How This Scumbag Got Away With Violating and Killing a Baby
Shaylyn Michelle K. Ammerman was born on December 31st, 2014, in Bloomington, Indiana, to parents Jessica Stewart and Justin Ammerman. She was the father’s first child, but she had two older brothers, Gage and Blaze, through her mother. At the time of our story, Shaylyn was just a little over 14 months old with wispy blonde hair, wide blue eyes, and what her uncle called the most adorable smile on Earth. She was a happy baby with a bubbly personality. She was always laughing and giggling. She loved playing patty-cake and peekaboo, and she loved to dance. Her grandmother said, “When the slightest little tune of music comes on, she starts dancing.” Her mother agreed, saying, “She’s a happy baby. Anytime any kind of music comes on the TV, she’s bobbing her head, stomping around, dancing.” She was just learning to walk and was still unsteady on her feet. Her great-grandmother said she could take a few steps but would teeter and then topple onto the floor. She said she could hardly walk steadily without falling down. Her father said that she was a joyful and playful baby. She was particularly adorable when she wanted to be picked up. He said she’d hold her arms wide open and close her little fingers until he lifted her.
Justin and Jessica’s relationship ended soon after Shaylyn’s birth. The couple shared custody of the baby; she spent half of her time with her mother, Jessica, and the other half with her father, Justin. He lived with his mother, brother, and stepfather in a small white house in Spencer, Indiana. Spencer is a small town; it had about 2,300 residents in 2016. This house was located on a quiet lot in the 400 block of West Jefferson Street near Riverside Cemetery and the Assembly of God Church. Justin’s mother, Tamara Morgan, grew up in Spencer and said she always thought it was a safe place. She said, “I’ve lived in Spencer all my life, and we don’t lock doors here.”
When Shaylyn stayed with her father, Tamara was her main caretaker. Tamara was delighted with her first granddaughter and described her as the easiest and happiest baby to take care of. Tamara had a full house; in addition to Justin and Shaylyn, her husband Danny Morgan and one of her other grown sons, Adam Ammerman, shared her home. Another woman named Kelly Rogers was also staying with the family. With all of the bedrooms being full, Shaylyn’s crib was set up in the living room, and her toys and clothes were stored nearby. This made it easy for Justin and Tamara to both take care of the baby, and it also meant everyone in the house had easy access to her. Adam occasionally had friends visit the home. One friend, Kyle Parker, had visited at least a dozen times according to Tamara. She thought Kyle seemed like a nice guy and she trusted him. She said he talked so kindly, and he played with Shaylyn on at least one occasion when the baby woke up and was fussy; Tamara watched Kyle rock her back to sleep. Kyle had been living with Tina Wagner and her husband in Gosport, an even smaller town about 10 miles away from Spencer. He had moved out but was still doing odd jobs for the couple. They had hired him to paint their garage, and he hadn’t finished yet. For as much as Kyle had visited Adam, Tamara thought she was her son’s friend. However, Adam described him as more of an acquaintance or a friend of a friend.
On March 23rd, Adam said he was still a little hungover from drinking the night before, but he invited Kyle over to watch some TV and drink some whiskey. Since the baby was in the living room, they went into Adam’s bedroom where they were joined by Tamara’s husband, Danny. They spent the evening in Adam’s words, “just hanging out, having a good old time laughing, talking about random stuff.” Adam said he had asked Justin if he wanted to have a few drinks, but Justin said he was tired and declined. Around 10:00 p.m., Tamara zipped Shaylyn into an owl onesie and tucked her in with her purple pacifier and Winnie the Pooh blanket. Justin tucked her in as well. He said, “I leaned down and said Daddy loves you and gave her a kiss and hug goodnight.” Tamara said she checked on her several times that evening up until 1:30 a.m. when she went to bed.
Meanwhile, Adam had already fallen asleep in his room. He said, “I fell asleep once ’cause I was a little hungover and I was tired, and I had just a little too much over my limit. I went to bed, passed out.” His stepfather Danny tried to go to bed around 1:30 a.m. with Tamara, but the couple liked to listen to music when they fell asleep, and he couldn’t get the TV to work in their bedroom and woke Adam up to help. Adam said, “I got woken up because my stepdad ended up screwing up our TV package on Dish, and I had to fix that. That was at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.” Once the TV was working again, Tamara checked on the baby one more time and went to bed. Adam went back to his bedroom and Kyle was still there, awake and drinking by himself. He said, “Kyle was in my room sitting in the chair drinking and talking to people on his phone, I guess, ’cause I heard the tick-tick-tick of texting.” Adam fell back asleep and woke a couple of hours later when he heard Kyle leave through the front door.
Sometime after 2:00 a.m., Kelly, the other woman staying at the house, came home from work. She left early the next morning for her next shift. She left a couple of newspapers on the kitchen counter, but otherwise, she did not interact with anyone. As for Kyle, he showed up at the house in Gosport at around 3:40 in the morning. Even though he didn’t live there anymore, Tina and her husband were already up getting ready for work and were surprised to see him there so early. He also took a shower and washed his clothes, which seemed an odd way to get ready to paint a garage.
When the Ammerman family woke up at around 8:00 a.m. the next morning, Shaylyn was gone. Tamara was still sleeping when her son shook her awake, yelling, “Mom, do you have Shaylyn?” Panicked, she went to the baby’s crib; it was empty. They searched the house, but they knew she was gone. She wasn’t able to get out of the crib on her own, and she could only walk a few steps at a time. She couldn’t have wandered away, and the front door tended to stick; there was no way she could have opened it on her own. Nothing else had been taken but the baby. Her clothes and toys were all still there. Tamara’s brand new laptop was still in the living room just a few feet away from the crib. There were no signs of a break-in, but then the door was unlocked like it always was. Tamara was sure a stranger had taken the baby. She said that the only explanation is that someone came in and took her.
The family called 911 and reported her missing to the police. They didn’t call Jessica, Shaylyn’s mother. Jessica found out when the police knocked on her door looking for the baby. Shaylyn wasn’t there either. While her family prayed she was still alive, officers called in search and rescue teams to look for the toddler. Using ATVs, they drove through the brush and searched through the surrounding areas. Special crews used sonar to check the nearby White River. The search continued overnight. Jessica begged the public to bring her baby girl home.
“We have been following this story since this afternoon and now, hours later, Shaylyn Ammerman is still missing. State Police tell us there are several persons of interest in this case, and they will not stop until Shaylyn is found. RTV6’s Chance Walser joins us live in Spencer now. He spoke to the mother, Chancellor.”
“Jessica Stewart says little Shaylyn can walk, but she certainly doesn’t believe that she climbed out of her crib and left on her own. Neither do police, and as they guard the scene of her disappearance tonight and search the area, they do so believing firmly that her life is in danger.”
“She’s a happy baby. Anytime any kind of music comes on the TV, she’s bobbing her head, stomping around, dancing.”
“And tonight, on behalf of that little girl, an Owen County mother has a simple and potent request: ‘Please bring her home. She needs her mom.'”
9:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, police got the call that 15-month-old Shaylyn Ammerman was missing. Shaylyn was staying at her father and grandmother’s house. The grandma told police she put Shaylyn into bed around midnight and went to check on her around 8:30 the next morning, and the child was not in her crib.
“We had pounding on the door.” Police rushed down the street to Shaylyn’s mom’s house. They hoped the child was there, but she wasn’t. “After a few minutes, it sunk in, and I was crying.”
While Jessica says she’s been wrestling with the shock and fear of the unknown, investigators have been searching high and low for any sign of the girl. Police say the girl’s grandmother and at least three men were in and out of the house last night. They’ve questioned them all. They’ve also served several search warrants on various vehicles and houses in and around Spencer.
“Right now we have made no arrests. There has been no clear motive that has been established.”
Police say Shaylyn was last seen wearing a white zip-up sleeper with owls on it and a purple pacifier attached. She might also be carrying a blue and white Winnie the Pooh blanket. Police are asking you obviously to keep an eye out for this little girl. If you think you’ve seen her or if you have any information or think you do about what happened, police are asking you that you call them at 812-332-4411. You can remain anonymous.
Officers and reporters wanted to talk to everyone that had been at the home on West Jefferson the night she disappeared. Several of the men, including Justin, took polygraph tests. Cell phones and computers were taken as evidence, and a search warrant was filed for the Facebook records of everyone involved. Tamara told reporters that she was terrified and wanted their help to bring Shaylyn home. She said, “I’m scared. I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’m scared to death for her.” She asked the reporters to let everyone know she was missing. She said, “Find my granddaughter. Get it out there. Get it everywhere.”
Adam and Justin both wanted to correct the reporters. The first news stories had alleged that there had been a party at the home. They wanted to make it clear there had been no party, just a friend was over for a few drinks. When a reporter asked when that friend left, Adam said, “At roughly 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, I heard the front door open, and I look out my window and Kyle’s walking down the yard to his car. I opened my window, I yell out to him, ‘Kyle, where are you going?’ He never answered me back. He just got in his car and took off.”
And the reporter asked if Kyle had taken the baby. Adam said, “No, I didn’t see Shaylyn at all. And of course, I was sleepy, I had sleepy eyes, I had alcohol in me and my vision was all messed up… I went to sleep when he was still awake.”
“What was my understanding is, is you and him were hanging out, or what was going on?”
“It was three of us. It was me, my stepdad Danny, and Kyle. We were all in my bedroom. We were sitting down watching TV, and yes, we had a few drinks, but nothing to the extent of what they are saying as a party.”
“You’re just hanging out?”
“Yes, we’re just hanging out, having a good old time, laughing, talking about random stuff. I was nowhere near Justin. Justin was never in the room.”
“What happened though? Did you guys fall asleep? Did Kyle leave?”
“I fell asleep once ’cause I was a little hungover and I was tired, and I had just a little too much over my limit. And I went to bed, passed out.”
“Was Kyle still there?”
“Yes, he was still there. Awake.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was still drinking by himself.”
“Was anyone still awake though? Was your stepdad still awake? Was he just there?”
“He was in his room awake trying to fix his TV, and I was trying to fix the TV.”
“Where was Kyle?”
“Kyle was in my room sitting in the chair drinking and talking to people on his phone, I guess, ’cause I heard the tick-tick-tick of texting. And at roughly 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, I heard the front door open, and I look out my window and Kyle’s walking down the yard to his car. I open my window, I yell out to him, ‘Kyle, where are you going?’ He never answered me back. He just got in his car and took off.”
Later, Adam would tell officers that he might have seen a foot dangling as Kyle walked away. He wasn’t sure though, and he went back to bed. He never mentioned that detail in his interview with reporters. Detectives were also talking to Kyle and the friends that he had previously lived with. The couple told detectives that Kyle had been inappropriately attracted to young girls between the ages of 12 and 14 in the past, and they described the odd behavior they had witnessed that morning: the early morning arrival, the shower, and clothes washing. They said Kyle didn’t seem like himself and that he’d been acting quiet and distant.
When police questioned Kyle, they noticed that he had scratches all over his arms. He claimed that they were from a cat. During his first interview, he said he left the home before 1:15 a.m. and waved goodbye to Adam when he left. He claimed he had no idea what happened to the toddler. During the interview, police allowed Kyle to have a smoke break with his stepfather, Mike Patton. Mike said Kyle told him police would know the truth once they found Shaylyn’s body and the DNA with it. Once he heard that, Mike was sure Kyle was the one responsible. The police asked the stepfather to talk to Kyle and encourage him to cooperate.
In a second interview with police, Kyle changed his story. He drew a map to show police where he had left the toddler. He said he and Adam had found Shaylyn unresponsive in the family home and had taken her to Gosport to get rid of her. Police told him that Adam had passed his polygraph and they had reason to believe he hadn’t been involved. Kyle was arrested, and a search team was sent to the location he had indicated. They followed his map through downtown Gosport, out of town, and down a long winding road toward the river.
36 hours after she was reported missing, baby Shaylyn was found by a fallen tree on a rural patch of land between the White River and Indian Creek. A burnt pile of ashes was found nearby; investigators believed her clothes and blanket had been burned there. Justin and his family found out she was dead when they saw it reported on the news. They were not told before the news report. Justin was devastated. He said he wished he could take back time and save her. He also wanted to know why. He said, “We want answers. I want to know why this man come in my house and took my daughter and did what he did with her. I really want to know this.”
Both Justin and Adam thought Kyle must have had an accomplice. They were certain no one in their family had anything to do with Shaylyn’s death. Justin said, “None of my family had nothing to do with this. Why would we? Our family is a peaceful family.”
“Do you… I know we don’t like to speculate, the autopsy is not even done, but do you guys have any idea what his role was in this or what he did?”
“No, no, we have no idea what his role was. We just… we want to find out answers. I want to know why this man come in my house and took my daughter and did what he did with her. I really want to know this.”
“He was a friend, right? I mean, a family friend?”
“He was more of an acquaintance that you just had hung out with a couple of times. We just hung out a couple of times. He was a very nice guy. Not uptight, just a real decent nice guy to hang out, just hanging out.”
“Justin, what… I know he’s in jail. What would you say to him right now if you had an opportunity to speak with him?”
“Why? Why did you take my daughter and kill her? And hopefully not hurt him that… Do you think anybody else was involved?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t think he acted alone. He had to have somebody, some accomplice putting him up to it or something. I honestly don’t think he would act alone and do this alone. Really don’t know what his role was or why… how she ended up where she did. And no, we don’t know. We don’t have no questions, we have no answers. We can’t get no answers from the police ’cause they won’t… they won’t inform us. And I don’t know why they informed the mother before they… they never informed the father, but they informed the mother.”
“Justin, how did you find out?”
“I found this out on the news and on Facebook.”
“What is that like to find out your one-year-old passed away and having to find out that way?”
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s beyond… I can’t do it more.”
On March 25th, a candlelight vigil was held at the Family of God Church in Spencer. When it was planned, they were going to pray for Shaylyn’s safe return, but once she was found, they instead held it in her memory. Over 100 members of the community came to write the toddler’s name on pink balloons and to lean on each other during a difficult time. The organizer encouraged the crowd to pray for one another, pray for the family, pray for comfort, pray for answers.
“To the developing story in Spencer tonight: police are still searching for answers for how and why 15-month-old Shaylyn Ammerman’s life ended so soon. One person is behind bars, but we’re told there could be more arrests to come in that timeline’s murder. But as detectives work, the little girl’s family is preparing her funeral tonight. More than 100 people turn out to remember little Shaylyn in a town that’s been stricken with grief. If there is anything good on this Good Friday in Spencer, it’s that residents are coming together in a time of need. Family members gather at Spencer’s Cooper Park, holding pink balloons. On them, they write ‘Shaylyn’.”
“For being a dad… for my first ever being a dad, it’s hard right now. I wish I could turn back time.”
In addition to Shaylyn’s father, mother, grandmother, and countless other relatives, strangers fill the crowd. Many just feel the need to be here to support a little girl who never had a chance at life.
“Pray for one another. Pray for the family. Pray for comfort. Pray for answers.”
Sharon West of the Family of God Church tells me she organized this prayer vigil because something had to be done for Shaylyn. “It just seems so surreal. It just feels like a dream right now.”
Shaylyn’s grandmother says the hardest part will be returning home and going through her things, including a new Easter dress and shoes she just bought for her first granddaughter. “In Jesus’ precious name, and all of God’s people said amen.”
Police continued to look for the answers everyone wanted. They got a search warrant for Kyle’s car, which was in the garage at the house his friend Tina shared with her husband. Kyle had cleaned the car and had disposed of some of the items by throwing them into the couple’s garage. Her garage and house were searched. Tina said she wished she had never let Kyle live there and hadn’t let him in the night of the murder. She said she was haunted by the situation and, as she put it, “very saddened that I feel like I’ve had a part in this though.” Police searched for an accomplice; they did not find one.
Kyle never confessed to the police, but over the weekend, his stepfather visited him at the jail. According to stepfather Mike, Kyle confessed to him. Kyle said he took Shaylyn from the house alive and drove to Gosport. He pulled over on the way, brutally assaulted her, and then smothered her with a cloth. Afterwards, he said he covered the body with bleach and burned her pajamas, pacifier, and blanket. He said he had acted alone and he had no intention of going to prison for the rest of his life. Instead, he told Mike that he planned to remove himself from the earth.
Already in jail, Kyle was placed under constant video surveillance after his threat. He was placed in a padded cell, given a special safe sleeping bag, and was checked on every 15 minutes by guards. On March 28th, he was charged with murder, assault, strangulation, kidnapping, aggravated battery, and additional charges. Donald VanderMoere, the Owen County prosecutor, acknowledged the difficulty of such a troubling case involving a young and innocent victim. It was so troubling that he said grown law enforcement officers just “wince in pain; it’s just horrible.” He called the allegations monstrous and said, “This is something law enforcement shouldn’t have to deal with. These types of allegations are just atrocious.”
The extent of the atrocity became clear when the results of Shaylyn’s autopsy were released. It took some time because it had to be done across state lines in Louisville, Kentucky. It was done by Donna Stewart, a specialist in pediatric cases that involve assault and battery. She described it as the worst case of sexual trauma she had ever seen. Shaylyn was bruised and had, as she put it, “numerous very apparent injuries sustained in an assault.” Her cause and manner of death was homicide by asphyxiation.
Shaylyn’s family struggled with her loss, made so much worse by the trauma she had endured. Grandmother Tamara said, “There’s just so many emotions that you can’t even put a finger on what emotion you’re feeling. One minute you’re disgusted, then you’re angry. We didn’t want to hear that she was hurt. You have to be a really demented psychopath to hurt a baby.”
Jessica, the mother, was haunted by the thought of her daughter’s last moments. She said, “Every day I have images in my head of what that night was like for her. There’s nothing they could say or do to ever make me forgive him.” In her impact statement directed at Kyle, she said, “You took my loving, sweet, and beautiful daughter away from me, her brothers, her dad, and everyone who loves her. I hope you live with your guilt and it torments you for the rest of your life.”
Her father Justin said that Shaylyn was his only child and the light of his life. He said, “When I heard all the horrible things he did to my precious girl, I wanted to die too.” Her uncle Adam thought Kyle deserved the ultimate punishment. In an interview, he said this: “I’m just going to speak plain and clearly. Whoever did this needs to burn in hell. There’s no need for something like this to happen.”
Prosecutor VanderMoere worked for a year to put together a case that would end in the death penalty or at least put Kyle behind bars for the rest of his life. But unfortunately, the case fell apart, and on February 28th, 2017, he was in front of Owen Circuit Court Judge Lori Thatcher Quillen, begging her to accept the plea deal he had negotiated. This plea deal covered only the murder and kidnapping charges; it dropped all of the assault and other charges. The prosecutor told the judge he had almost no evidence linking Kyle to the crime. Shaylyn’s clothes were burnt, so there was no evidence on her clothes and nothing left but ashes. Despite Kyle’s alleged statements to his stepfather, none of his DNA was found on over a hundred pieces of potential evidence the lab tested. The lab also found no evidence of bleach, even though he said he used it to cover up his crime.
Prosecutor VanderMoere said the only piece of evidence that came back conclusively was related to a third party, not Kyle Parker. “None of that helps our case.” Police also administered three polygraph tests, and two people failed. The prosecutor didn’t name the other person who failed, but clearly, it was someone other than Kyle Parker. The results of a polygraph are admissible in Indiana, and the defense would be able to use the other positive result to point blame away from Kyle.
The lack of evidence was enough to put the case on shaky ground, but the prosecutor also had serious problems with the witnesses involved in the case. They had committed, in his words, “a large number of impeachable offenses.” This meant there was plenty of room for a jury to find reasonable doubt and suspect other people who had been in the home that night. At least one of the witnesses had previously been charged with assault against a young girl. The prosecutor did not name the person who was charged, but The Herald-Times, a local Indiana newspaper, reported that Justin had been accused of assaulting a girl younger than 13 years old. This alleged incident occurred in Illinois in 2003, but Justin was not charged until 2009. He wasn’t arrested until 2012. He was never convicted, and he never faced trial. The case was dismissed because his right to a speedy trial had been violated.
The police investigation also found evidence that someone in the house had been searching for violent pornography on electronic devices that multiple people had access to. They couldn’t tell who had been making these searches. They also could not rule anybody out, and these search terms were disturbing. The prosecutor listed a number of searches that had been located by the forensic sweep. He asked Master Trooper Stacy Lee Brown to verify that his team found the following search terms, and I quote: “white female bound with a rope and had a gag in her mouth, girls want to get punished by strangers, girls eaten alive, girls hanged, and girls snuff.” The trooper agreed that those were the terms the investigation uncovered. He also clarified that those terms were not associated with Kyle, but with the witnesses.
The prosecutor pointed out that “this is all evidence that we can’t hide from a jury.” He ended by telling the judge that taking Kyle to trial was too risky. He said, “A lot of hay has been made in social media or the news about plea agreements, why they’re bad, why they’re good. The fact is, as a prosecutor, I’m responsible for finding the truth, not what I want it to be. This is an appropriate resolution. It doesn’t provide closure for everyone, but it’s the best we can do. It’s the functional equivalent of a life sentence for Kyle Parker. You have chosen to put him away for the rest of his life because that’s what he deserves.”
A reporter inside the courtroom said the prosecutor was red-faced and seemed to be holding back tears by this point. He ended by saying, “Blame me that we don’t have evidence. Blame me that we’ve got witnesses that are impeachable. But leave that family alone. Send him for 60 years to the Department of Corrections and let this be done, Your Honor. I ask you to accept the plea deal in this case. It’s not what I want, but it’s the right thing that has to be done.”
Judge Quillen accepted the plea. She said, “The facts of this case were the most gut-wrenching I have ever heard. Your actions were pure evil on that evening. Many in this community rightfully wanted you to receive the death penalty or life without parole for this crime. What I can legally do as a judge versus what I would like as a parent and member of this community are totally in conflict. It’s clear to me based upon the gruesome facts of this case that you, Mr. Parker, have no moral compass and no decency.”
Kyle Parker was sentenced to 60 years for murder and 16 years for kidnapping, to be served concurrently. According to Indiana law, he has to complete about 75% of his sentence before being eligible for parole. At that time, he will be 67 years old. If he ever gets out, he will have to register as a violent offender. Only since the assault was not part of his plea deal, he is currently serving his time at Indiana State Prison. He will have completed his time served for kidnapping in 2028. He will not be eligible for parole on the murder charge until March of 2061.
Shaylyn’s funeral was held on March 30th, 2016, at the Christian Life Center in Spencer. Before the public visitation, there was a private viewing for the officers who had searched for the toddler. She was buried in a white dress with a purple jacket, and attendees were encouraged to wear her favorite colors, pink and purple. Businesses all over Spencer put up signs in her memory, and hundreds in the small community showed up to remember Shaylyn. For those who couldn’t come, the family asked members of the community to place a pink or purple light bulb in their porch light in her honor.
“Always smiling, so full of life. Those are the phrases being used as family, friends, and the community of Spencer gather to remember little Shaylyn Ammerman. It’s been one week since the one-year-old was raped and murdered by someone the family called a friend. Then house… Mike Pelton is live outside the Christian Life Center in Owen County with the latest. Mike?”
“Well, this is open to the public, but if you come down here, the family asks that you wear pink or purple. Those were baby Shaylyn’s favorite colors. Now I’ll step out of the way to set the scene for you. There are several law enforcement officers here helping facilitate logistics for the family as the parking lot is packed outside the First Christian Church where visitation runs until 7:00 tonight. That’s when the funeral begins. Now Shaylyn Ammerman was found dead last week. Court documents accuse family friend Kyle Parker of taking her from her father’s house before raping and killing her. In small-town Spencer, the case is opening a big wound today. We saw signs across town that read ‘Rest In Peace Shaylyn,’ and in an emotional interview, I spoke with a woman who was good friends with Shaylyn’s family, and she’s trying to remember that famous smile Shaylyn always wore.”
“It’s horrible. It’s very, very horrible. We’re slowly trying to get over this, and you know, we can just only take it one day at a time. And I understand how Jess feels because I mean, you know, I keep putting myself in her shoes and I can’t even begin to grasp what she’s really going through. But as a mother, you know, I can… I understand.”
“And during the visitation, I’m told Shaylyn is wearing a white dress and purple jacket. Again, her funeral is set for 7:00 tonight here at the Christian Life Center. They are expecting a big turnout, and they do encourage the public to attend. However, if you cannot make it down here tonight, friends of the Ammerman family ask that you go and buy a pink or purple light bulb and place it outside your home in order to show support for Shaylyn and her family. For now, we’re live in Spencer for The Now Indy. Mike Pelton, RTV6.”
One family friend said it was so sad and troubling that he could barely make himself attend. He said that he was “sick to my stomach literally to even think about it. I could barely bring myself to walk in.” It’s hard. Given the circumstances, tensions were high, but a police presence kept the anger from boiling over. Another mourner said, “There’s some tension in the air, you know. There are some things being said. I just let both sides know I’m not here for that.” After the funeral, a private burial ceremony was held at the Chambersville Cemetery in Spencer.
When such a terrible tragedy occurs and the whole community is paying attention, local organizations are often asked what the public can do. Sandy Rall, director of Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, was asked for her advice in connection with this case. She said, “When things happen, it’s usually not a stranger. Over 90% of the time, it is someone the child knows.” Because of this, she reminded parents to be extra careful about who has access to their children, especially when drug use or drinking is involved. According to reporting on the local news, Director Rall said, “People need to think seriously about who they allow to be around their children, especially very young children. They can’t communicate their fears and their concerns, so the responsibility is really on the parents to make sure, whether it be a friend, a family member, a boyfriend, a neighbor, that you vet those people before they have access to your children.”
In addition to the brief statement she made at the sentencing hearing, Shaylyn’s mother also wrote a letter that was presented to the judge that day. In it, she imagines the daughter she will never get to see grow up and shows just a glimpse of the grief she struggles with every day. It read:
“My name is Jessica Stewart. I am the mother of Shaylyn, the beautiful, smiling 14-month-old baby who was taken from us in a brutal and senseless way. Writing this feels surreal, like the last year has been a bad dream I can’t wake up from. But it isn’t a bad dream; this is now my reality. A year ago, I was able to hug, kiss, feed, talk to, and dance with my beautiful girl. It’s hard to believe that so much can change in just one year. There’s not a day that goes by or a minute that passes that I don’t miss her, give anything to hold her again. But I can’t. I’ll never get that chance again. Shaylyn will never get the chance to start running, talking, start school, lose her first tooth, have her first crush, graduate, get married, or have kids at 14 and 1/
