Babysitter Does the UNTHINKABLE – The DISTURBING Case of Hannah Wesche

“My name is Lindsay, I babysit kids and we just dropped her off and, um, all of a sudden she just passed out.” “Who passed out?” “The little girl, she’s three. She felt pretty bad yesterday, and she was fine all of a sudden. We dropped her off this morning and she walked in and she kind of passed out. She went, went… okay, I don’t know.” “Are you with her now?” “Yeah, since I called her, bad… yes, hurry, she’s bad, there’s something wrong.”

Like cold November rain, Like a man without a name, Like a song without a frame, That’s how I feel without you. Like a door without a key, Like a wave without the sea, Like a hive without the bee, It’s how I feel without you. How I miss, how I miss being with you. Oh, how I wish, how I wish it wasn’t true. How I wish, how I wish you missed me too. But I know there’s nothing, nothing I can do. Nothing I can do. Like cold November rain, Like a man without a name, Like a song without a frame, I don’t know how else to explain.

Shank Road in Fairfield Township, Ohio is not just your ordinary country road in rural Ohio. It will forever be known as the road where Jason Wesche and neighbors Lindsay Parton and her husband Timothy J. Smith became embroiled in a brutal tragedy that ripped through the headlines in 2018. This story of secrets, lies, and murder has left indelible scars on so many, and the cries of little Hannah will forever echo through this rural middle-American neighborhood.

March 8th, 2018, was a normal day in Fairfield Township, Ohio, for Jason Wesche and his three-year-old daughter, Hannah. Jason was a single father raising Hannah on his own, working 12-hour days for a construction company to support her. His neighbor, Lindsay Parton, would care for Hannah while Jason was working. Lindsay and her husband lived basically next door in this rural neighborhood, which was a short drive for Jason. Lindsay ran a small childcare out of her home, caring for Hannah, her two daughters, and one other child.

According to Jason Wesche, that morning was just another day for the most part. He got himself and Hannah ready for the day. He said Hannah even brushed her teeth that morning. He carried her to his truck wrapped in a blanket, as it was a chilly morning. Typically, she liked to ride to Lindsay’s on his lap since her house was just a quick ride down the country road, but this particular morning Hannah seemed to be a little off and didn’t want to sit with Jason. She instead climbed into the back seat and laid down for the short ride.

The pair arrived at Lindsay’s at approximately 7:00 a.m. Jason dropped off Hannah as usual, but this morning Hannah asked for more kisses than usual from her dad and seemed reluctant for him to leave. Jason obliged Hannah and then went on his way down the road to the construction yard. There he would park his personal truck and switch into his work truck he would be driving for the day.

When Jason arrived at the construction yard, he began transferring items that he would need for the day from his personal truck to his work truck when he would receive a call from Lindsay stating something was wrong with Hannah. Jason raced back to Lindsay’s to find Hannah unresponsive. He tried to revive her to no avail and yelled at Lindsay to call 911.

At the end of the 911 call, you can hear little Hannah moaning slightly. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

“Hi there, can you hear me?” “Yes, I can hear you.” “What’s going on?” “Okay, my name is Lindsay, I babysit kids. We just dropped her off, and, um, all of a sudden she just passed out.” “Who passed out?” “The little girl, she’s three. She felt pretty bad yesterday, and she was fine all of a sudden… walked in this morning and she walked in and she kind of passed out. She went, went… okay, I don’t know.” “Are you with her now?” “Yes, she’s bad, I called her… yes, hurry, she’s bad, there’s something wrong.” “Okay, is she awake right now?” “Yeah, no, no, no.” “Stay on the line with me. I have to ask you a few questions while my partner gets the medics dispatched, okay? Is she breathing?” “Yeah, she’s gasping. Okay, she’s gasping. I don’t know what’s wrong.” “Okay, is her breathing completely normal?” “Oh, yeah, it’s almost gone, hurry please.” “Okay, lay her down on her back. Lay her down on her back and let her head tilt back. And she’s still unconscious, correct?” “Yes. Okay, no, she’s not unconscious. She’s… her eyes are open, and she’s like gasping for air. What’s the matter? F*** shock or something? I don’t know what the f*** would be wrong with her. I don’t either, she was fine… who just walked him out, got brushed…” “I understand, Lindsay, it’s okay, they’re on the way.” “Walk in the house and just passed out. Hey, hey, look at Daddy, Hannah. Look up. Okay. I love you, Hannah. I love you, baby. Hey, hey, wake up. Here we go.”

Emergency personnel arrived on the scene and rushed Hannah to a hospital in Hamilton. She was later flown to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in critical condition. Jason rushed to be by Hannah’s side, while Butler County Sheriff’s brought Lindsay in for an interview. The injuries to Hannah were suspicious, and law enforcement needed more information from Lindsay as to what happened to Hannah while she was in her care that morning. Hannah would be hospitalized for 10 days while doctors tried everything they could to save her, but her injuries were too much for her little body, and she passed away 10 days later.

Hannah Jade Wesche was born January 11th, 2015, to parents Jason Wesche and Adrienne Latham. Little Hannah had a rough start in life. Her mother Adrienne struggled with addiction, and Hannah paid the price. Hannah was born addicted to illegal substances and had to stay in the NICU for 3 months. Her mother Adrienne went to rehab soon after, and Jason took full custody of Hannah. Hannah was a beautiful, vibrant, bright-eyed baby girl who was always smiling and giggling. She loved Minnie Mouse and hot dogs. As we do in every video, we are going to take a minute to pay tribute to the littlest victim in this video. Hannah was not a statistic, and to truly know her tragic story, we need to know Hannah.

Jason Wesche took custody of Hannah after her birth due to her mother Adrienne’s struggle with substances. Jason had two other daughters he shared custody with, but he was a full-time dad to baby Hannah. Jason had a great family support system though. At some point after bringing baby Hannah home from the hospital, Jason unfortunately lost his job. He had already been struggling financially, so this was a serious blow. Jason was unable to maintain a home for Hannah, but fortunately, his brother Jeremy and his wife were able to help Jason with Hannah. Jason, not wanting to be a burden but wanting to be close to Hannah, would sleep outside of Jeremy’s house in his car.

He eventually found work and was able to get on his feet and find a home for himself and Hannah. Providing for his girls was Jason’s top priority. He was willing to work long hours to give them the best life he could. You can see in these photos that I found on Jason and his oldest daughter’s social media accounts the closeness between his daughters, as they shared these wonderful memories with Hannah.

For a while, Jason was driving pretty far every day to get Hannah to a babysitter before work. When his neighbor, Timothy Smith, offered him a job with his parents’ company, Tim Smith Construction, he also said Jason could drop Hannah off with his wife, Lindsay, for childcare. This was a godsend to Jason. Hannah’s childcare was basically next door. The company had a yard right down the road where Jason could leave his personal truck and have a company truck to drive during working hours. This became Jason and Hannah’s new routine. For eight months, Hannah would go to Lindsay’s while Jason was at work. He no longer had to commute. This made everything so much easier for the single dad.

Lindsay Parton and Timothy Smith called themselves husband and wife but were not legally married. Apparently, they had a ceremony but never filed the paperwork to legalize their marriage. Lindsay had two daughters under the age of 10, but there are conflicting reports as to whether the girls were with Timothy. Timothy worked for his father’s construction company, and Lindsay did office work for her father, along with babysitting and selling Mary Kay cosmetics as side hustles. She had set up her garage as a playroom for the children. It’s not clear if she was licensed for childcare, but it’s reported she had an associate degree in preschool education.

According to court testimony in this case, Lindsay and Timothy had a tumultuous relationship. Text messages between Lindsay and Timothy revealed arguments over Timothy’s drinking, not coming home, and not spending time with Lindsay and the girls. In a shocking twist to this case, a year after Hannah’s tragedy, Timothy would be arrested for SAing a child under 10. He was originally charged with two counts of R but pled down to a lesser charge, of course. So this guy was a total chomo and should have never been around children. He got caught in 2019, but you can’t tell me it was his first offense here. He was with Lindsay, who babysat children and had two daughters under 10 right there. My alarm bells are going off. What the hell was going on in this household?

While Jason was at Hannah’s bedside, detectives were investigating the suspicious nature of Hannah’s injuries. They interviewed Lindsay, trying to get to the bottom of what happened that morning. Doctors treating Hannah told investigators that the injuries were so bad that Hannah would have immediately become unresponsive, which makes the likelihood that Jason had anything to do with injuring her very unlikely. It’s highly doubtful he would have strolled into the babysitter’s house with an unresponsive Hannah, dropped her off, and headed off to work. What happened to Hannah would have happened immediately after drop-off and would have rendered her unresponsive according to medical personnel.

“We’ve talked to the doctors down at UC, Hannah’s not doing good, okay? Um, whatever happened to her happened this morning.” “Oh my God.” “It’s not from the fall from yesterday. She has a severe, severe brain bleed.” “Oh my God.” “So what we need is the truth from you. Yeah, we need, we need to know how this happened. That way we can treat her.” “I’m absolutely telling you the truth. Oh my God.” “The way it’s looking right now is this happened at your house, because we need, we need to find out, we need the truth.” “I swear to God, I’m telling you the exact truth. We walked in the house.” “What the doctors are saying… she did not walk, she did not talk with this type of injury. If you didn’t, who would?” “I don’t know, okay.” “I believe you’re not being honest with us and you need to come clean with it because you’re going to be a part of this. Do you understand me?” “Yeah, okay.” “As one mother to another, you can’t kid, you can’t joke around about this, you can’t hide behind it. You need to come ahead of this and tell us what’s going on and what you know.” “Yeah, I, I don’t know anything that goes on over there, but then I know she’s mischievous.” “Okay, what happened this morning?” “No, nothing at my house. About something happened today. Okay, yeah, nothing happened.” “She probably not going to make it.” “You’re f***ing kidding me.” “No, I’m not. We’re not, this is going to be a homicide. We need, we need to find out what’s going on.” “Oh my God.” “What did he say to you this morning?” “God, I’m even trying to remember what we even said this morning. I said it’s snowing again.” “How did he act?” “Normal, completely normal.”

Lindsay states Hannah is mischievous. Why would you say that about a child that has been gravely injured in your care, that you had just witnessed being rushed to the hospital? To me, most people who cared for a child daily for over 8 months would probably have formed some sort of bond with that child. Just my opinion, but I don’t think telling detectives that she was mischievous would be something that any normal person who is devastated over what happened to Hannah and worried sick if she will be okay would say. It’s talking bad about the child. It seems cold and disrespectful to me.

When the detectives tell her Hannah may not make it, Lindsay doesn’t seem to show any emotion. She acts shocked to me, it seems like she’s overacting. Even someone that wasn’t close to the child would probably become emotional over hearing she may die. Even though Lindsay is being interrogated, which I’m sure is stressful, and someone may not act as they normally would and have their guard up, with that said, if this woman truly cared for Hannah and was devastated over what happened to her, it seems to me she would show deep concern and emotion over what happened to Hannah. Throwing in the word “mischievous” as Hannah is dying is disgusting and a form of victim-blaming, or Lindsay is setting up a story of how what happened to Hannah is somehow her own fault.

“So all these small little bruises and the ones on the chin…” “Yes, I know about those. Right there and even the one on, one on the chin.” “Yep. And the neck there.” “Yep. That’s all from that?” “Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay, you saw, I mean the yes, up under her chin like that. So she would have been extended pretty far. She, she went like that.” “Yeah. Okay, and what day did this happen?” “Tuesday.” “Okay, this, of this week.” “Yes. Okay. Tuesday when it was nice out.” “Is that the same day?” “11. Okay, 11, that morning we went out before lunch.” “Okay. Same day as the train?” “No, the train was Wednesday, one day. Okay, yeah. So which side did she fall on Wednesday when she fell off the train?” “Her right, her right side, yes. She smacked her face on the right, her right side on the train. Yeah, right, yeah.” “Okay, yes, her right side, correct.” “Yes, yeah. All right, I’m sorry, I’m trying to find… so it’s probably, that wasn’t the train then, is that the left?” “Yeah, I, I obviously cannot tell my right from my left.” “No, no, it’s… you’re, but you’re sure that she fell on her right side off the train.” “Yes. Okay, I’m positive. Positive. Okay, all right. So the…” “I didn’t actually see the train. I haven’t seen the train. How tall is the train?” “About that high off the ground, and she was standing up on it, yeah, doing the surfing thing, and it went out from the side, and she went down like that with, I mean, her arms back, yeah, yeah, and and smacked, smacked the right side of face, and I freaked out, ran out there, I’m like, are you okay? She jumped back up, and she said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ I said let’s go put ice on it, let’s sit down and play. She wasn’t complaining of headache, her head hurt.” “It was on her right side from the train, you’re saying?” “No, that’s from the gravel, she literally bit it, okay, full force running.” “And you said when she totally bit it, her head was going down towards the ground?” “Yeah, she smacked her chin, her chin, right here, yeah. Okay, and, and that’s the problem. There’s no mark directly on the point of her chin. We’re looking at very, very little, no bruising right here in the middle, it’s on the left, yeah, yeah, and on the right, like I said, I was far away too, I was way behind them so…” “And then up underneath, underneath, mhm, yeah.” “So when people, so when people fall, um, you’re going to have bruising on the sharp points, okay. So it’s going to be this point, none here, and then some here. Or if you’re over here, you’re going to have some here, and she could have, I don’t know, I honest… you have, I was just coming out the door. And you fall straight forward, you’re not going to have…”

“From a senior neurologist, okay, he’s telling us that, uh, the, the brain injury that she sustained was absolutely not 24 hours prior or even an hour prior. The injury that caused this, uh, or the incident that caused this brain injury, yeah, was immediate. So whatever happened, um, did not happen prior to her getting to your house, it was absolutely instant. So, and if you believe that it’s instant, you’re, you’re agreeing that okay, she fell because she got hit or something happened, something caused… look, something caused this. Okay. In her head, she fell because of that, all right. What caused that, what accident caused this?”

“She fell in the door and hit the concrete step. She tripped Thursday morning walking into the, walking into the house. Yes, so when I opened up the door, she was coming through, and she slipped on that concrete step and the metal part, she hit the metal part on her eye.” “Which door?” “The back door, the house going into the house, the carpet, and so I got her back up, and she stood up and looked up at me and did say ‘I want donut and couch’ and then collapsed. The doctor said when this injury occurred she was out.” “We’ve come a long way. We, we got past that, okay, you’re right there, you’re…” “When I opened the door, I dropped her, and I slipped though. Tell us what happened. So I slipped on her blanket when I opened the door, and we both went down, and she hit that concrete step really hard.” “Where at?” “On, on her head, on her face, ’cause I was holding her on the left side, and when I slipped it hit her side. I actually hit my head on the door coming down, but she smacked her face, her, her, her head really hard on that concrete step.” “Okay, and then what happened?” “We got up. I tried to, tried to get her to come to. She did ask me for a donut and couch out in the garage, not inside, but she did when we first walked in and Jason walked out, she said…” “So now you’re saying she asked that before?” “Yeah, and I fell and she fell.” “Where did, where were you at when you fell?” “Um, against the door trying to get the door open. I was holding her, the blanket was kind of like falling, ’cause he had handed her to me, and I put her down and then I picked her… no, he put her down, and when he walked out the door I picked her up with the blanket, and it got tangled up, and when I opened up the door, or it got tangled and I slipped.”

“What to say… start, start with these, how do these get here?” “I didn’t do that, I don’t know.” “Okay.” “I really didn’t do that, I don’t… how does this happen?” “I clapped her upside the head.” “With what?” “My hand.” “Open, closed?” “Open.” “What caused that?” “She took all of the… I don’t know why she was in trouble, she took all the ketchup out and squirted it into the toilet while I wasn’t looking.” “That’s frustrating.” “And I’m like absolutely, yeah, yeah.” “What else had she done that day? Is this like a culmination of things building up?” “What day was that, was it last week, this week?” “This week. Early this week, yeah, okay, yeah. And I didn’t think that hurt her.”

When Lindsay is talking about falling down the concrete step, notice she was looking down most of the time. It was like she was making it up as she went along. That story was very inconsistent. Then as detectives ask Lindsay to explain other bruises on Hannah’s face and neck, she first says “I didn’t do that, I don’t know. I really didn’t do that. I don’t know.” And then he asks her again, and she says “I slapped her upside the head.” Who says that? And then when the detective asks her what she hit Hannah upside the head with, she smugly answers as she shrugs her shoulders and says, “My hand,” as if she’s having tea at high noon, like what’s the big deal. Unbelievable.

Then when asked why she hit Hannah upside the head, she stalls. Then she says, “I don’t know why she was in trouble.” And then comes up with some cockamamie story about Hannah squirting ketchup in the toilet when she wasn’t looking. Lindsay’s smiling as she says it, which is so cringe and creepy, and then the way she yells “Hannah” is disturbing to me. This woman is giving me psychotic vibes. Hannah is dying, yet she shows zero emotion. She is making up stories and admitting she laid hands on little Hannah in such a callous way. Calling her mischievous again, as if what happened to this precious three-year-old is somehow her fault.

After interviewing Lindsay a few times and consulting with doctors treating Hannah, detectives were convinced the injuries to her happened immediately after Jason dropped Hannah off. Lindsay also stated Hannah fell in the gravel outside really hard one day, she fell off a toy train one day. She had a lot of stories about Hannah getting injured while in her care. Cover stories, in my opinion.

You’re probably wondering if anyone ever noticed bruises or injuries on Hannah prior to her death. Here is an interview with Jason’s oldest daughter, Caitlyn, and Hannah’s mother Adrienne’s father, David Latham, speaking on this.

“Turn okay. Do you currently live in the house with my mom?” “With your mom, Hannah’s your stepsister then?” “Hannah’s my half-sister.” “Your half-sister, okay. Do you stay with your father often?” “Yeah, weekends and days that I don’t have school.” “Is there anything that would make you feel that what happened was done in malice, was done, like she didn’t fall, it wasn’t an accident. Yes, is what I’m asking.” “I mean, she goes to Lindsay’s Monday through Thursday, and she goes to a different babysitter on Friday. Okay. For some reason, she likes to go to that babysitter. Okay. That’s the only thing I have to say.” “Have you ever spoke to Lindsay?” “I go over there and she has, because I’m in cosmetology, so I go over there and I do her hair. Okay. And she’s going out.” “What type of person is Lindsay?” “She’s nice, and she has two other kids that are around the same age as Hannah.” “Does anything seem odd about her?” “I mean, her kids were kind of rambunctious, and she didn’t get like mad, like she didn’t snap out of…” “Okay, tell me a little bit about your dad, what type of guy is he?” “My dad is my best friend and, I mean, that was my whole heart. He’s been there for me more than anybody else has. Okay. Like I’ve been… these past few years I’ve been going through a lot of stuff, and he’s always been the one to take care of me and be there for me.” “So he’s kind of your rock then?” “Yeah.” “Okay, like I said, you know, you looked at your dad in the room and, and you asked him, and you asked him very concerningly that, ‘Did she really hit her head, did she really hit her head?’ What, what would make you ask him that?” “Cuz I, I mean if the kid’s going to fall and hit their head, it obviously has to be pretty hard for it to start bleeding like that. True. So I’m just concerned whether somebody maybe pushed her and made her fall, or somebody hit her and made her fall, or somebody hit her and just hit her and made her hit her head and hurt her like that.” “Did you change your clothes, help her change her clothes or anything, give her a bath, did she see marks on her?” “I mean, not like… I mean, she probably had some bruises on her legs or something.” “Okay. Did she have bruises on her neck or her chest?” “She didn’t have a bruise on her chest, right here.” “She had one bruise on her chest or several?” “One, I think I just seen one greenish.” “Okay. You ever noticed any kind of change in her?” “Yes, you have. A few weeks… I was telling my family that I thought maybe she didn’t like this new baby… this babysitter. She had, uh, two marks on which will probably still there, cuz I noticed it over the weekend, look at fingerprint marks, and I asked her and you know, she’s three, she speaks pretty good, and she tell me ‘Babysitter’. And I noticed there was a bruise on her chest, and that last weekend I had her, which was two weekends ago, I noticed there was bruise around here on her, and I asked her about that, she said ‘Babysitter’. I guess she’s been going to Lindsay for eight months. I’ve been seeing bruises on her pretty much the whole eight months. The whole eight months? Pretty much here and there, but I’ve been taking it, okay, little kid, fall down, you this time you get a bruise here and a bruise here.” “Have you ever asked Jason like, man…” “I’ve asked him several times, uh, what’s up with this? Is this babysitter a good babysitter? And I told him, I said I’ve asked her, I saw a bruise on her, you know, and she goes, he says, ‘Yeah, they got a daughter close to her age, and they roughhouse you know, there’s other kids,’ and and that’s what the babysitter is relaying to Jason, I, I assume.” “Did she ever say anything that her dad hurts her?” “No, she loved her dad.”

Hannah said it. She told her grandfather exactly who was hurting her: the babysitter. Jason being a single dad and seeing rambunctious kids at Lindsay’s wrote it off to kids being kids. I don’t blame him for that, but at the same time, Hannah told her Grandpa the babysitter did it. Jason should have removed Hannah and found other childcare, in my opinion. Hannah didn’t complain about the babysitter she went to on Fridays. If Jason would have pulled Hannah from Lindsay’s care and found another sitter, and Hannah stopped having suspect bruises, it would have been obvious Lindsay or someone in her household was hurting Hannah.

Let’s not forget about Lindsay’s so-called husband Timothy, who ended up arrested for SAing a child under 10. Who knows what was going on at Lindsay’s, but what breaks my heart is Hannah told and nothing was done, and now she’s gone.

They arrested Lindsay March 9th, 2018, the day after the incident, and charged her with murder and child endangerment. Hannah suffered fatal injuries that included deep bruising to the back of her head and neck. She also had bruising to her eyes, a hemorrhage to the optic nerve, and tremendous brain damage. These injuries were the result of possible shaking and blunt impact to the head that led to her tragic death.

Here is part of Dr. Marguerite K.’s testimony from Lindsay’s trial explaining how the injury to Hannah’s brain was not from an accidental fall but purposely inflicted from abuse.

“And in my phrase, this question, um, I don’t want you to express any opinions by any other doctors; however, I do want to know your opinion. And I think we’ve talked about the causes of this injury. Did you receive any medical history in your evaluation of Hannah Wesche and her slides from any source that would be consistent with the injuries that you were seeing?” “I received no information of a, a significant accidental injury. Um, by the time I signed off the report, I knew that she had significant bruising.” “Okay, so you knew she had significant external bruising. Is that what you’re talking about?” “That’s by the time you signed off on the report, correct.” “Had you already developed an opinion prior to seeing that external bruising?” “Yes.” “And you said there was no sign, I’m sorry, no significant accidental history. What do you mean by significant? What are you talking…” “Like I said, so if I see a scan like this, um, I mean most of the time the child’s going to present initially to our trauma bay and we’ll know before the child even gets to our trauma bay that there’s a three-year-old coming in that was involved in a motor vehicle collision or a motor vehicle accident. Um, if a kid, a three-year-old or a 16-month-old comes in, um, with no history, no trauma history, comes to our trauma bay and I see a scan like this, abusive head injury is going to be one of my main thoughts. I mean, we just, we don’t see subdural hemorrhage from a lot of things, uh, in the, in the acute setting. Um, motor vehicle collisions, kids hit by cars, abusive head trauma. I mean, if this were a post-operative patient, a kid with a shunt, I can see subdural collections not infrequently in those kids, but um to see it just out of the blue, it’s very uncommon from, um, you know, in, in children just with routine trauma.” “And you say abusive head trauma. What is abusive head trauma?” “So, um, someone has, um, caused injuries to the child, and when we talk about head trauma, um, it can be anywhere from the scalp, the skull to the actual brain. Um, you know, some people used to call shaking baby… um, you know, shaking is one thought as to how these injuries occur, but unfortunately, um, lots of injuries can occur, or different ways. Um, we have kids who, um, you know, will find, you know, potentially blood on a wall. You may find kids who are, um, people say that they threw them across the room, they slammed them down. Um, so any sort of inflicted trauma on a child. Um, radiology is actually a very important part because we have these young kids coming in who we don’t know what’s going on with them. So like I said, if I have a 16-month-old who comes into the trauma bay, you know, no one knows what’s going on, we don’t see any external signs on this child. We get imaging and see this, obviously abusive head injury is kind of top on our list. Um, we then will go on to suggest other imaging studies, um, where we will look for other injuries. Called a skeletal survey, which Hannah did have, and she did not have additional fractures, but we will do what is called a skeletal survey where it’s a study that we take bone, um, images looking for occult fractures or fractures that we can’t find clinically. Um, and so that is routinely done on young children, um, usually we do that up to about 2 years of age.” “Would you talked about different mechanisms that you see cause abusive head trauma, would a single fall event explain the findings that you have here?” “I mean, we see kids fall all the time. I mean, I think we all have our own, anyone who has their own children, we see kids fall all the time out in the community, they, that don’t even come to the hospital. Um, you know, I work four days a week clinical, I see kids every day that have falls, falls off counters, falls out of car seats, and um, this is not the type of injury that we see… um, short distance falls like I said, we may see external swelling on the child’s head, we may see, um, a fracture or an actual break in the skull. Um, usually if we see, um, kind of a short distance fall and we see a fracture, we may see a little bit of bleeding deep to that, but usually it doesn’t cause any problems to the brain, it’s not pushing the brain, those children, you know, the child may cry but neurologically they’re not, um, terribly abnormal. Um, you know, sometimes those kids might get admitted, sometimes they just go home. Um, so this is not what I would expect from a short distance fall. No.” “What about a series of falls over several days?” “No.” “Based upon your education, training, and experience, and to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, are you able to say whether or not Hannah would have been acting normal, would have been walking or talking and appearing normal to those who knew her after receiving the injury?” “Yeah. Now this is a significant injury, like I said, we see these injuries and you know, kids who have been involved in similar injuries, kids hit by cars, motor vehicle collisions, um, you know, abusive head injury, these kids are, they present acutely. Acutely meaning I would not have expected her to be acting normally. I would not have expected her to be walking. Usually these kids are not able to breathe on their own, they’re, you know, have to be intubated, they’re usually unconscious. Um, it’s the child emergently needs this removed or the child… this is a potentially fatal injury. In her case it was, um, even with surgery it was a fatal injury. So, um, this is a significant injury.” “I have just a moment you. Doctor, since there was some discussion back and forth when we were talking about, um, your determination of abusive head trauma, is that finding of abusive head trauma, is that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty?” “Yes.”

During the investigation and the trial, it came out that Lindsay and Timothy had a tumultuous relationship, as I mentioned before. It was also reported Lindsay had a miscarriage, so it seems Lindsay was probably not in the best headspace. It was also reported that Jason only paid Lindsay $30 a day and was often behind on payments. That’s not much money for 12-hour childcare. Lindsay also provided food for Hannah, often washed her clothes and bathed her as well. I can see how it’s very likely Lindsay was getting resentful and frustrated having to care for Hannah for such a low amount of money, and half the time the payments were late.

Couple that with a miscarriage, problems with Timothy, two young daughters—it’s highly likely Lindsay may have been taking out her frustration on Hannah. Lindsay seemed like a really sweet and caring person to those that knew her, and she probably was, but maybe she reached a breaking point and unleashed all of her frustrations and rage on Hannah.

It also came out at trial that Jason lied for a year about the night prior to dropping Hannah off at Lindsay’s. He’d originally told investigators he picked Hannah up, they went to Walmart to get milk, then went home for the evening. But it was later revealed Jason did not have any milk in his house and that he never went to Walmart. He instead had a friend over that night. So rightfully so, the defense thought that was suspicious that Jason never mentioned he had a friend over and never went to Walmart the night before Hannah died. Jason stated he was so distraught over what happened to Hannah he got things mixed up when talking to investigators.

In April of 2019, after a nearly 2-week long trial, the jury deliberated for 12 hours and found Lindsay guilty on all charges.

“And based on my review, the verdict forms appear to be consistent verdicts. Please, Parton, if you and your attorneys would please stand. Jury verdict form one, as to count one of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection B2, we the duly empaneled jury do find the defendant Lindsay Parton guilty. And there are 12 signatures reflecting that verdict. As such, pursuant to the Court’s instruction, form 1A was not used. Jury verdict form two, as to count two of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection B3, we the duly empaneled jury do find the defendant Lindsay Parton guilty. And again, there are 12 signatures. Jury verdict form three, as to count three of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection A, we the duly empaneled jury do find the defendant Lindsay Parton guilty, with again 12 accompanying signatures. Special verdict form three, as to count three of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection A, we the duly empaneled jury having found defendant Lindsay Parton guilty do further find the offense did result in serious physical harm, accompanied by all 12 signatures. As to count four, the indictment, involuntary manslaughter, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2903.04… As to count five of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection B1, we the duly empaneled jury do find the defendant Lindsay Parton guilty with 12 accompanying signatures. Special verdict form five, as to count five of the indictment, endangering children, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2919.22 subsection B1, we the duly empaneled jury having found defendant Lindsay Parton guilty do further find the offense did result in serious physical harm. This is accompanied by 12 signatures. And finally, verdict form six, as to count six of the indictment, murder, in violation of Ohio Revised Code section 2903.02 subsection B, we the duly empaneled jury do find the defendant Lindsay Parton guilty, all 12 signatures accompanying. Miss Parton, you and your attorneys may have a seat.”

Before her sentencing, Hannah’s father Jason and his brother Jeremy gave Victim Impact statements before the judge asking for the maximum penalty allowed for Lindsay’s crime.

“My name is Jeremy, I’m Hannah’s Uncle. Jason’s brother. Hannah came to us almost immediately after she got out of the hospital. We watched her, my wife watched her 12 hours a day while Jason was trying to work and provide for Hannah and his other two kids. Jason found out he was having another child, is excited, ecstatic, do anything for it. And then he found out mother was making some poor decisions, very hard to deal with. Jason did everything he could to be by his daughter’s side at that time, driving two hours one way just to see his daughter that may not make it at that time. Well, her health came back, she had a good clean bill of health, got her home. She went the house, my mom died. So after he started thinking stuff was going right, going his way, here goes another tragedy. We started moving on from that, he loses his job. Now he has a four-month-old child, no job, no house, a car that barely runs, no place to stay. He’s homeless, four-month-old little girl. So she stays with us overnight sometimes. Jason, being my brother, proud, doesn’t want to cause any inflict on anybody, sleeps in his car while she stays with us. This goes his home for a good two years, she became more of a daughter to my wife, my two stepdaughters, my son, and I. She left us because Jason finally found a good job that he liked, getting back on his feet, saying how good his job is. Found a good babysitter, has two children, two kids of her own, has nothing bad to say about her. Shortly after she started getting abused, Jason working 12 hours a day doing everything he can, defending her ‘cuz he thinks he’s doing the best thing he can for his child and trusting Lindsay to watch her. It only took less than a year for her to torture and beat our daughter. Today, even though she’s in jail, I hope she gets the maximum. Obviously, we want more than we will ever get, but she will still be able to get to read the letters from her kids, she will still be able to talk on the phone with her kids, and after a while she’ll be able to see her kids, she will be able to touch her kids, she will be able to hug her kids and tell her kids that she loves them and she will be able to hear that from her kids and her family. It’s a tragedy. I’m sorry, but they will still be able to get to talk to her kids and she’ll be able to talk to her family. Just after the verdict we had to go to her grave and lay on the ground and hug a tombstone and kiss a tombstone because we will never be able to hear her voice, hug her, like her kids and her family will be able to. So for that I’m asking to, I’m hoping she gets a minimum of 20 years and hoping for the maximum of life, but that is your decision and I hope with her being able to see her family and talk to her kids still, that will, you will put that into your consideration.”

“To me, and the record, I need you to identify yourself and tell your relationship, go ahead.” “My name is Jason Wesche. I’m Hannah’s father. Um, you know, you guys heard some speeches here today. I didn’t write a speech. I don’t, I can’t even begin to describe the anger that I feel. Um, obviously I’m hoping you give her the maximum punishment you can give her. Um, I hope she never gets out of jail for what you did to my daughter. It’s unthinkable. I don’t even know what to, I don’t even know how to begin to describe it. Um, I hope and pray every single day that you get the same treatment in jail that you showed my daughter. Um, that’s what I hope for. I hope you get the max.”