusers killed her, Child Protective Services played a massive part by failing to intervene.

In Harley Ray Williams’ case, she was scalded so badly her skin came off, inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend, John Tucker Hardy. At the time, Hardy was on probation for beating his own infant son and never should have been permitted to live in a home with another child. Advocates emphasize that she had her whole life ahead of her, and it all could have been prevented.

These cases are part of a grim local trend; data reveals that in 86% of founded child abuse deaths in the area, the children died while directly in the care of their parents or guardians. When asked if the system failed these children, Melinda Sakati, the executive director of Champions for Children in Hampton Roads, stated there is no question about it:

“You go, ‘Oh no, not again.’ And then I look and I listen and I think, ‘Okay, how long is it going to take before something changes?'”

Sakati explained that there is a severe resource and funding issue within the Department of Social Services, calling it an overburdened system stretched to its absolute limit. Internal sources indicate there is consistent, systemic pressure for caseworkers to keep families together and avoid removing children from their homes in most cases. Sakati argues that the current reactive system needs to fundamentally change its perspective. To stop abuse, social services must stop simply reacting to tragedies after they occur and instead get out in front of them, establishing home visiting programs and family dynamic support before abuse ever starts. Doing so, however, requires explicit funding and legislative parameters established by lawmakers.

In the aftermath of Harley’s death, a neighbor named Vanity Hurt expressed deep regret. She admitted she had heard the toddler screaming and crying and instinctively felt like something was deeply wrong, but she didn’t call authorities.

Addressing this common dilemma, child prevention expert Johanna Schuchert, the director of Prevent Child Abuse Virginia, discussed what people should do when they suspect trouble. When a neighbor hears a child screaming, it can be difficult to discern if it is a normal toddler tantrum or something more sinister. Caretakers and neighbors of Harley found themselves second-guessing everything, wondering if they missed critical warning signs inside the Ocean View home before she was found unresponsive.

Advocates state that these feelings of guilt are normal after a tragedy, but emphasize that if the question ever crosses your mind, the best thing to do is to act immediately. The simplest action is to pick up the phone and call the child abuse hotline. The golden rule remains: if you see something, say something.

Reports can be made completely anonymously. If what a caller observes turns out to be a simple misunderstanding, there are no negative consequences for the family. But if the incident is actual abuse, that simple phone call could become a lifesaving action. In Harley’s case, a single phone call from someone around her might have secured the help she desperately needed before it was too late.