Autumn Lee hallow was born on August 24th 2011 in  Rapids Minnesota she was the second child of Brett Jason hallow and Kelsey Cruz according to her mother Autumn gave the best hugs her brother Noah was just 11 months older and they were very close she had five other siblings Marshall Lincoln Delilah Bentley and Cadence Autumn had blonde hair blue eyes and a dimpled smile she was described as a kind energetic and helpful little girl she did well in school and liked to sing dance and put on shows she also liked to draw color

and write special notes for her family she loved the outdoors and was passionate about gymnastics often jumping and doing cartwheels for fun Kelsey was 17 when she met Brett at Ivan sans’s High School in Elk River located about 34 Mi Northwest of Minneapolis the couple had had their first child Noah on September 20th 2010 just 3 months later Kelsey found herself pregnant again and Autumn was born 6 weeks premature according to Kelsey at first Brett was Charming however the couple split up in early 2013 when she realized

he had been unfaithful during their 4-year relationship Kelsey and her two children moved in with her parents and Brett had visitation every other weekend at his mother’s house now monetarily Kelsey was providing everything paying for clothes bedding groceries and anything the children needed in 2013 she filed for child support however if Brett had partial custody his child support would be reduced this is perhaps why he took Kelsey to court in late 2013 Kelsey agreed to 5050 custody switching every week on Sunday and they both followed

this agreement for several years Brett soon began dating a single mother named Sarah K nasby the pair married in 2017 and later had two sons Sarah had an interesting history with the legal system in 2013 she was charged with two fourth degree felonies one charged was for physically assaulting a police officer the second was for assaulting a police officer by bodily harm or by throwing bodily fluid or feces now these details are unclear but one way to interpret the second charge is that she spit on a police officer or Worse Sarah

also had a habit of filing restraining orders against people while dropping off the kids one Sunday Kelsey brought a gift from Brett’s mom according to Sarah Kelsey shoved the GI into her shoulder but according to Kelsey Sarah threw the gift back at her and kicked her a week later a sheriff’s deputy showed up at Kelsey’s home with a restraining order allegedly Kelsey had ripped the stitches Sarah had from a recent surgery there was no hearing and no one heard Kelsey’s side of the story in addition to a restraining order against Kelsey Sarah

had one against her own parents she had also threatened to file an order against Brett’s mom Sarah also use the court system to gain additional control she convinced judge Mary junker that Brett had unspecified disabilities that caused him to have seizures whenever Kelsey was communicating with him the judge issued an order that all communication would have to go through Sarah Kelsey was never shown any proof of these seizures and in the many years she had known Brett never once saw him suffer from a seizure Brett and Sarah were living in

the Depot at Elk River Station apartment complex on 172nd Avenue in Elk River it was a three-story complex and they lived on the second floor in apartment 214 they lived there with Sarah’s daughter from a previous relationship and two sons they shared utumn and her brother Noah Liv there when they weren’t with their mother in 2016 the right side of Noah’s cheek was bruised and swollen when Kelsey picked him up Brett said Noah had fallen while playing and hit his face later while getting ready for bed Autumn said Sarah hit Noah for

having an accident in his pants which Noah confirmed when Sarah hit him she said he fell back and hit the bed frame CPS investigated but Sarah said she had merely grazed his lips with two fingertips she said he flinched and fell on his own as is the case with many of the stories that we cover CPS took no further action in 2019 Neighbors in the apartment complex began reporting upsetting sounds coming from apartment 214 police were called to the apartment at least 30 times from February of 2019 to August of 2020 but they did next to

nothing on February 12th of 2019 police responded to a report of someone yelling at a child Brett and Sarah told the officers that one of the kids was sick which caused us screaming also they said Brett was playing a video game online and had gotten a little loud according to the officers the children seemed fine sometime in early 2019 Noah came home with bruises on his chin that looked like fingerprints and a bruised eye that wasn’t quite dark enough to be called a black eye this time a school counselor reported the injuries to CPS a social

worker interviewed both kids at school and suggested Kelsey keep the kids while the situation was investigated however the investigation closed in 2 weeks after CPS claimed that Noah’s story had changed Noah was ordered to go back to visit his dad and Brett and Sarah took Kelsey to court alleging contempt judge junker agreed and gave the kids to them for 5 weeks to make up the time they had spent with her during the investigation neither Brett nor Sarah were working at this time and Kelsey had to pay them child support on June 4th an anonymous

caller said they heard periods of shouting and screaming the noise had stopped by the time police arrived on September 13th an anonymous caller asked officers to tell the occupants of the apartment to keep it down police arrived and heard no noise so they left on that same day which was a Friday Noah had not been to school 2 Days Later Brett wouldn’t let Kelsey take the kids even though it was her week to do so no miss school again on Monday the Tuesday September 17th Kelsey asked for a wellness check because she hadn’t heard

from the children in days police told her that the children appeared healthy and were in no danger threaten Sarah told Kelsey she could pick Noah up that afternoon now when she did he had bruises all over his face back belly button and legs Noah had an explanation for some of the bruises he said A kid had kicked him at school he claimed that his foot got stuck in a hole in Twi Ed causing it to swell he said he fell and hurt his stomach on the playground he didn’t have an explanation for the other bruises Kelsey felt the situation was

suspicious so she took him to the Mercy Hospital Emergency Room a medical report from his visit confirmed multiple bruises and mentioned contacting CPS the following week a CPS worker did come out to investigate but conducted the interview in front of Brett and Sarah at their apartment less than 2 months later Elk River detective Eric balabon closed the case with no charges he said he was unable to substantiate charges against Brett or Sarah because Noah did not say the injuries came from his father or stepmother none of the officials seem to

realize that having Brett and Sara in the room might have been a problem instead CPS accused Kelsey of coaching Noah to report abuse in an effort to get more custody because of incidents like this Kelsey was afraid she would lose custody entirely if she didn’t keep sending the kids back to her ex on September 27th there was a complaint of child maltreatment This Time by an unnamed minor the minor reported they could not stand another night in the apartment they said another child in the apartment was being hurt that child did

not finish their chores quickly enough they got soap in the mouth and their arms held behind their back on October 5th an anonymous caller reported loud screaming a child crying and what sounded like an adult hitting a child officers responded and spoke to Brett and Sarah the couple said one of the kids was out of control after being told to clean their room they said the child was running around screaming and being aggressive but police noted no marks on this child around this time Noah told the counselor he was scared to go back

to his dad’s house he said he was being forced to stay up all night and clean then go to school the next day without any sleep he described being forced to swallow liquid dish soap he was locked in a bedroom for hours for not doing his chores he was being hit he had to sleep on the floor without a pillow or blanket he was not allowed to read or color he had to sit perfectly still he was not allowed to play like a normal child should if Sarah caught him sleeping he said she made him stick out his tongue she would push on his head to make him

bite on his own tongue Kelsey believed Noah but no one else was listening she negotiated with Brett to help keep Noah safe she agreed to give up time with autumn autumn would spend 3 weeks with her dad and then one week with Kelsey Noah was supposed to do the opposite 3 weeks with his mom and one week with Brett but he never returned to his father’s home she thought Autumn would be safe what the little girl said it sounded like Brett and Sarah focused all of their punishment on Noah Noah said the same thing it was clearly a

scapegoat scapegoating is a dysfunctional family Dynamic the term comes from a ceremony described in the Bible during the ceremony the Israelites would transfer the sins of the entire city to a goat they would then set this goat free in the wilderness cleansing themselves of their sins in a similar way the scapegoat in a dysfunctional family is blamed for everything that goes wrong if only that child would behave then the family would have no problems the scapegoat is bullied taunted insulted and neglected they’re treated as less than human

they’re often pushed into situations where they will disobey and then be punished for example they might be given too little food and then punished for stealing food when they’re too hungry to resist or they might be forbidden for going to the bathroom and then punished when they wet their clothes once Noah was no longer around it seemed that Autumn became the new family scapegoat on January 1st 2020 an anonymous caller reported a female child yelling and pounding on the walls when the police arrived it was quiet and no one would

answer the door later that month Kelsey gave birth to a baby girl she and her longtime boyfriend Justin osterbauer named the baby Delilah met her baby sister the day she was born and stayed that week Kelsey said she loved taking care of her new little sister she would pick out clothes feed her and hold her on January 26th it was time for Autumn to return to her father Kelsey said she was in good health at the time at an average weight for a child her age on February 11th another anonymous caller reported an adult yelling at a child

caller heard the adult say I will hit you officers heard children and adults in the apartment when they arrived they heard no excess noise and no issues whatsoever they knocked and called on the phone but they got no answer once again on February 21st another anonymous caller reported a child who was quite loud in their words police spoke to Brett and Sarah and told them there had been a complaint on March 10th an anonymous caller reported loud yelling police spoke to Brett and Sarah and they just claimed it was their TV on April

12th Kelsey called the police she was trying to pick up Autumn but Brett would not bring her down she explained to the police that under the custody agreement they were only supposed to communicate through the parenting app Our Family Wizard which was monitored by the court she had tried to contact him multiple times but he had not responded since March now the police spoke to Brett they told Kelsey that Brett did not want to exchange the kids because he was concerned about the risk of the exposure to the pandemic related virus that we

cannot mention here around this time Sarah wrote The Following to Kelsey via the parenting app quote Autumn is not being withheld from you Autumn is not here for malicious reasons we are only following the law doing what we are told to do for health purposes and looking out for our family’s best interests during this unprecedented Time end quote in April 2020 Kelsey tried to get help through the family court system but judge junker declined to hear the case she said Kelsey failed to demonstrate that the current circumstances

constitute an emergency on May 4th and again on May 24th Anonymous callers reported yelling in loud voices police left without talking to Brett or Sarah sometime in May a neighbor was woken up by a young girl screaming get off me the police incident reported that the lights in the apartment went off and the patrol car showed up Kelsey made five additional calls about custody between May 2nd and August 2nd police often left without talking to Brett or Sarah when they were able to speak to him Brett continued to

express concern about exposure on June 21st Kelsey called police again she told them she hadn’t seen autumn in 6 months since January Brett told police Autumn couldn’t come to the door but she waved to them from the balcony he also told police he had just set up a date to return Autumn to her mom this was not true on August 2nd Kelsey said she hadn’t been able to talk to or see Brett or Autumn for over 2 weeks police call Brett but he never called them back a neighbor used a cell phone to make recordings of autumn screaming she

shared them with the police but they did nothing about it the last recording was made on August 10th and throughout this period Kelsey continued showing up at Brett’s apartment on Sundays to get Autumn but they never sent her out it seemed like the more that she called the police or CPS the less help she got in return on August 13th 2020 police and EMS responded to a call regarding an unresponsive child when when they arrived at apartment 214 which mind you was Brett and Sarah’s apartment they found the stepmother performing chest

compressions on Autumn stiff body Sarah’s first story to the officers was that Autumn had said she was going to take a shower about 40 minutes later Sarah said she went in to check on her she claimed that she found Autumn face down in inches of water Brett said Sarah’s screams woke him and he helped move her from the bathtub to the bedroom floor Autumn’s skin was dry and her hair was only a little wet which didn’t match being faced down in inches of water the little girl was pronounced dead at the scene she was just 8 years

old Autumn’s body told a very different story than what Sarah shared with the First Responders she was emaciated frail and covered in injuries she was missing patches of her hair her fingers were blue she had abrasions and pin-like marks on her forehead based on the condition of her body paramedics believed she had been dead for some time there was visible blood in the bathroom and more blood was detected by police investigators using luminol police talked to one of Brett and Sarah’s sons who was now 6 years old at this time he

told them that his parents would tie Autumn up with a belt and put her in a red sleeping bag with only her head exposed he said they would also use a long gray shirt to tie her hands behind her back he said they would do this after she was being bad by urinating on the floor in her clothing or trying to get food the boy also said Autumn was often restrained overnight in the living room the kitchen or in the bathtub Sarah’s 10-year-old daughter made similar claims said Autumn was tied up when she misbehaved she said she heard

Autumn screaming that day and then heard a loud bang the girl also claimed she saw blood in the bathroom 30-year-old Brett and 20-year-old Sarah were arrested the next day on August 14th on August 17th they were both charged with second degree homicide and first-degree manslaughter and held without bond in early early 2021 prosecutors revealed they had security video inside the apartment that included damning footage based on that new evidence they were prepared to upgrade the homicide charge to first degree this may explain why

Brett and Sarah finally agreed to enter a plea of guilty on June 21st 2021 the pair pled guilty to second-degree homicide and first-degree manslaughter with aggravating circumstances the aggravating circumstance meant they could be sentenced for additional time part of their plea Deale meant that they had to admit in open court what they had done the details they admitted to are truly horrifying prosecutors first focused on new charges dating back to 2019 these charges had come to light when investigators recovered footage the

couple had taken with a surveillance camera they had set this camera up in their own apartment not only had they tortured Noah in Autumn they filmed this torture the first footage came from an incident on June 19 2019 8-year-old Noah had just gotten out of the shower the camera was pointed at the bathroom according to Sarah Noah fought back when she was cleaning his ear so she slapped him in the face attorney Leah emons points out that she had been cleaning his ear for approximately 15 minutes before he fought against her and noted that Sarah

hit him hard enough to cause him to cry loudly Sarah agreed Brett testified that he saw Sarah hit Noah causing him to cry instead of stopping her Brett said he was angry and kicked his son in the rib cage he said he stood over the little boy and called him a little sh then he put his hands around Noah’s neck 4 days later on June 23rd 2019 another incident was captured on camera again in the bathroom Sarah told Noah his head was going to go through the wall if he didn’t eat his food attorney emons asked if the food in question was rotten in

moldy food Noah had hidden in the bathroom for some amount of time Sarah confirmed it was in Brett’s testimony he confirmed he also knew the food was moldy and rotten he said the smell of the rotten food was so bad he had to leave the bathroom at times Sarah admitted that she assaulted Noah forcing him to eat the food and he bit her in response after he bit Sarah she said she would kill him his testimony Brett said he told Noah he would cut off the boy’s hands if he hurt Sarah again Sarah admitted she punched Noah with a closed

fist she also pushed a washcloth into his mouth to muff his screams Brett also hit Noah over the course of 6 hours the two of them physically forced the little boy to eat the spoiled food 6 hours on July 14th 2019 an incident in the kitchen was also captured on camera Sarah admitted she squirted liquid Dawn dish soap in a Noah’s mouth while Brett held him down attorney Emon said Noah reported that half of his mouth was full of soap Sarah confirmed that that seemed right Sarah said Noah was being punished for not doing his chores in a timely

fashion however Brett testified that he was being being punished for lying to Sarah he said Noah struggled and was fighting back so he straddled the little boy grabbed his arms and held him down Noah said Sarah forced Noah to swallow the dish soap Brett also admitted that he helped Sarah Force Noah to swallow this dish soap on more than 20 separate occasions Sarah’s testimony also included descriptions of incidents that were not caught on camera it often seemed like she was trying to blame Brett for the cruelty but her emissions

made them both look like Monsters she admitted to assaulting Noah because he told his mother about what was going on she said she told him if he didn’t stop talking about getting beaten he would never see his mother again she said she had used makeup to cover Autumn’s bruises for a zoom call she also used makeup to cover bruises when autumn waved the police from the balcony the last time the police saw her she described a homemade straight jacket made out of a gray sweatshirt while restrained Autumn had to stand in the

living room and stare at certain spots on the wall anytime she looked away Brett would kick her to the ground Sarah recounted an instant in which Autumn was restrained on the living room floor while the rest of the family ate already starving and dehydrated she was tied up and zipped into a red sleeping bag with only her head protruding Brett put a plate of food on the floor and said if she was really hungry she’d figure out a way to eat Sarah said Noah and Autumn weren’t given the same food the rest of the family ate Sarah admitted she was in

charge of the food in the household she gave Autumn very little food and water for the last several months of her life she was responsible for Autumn’s malnourished and dehydrated State Brett admitted that Autumn was starved and beaten he said she was often confined to the bathroom for days at a time some days Sarah made her do chores for up to 6 hours a day she wasn’t doing chores she spent the majority of her time tied up in the bathroom Brett admitted Autumn was tied up using the gray sweatshirt and bound to the wall using a belt he

also said the other children were told to ignore Autumn because paying any attention to her would make Sarah angry he said Sarah’s daughter was sometimes made to keep watch over Autumn while she was tied up by August of 2020 Autumn was hardly able to stand on her own and could barely speak she was underweight and fragile her eyes were droopy she had been throwing up for days according to her autopsy report she was already suffering from internal bleeding in her belly her B had been perforated Brett testified that Sarah’s daughter and

their sons were all present and witnessed what happened to Autumn in the days leading up to her death he said it started because builtup frustration he had because Autumn kept soiling herself he said looking at Autumn was bad Sarah sent her to the bathroom so she didn’t have to look at her when attorney Emmons asked why it was hard to look at her Brett said she was exhausted and had lost a lot of weight impr prompted he admitted she was in an emaciated condition because of neglect and abuse he and Sarah had been denying her food

and water he said the deprivation had been occurring off and on for about a month Sarah said Autumn had been confined to the bathroom for a couple of days because she had been throwing up a lot Brett testified he couldn’t sleep the night before he had been awake playing video games it was around 8:00 a.m.

 on August 13th when Sarah woke up since she was awake he asked if she wanted to watch the Shark Week TV shows they had recorded they watched some TV and he played on his phone at some point he fell asleep and woke up around noon Sarah said she was really mad at Brett for the bathroom being a mess with puke everywhere and she wanted him to clean it but Brett said he heard arguing in the bathroom when he woke up he heard Sarah telling Autumn to clean up the mess on the floor he heard Autumn say she would rather die than clean up the mess as he entered the bathroom angry he

grabbed autum by the shoulder picked her up by the neck and whipped her around he yelled at her for saying she wouldn’t clean up the mess allegedly Sarah grabbed Autumn by the throat and pushed her against the wall and held her there for about 10 seconds she let go Autumn fell Brett kicked her in the rib cage and told her to get up stating that he’d clean up the mess to stop the arguing afterward Brett claimed that he went back to sitting on the couch where he fell asleep again Sarah said she took some pills she had for a shoulder injury

and lost track of time and her own words around this time the couple stories started to differ even more Sarah said that sometime later in the day Brett went into the bathroom and said that Autumn was going to take a shower and clean herself up Sarah brought clean clothes in the the bathroom and saw autumnn laying in the tub with stuff coming out of her mouth she wasn’t awake and her eyes were glazed over Brett said he woke up at 3: in the afternoon because he heard a thud Sarah was yelling and telling Autumn to get up

while she poured hot water on her they both agreed that Brett picked Autumn up and moved her to the bedroom floor Sarah called 911 but Autumn had been dead for some time when this call was placed Autumn’s autopsy found fatal injuries pointing to asphixiation and blunt force trauma she had been beaten and suffocated badly she had puncture wounds on the top of her head her hips and hands were bruised she had abdominal bleeding from the perforated Bell that had probably been making her throw up for at least a couple of days she had

bleeding in her brain she weighed a mere 33 lbs which is what she weighed when she was 4 years old a healthy 8-year-old should be at least 70 lb she was malnourished and dehydrated her muscles were atrophy from the long periods of time she spent tied up and confined she had lost a lot of her hair when Kelsey went to bury her little girl she was in such bad shape that the funeral home suggested a closed casket Kelsey said the family needed to see her one last time because it had been so long since they had seen her Kelsey had to buy a

wig to cover the missing patches of her little girl’s hair Autumn celebration of life was held on August 23rd 2020 at Zimmerman lion Park her funeral arrangements were made in the care of darl’s funeral and cremation services in Elk River Brett and Sarah were sentenced on September 23rd 2021 they were both given a 40-year divided sentence and this means they have to serve 27 years in prison in 160 months which is a little over 13 years of supervised release SAR also pled guilty to threatening violence against Noah

admitting she told him she would put his head through a wall in 2019 she received an additional 12 months to her sentence for this at the sentencing Sarah cried and said she was sorry the family’s attorney Rich Hector said it was too little too late it didn’t have any remorse or guilt behind it Brett said nothing at the sentencing Kelsey filed the lawsuit against the Elk River Police Department Sherburn County CPS and the Elk River School District her suit alleged negligence and failure to intervene to protect as of July 25th

2023 her suit against the school district has been dismissed and other parts of the suit are are in danger of being dismissed even if the suit does not succeed which seems likely it has helped call attention to multiple failures in the systems intended to protect children because of stories like Autumn’s the nonprofit safe passage for children recently conducted a year-long study of the children who died from CA in Minnesota the study looked at 88 child deaths that occurred between 2014 and 2022 of the 88 deaths 14 involved

torture Autumn story was one of those 14 the report criticizes a child welfare system that focuses too much on the interests of parents and other adults as a result the system regularly compromises the safety of children the report concludes that many of the deaths could have been prevented according to Rich Gman founder and executive director of safe passage over the last 20 years or so child welfare has really tried to emphasize being fair to parents doing Justice to parents but we’ve kind of lost track of

doing Justice to children as well Kelsey wanted Delila to have something that would help her remember the sister who loved her so much before her death Autumn had made a teddy bear at a Build-A-Bear Workshop Kelsey took the bear back to the store and they installed touch activated buttons in each front paw when one button is pushed a recording of autumn saying her name plays the other plays a recording of her laugh Kelsey plays some of Autumn’s is in a box inside of the bear the family takes the bear to family gatherings and

on family vacations they include it an important family pictures as a way to have Autumn with them on her ninth birthday they planted an Autumn Blaze maple tree in their front yard so they can watch it grow a bright purple Memorial bench was unveiled on her 10th birthday the bench donated by the Elk River Lions was installed at the Elk River Boys and Girls Club big letters across the back of the bench say have a happy heart according to Kelsey this is something Autumn often said have a happy heart not a sad heart