Carl Franklin Parker was a 39-year-old single father of three when he met 19-year-old Samantha Delcamp in March of 2015. The pair were engaged on April 10th of the same year, and Samantha soon was pregnant. Arabella Margaret Parker was born on September 20th, 2016, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. One of her brothers was only a few years older than her, but her older brother John and her sister Amanda were much older. Amanda was 17 years old when Arabella was born, and all of her siblings adored her. Arabella’s aunts, Mandy, Sarah, and Lucinda, as well as her grandmother, Bonnie, doted on her. She also had a large extended family of grandparents, great-grandparents, and cousins. Nicknamed “Sweet Pea” by her Mimi—which is what she called Bonnie—Arabella had red hair and a beautiful smile. She liked being picked up and hugged. She enjoyed being the center of attention. She loved to be sung to, especially the songs “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children”. She liked dancing and would wiggle her body to the beat. She also loved ice cream, her baby dolls, her white and pink polka dot blanket, and more than anything, she loved her family.
Arabella lived with her mother and father in Sunbury, a small city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Carl was out on parole after serving 13 years for a 1999 robbery where he was involved in a DUI accident. He pled guilty to DUI and destruction of an unattended vehicle or property, and was sent to Coal Township State Prison for violating his parole in mid-2019. Carl and Samantha broke up shortly after he went back to prison in June of 2019. A few months before Arabella’s third birthday, Samantha started dating Jared Joseph Burgess, who was a few months shy of his 19th birthday. Samantha and Arabella soon moved in with him. They first lived with four of Jared’s friends, but in August, they moved to Trevorton, a small town in Zerbe County, Pennsylvania. There, they lived at 725 West Shamokin Street, in a three-story, red-painted building with big bay windows.
At a 4th of July party, Arabella’s grandmother, Bonnie, noticed bruises on both Arabella and Samantha, and she became concerned. She questioned Samantha and told her to leave Jared. However, Samantha was financially dependent upon Jared, and she insisted that things weren’t actually that bad. In the following few months, Samantha began to close herself off from her family. One of her sisters said they didn’t know exactly what was going on, but they felt that something bad was about to happen. Bonnie and other relatives made multiple reports to Children and Youth Services (CYS) alleging abuse. In August, Bonnie attempted to get partial custody of Arabella, and a hearing was scheduled for September 5th. At the hearing, her request was denied. According to the CYS report, the caseworkers had no concerns with Samantha but were keeping the case open because of the high number of calls. In a September Facebook post, Bonnie called Jared a child abuser and a woman beater, and publicly told Samantha to leave.
Her family was right; something bad was happening. Jared’s behavior became more controlling. According to Samantha, he began to hit both her and Arabella. He would sometimes make them march down a hallway if they didn’t obey his orders. He wouldn’t let her leave. He wouldn’t let her access the phone that she shared with him. During this time, Arabella began accumulating bruises, abrasions, and even broken bones. That fall, tensions got higher. On October 6th, Jared’s abuse escalated. According to police, he threw Arabella into a chair, smacked her in the face, kicked and punched her in the back, and stomped on her stomach. He then threw her onto a bed, punched her again, then threw her into a bathtub and turned on the water. Samantha claimed he was trying to drown Arabella. She said she didn’t get help because he wouldn’t let her leave and wouldn’t let her have her phone.
On October 10th, Jared wouldn’t allow Bonnie to see her granddaughter, and Bonnie was frantic about it, but she did not know what to do. She went to the residence, but Jared and Samantha shut the door in her face. She called the local police as well as CYS, but neither department offered any help. Police in Northumberland County and CYS did go to the home, but officials wrote in their report that Arabella was in good condition. They later admitted that she was never checked for any marks or bruises. Samantha claimed the officials saw her bruises as well, but they didn’t do anything and they didn’t ask Arabella anything at all. Samantha also made no effort to let police or the social workers know what was really going on, even though they were right at her residence.
Later on October 10th, after the police left, Samantha was washing dishes in the kitchen while a scene familiar in homes across America played out. Arabella, a toddler, was picking at her cheeseburger, not hungry enough to eat because she was still full from eating earlier—a minor frustration all parents have to deal with. From the kitchen, Samantha heard Jared yelling. When she came into the room, she saw Jared holding Arabella by the throat, pressing her against the wall. Samantha screamed and tried to stop him, but he pushed her and knocked her glasses off. By the time she found her glasses and got back up, she saw Jared throw Arabella 2 to 3 feet across the room. The bottom half of Arabella’s body landed on a child-sized Minnie Mouse couch; her head slammed into the floor. The impact cracked the toddler’s skull and damaged her brain, causing her to have a seizure. Samantha said Arabella was flopping around like a fish.
Arabella had suffered a traumatic brain injury. The injury was bad enough, but what Jared and Samantha did next made it so much worse. Children can recover from such injuries, but they need emergency care, and they need it quickly. Samantha said she begged Jared to call 911, but instead, Jared called his mother, Christy Lynn Willis, to ask her what to do when a toddler was having a seizure. He did not want to call 911 because Arabella still had bruises from his previous abuse; he was afraid he would get in trouble. Based on records retrieved from both phones—the Apple iPhone Jared shared with Samantha and his mother’s LG phone—it was 8:59 p.m. when Jared and Christy did a Google search of how to treat seizures.
Four calls were made between the two phones that evening as Arabella continued to seize and her brain continued to swell. During these calls, Jared and his mother discussed how to keep him out of trouble, and they concocted a plan in which Christy would come to the residence and lie for him. Samantha heard Christy tell Jared “not to worry because she will say that she was there so there is another witness and that she would say she was folding clothes the whole time.” Arabella was still seizing, her brain was still swelling, and critical minutes were passing with no medical care. Christy arrived 20 to 30 minutes later. After she arrived, she called 911. Records showed that 49 minutes had passed between the Google search and the 911 call.
When police arrived, Christy lied and said she had been there when the seizure started. Jared and Samantha also lied to paramedics, saying that Arabella started having a seizure but omitting the events that led up to it. This meant paramedics didn’t know to check for a traumatic brain injury, and it greatly changed their response and treatment. If they had been aware that Arabella had such a time-critical brain injury, they would have called ahead to assemble a trauma response team and likely would have taken her to Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital, which was only 12 minutes away, instead of taking her to the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital at Geisinger Medical Center, which was 34 minutes away near Danville.
When she arrived at the hospital, she was still in a coma, but doctors didn’t have the crucial information they needed to figure out why. A CT scan finally revealed the information doctors needed: that Arabella’s brain showed signs of significant bleeding and swelling. The little girl needed surgery, and she needed it immediately. The hospital scrambled to assemble a trauma team. Neurosurgeons had to remove the right side of her skull and part of her brain. The swelling was so bad that parts of her brain had already died. After the surgery, Arabella was placed on a ventilator, and the extent of her injuries became apparent.
She had at least 44 bruises on her small body. In addition to the acute bleeding in her brain, records showed that she had bilateral hematomas, bruised lungs, and internal abdominal bleeding. She also had three broken ribs on her right side and eight broken ribs on her left side, fractures on her collarbone, bleeding in her privates, and scattered abrasions all over her body. Doctors said all of these injuries were the result of child abuse, and they exhibited various stages of healing, indicating the abuse was not a one-time thing but happened over the course of months. In the face of all this contradictory medical evidence, the story that Jared, his mother, and Samantha had concocted started to completely fall apart.
While Arabella was in the hospital on a ventilator in critical condition and fighting for her life, Samantha agreed to appear on the Steve Wilkos Show to take a polygraph to prove she had not hurt her little girl. A 3-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital after being severely beaten by her mother’s boyfriend. The child was beaten so badly that part of her brain had to be removed, and doctors stated that the little girl only has a 10% chance of surviving. Allegedly, Samantha was paid $250 for her appearance and Bonnie was paid $200, but other family members who appeared were not paid.
On the show, Samantha described the incident: “We got home, she was trying to eat dinner, and she—she ate prior to that, like a couple hours ago, so she wasn’t really hungry, so she was picking at it. And that must have triggered something in his brain and it went crazy. Picked her up—” Steve Wilkos interrupted, asking, “Who, he?” Samantha replied, “My boyfriend at the time. And see, I was in the kitchen and he—I heard a slam, and I came out and he had my daughter by the throat on the wall.” Steve asked, “What did you do?” Samantha answered, “Started screaming at him and he put her down.”
Her appearance brought a great deal of attention to the case—much of it negative, and much of it directed towards Samantha in particular. Arabella’s now 21-year-old sister, Amanda Parker, criticized Samantha for not leaving Jared and said she thought Samantha had something to do with this abuse: “Samantha is my dad’s ex-fiancee, and they had a daughter together. After she left my dad, she started going downhill, so we stopped talking. The doctors said that my sister has a 10% chance of living, and if she does recover, she’ll probably, most likely, be in a wheelchair, she’ll be tube-fed. I think Sam had a part of it.”
Samantha claimed that the reason for not leaving Jared was fear. She said, “You don’t understand the terror he put into me. ‘What would he do to you if he found out you said something to your sister or call the police? What would he do to you?’ My daughter and I both won’t be alive, yeah right.” Allegedly, Samantha did pass the polygraph test, but Steve Wilkos said he still held her responsible because she didn’t protect her daughter by getting her out of the situation or running for help: “Uh, for the audience and for you, and basically, uh, the detector test: did you cause any of your daughter’s injuries? She answered no. She told the truth. But to me, that means nothing. Police show up, they were outside, I seen it from the window, so you couldn’t go to the window and say, ‘Help’?” Samantha responded, “It was three stories high, all your—in this situation, you don’t understand.” Steve shot back, “No, I wouldn’t allow to be in your situation. I wouldn’t allow anybody to hurt my children, though.”
Though the show would not air until later, law enforcement were able to watch it right away. It confirmed suspicions they already had about the legitimacy of the story Jared, Christy, and Samantha were telling them. Samantha was arrested on October 25th, 2 days after filming the show, and charged with child endangerment. She was also banned from visiting her daughter. Jared was also arrested and charged with child abuse. With her father already in jail and her mother arrested, Arabella’s aunt and uncle, Mandy and Tyrone Kegler, were given emergency temporary custody on October 29th and later appointed Arabella’s legal guardians on November 13th. Mandy provided Arabella’s father, Carl, with daily updates on her condition.
On November 19th, the community gathered for two candlelight vigils: one in Trevorton, where she lived, and another in a park just a block away from the hospital where Arabella was still fighting for her life. Pastor Mark Gittens, who had been sitting with the family at Arabella’s bedside, led the vigil in Trevorton, reminding everyone of their responsibility to the children in the community and asking them to be more vigilant. In November, Arabella suffered a stroke and additional bleeding in her brain. Doctors told the family she would never wake up and that there was nothing else that they could do for her.
The family was faced with a sad decision. On November 20th, she was taken off life support. Bonnie, Arabella’s Mimi, took photos of her brightly painted little fingernails and the three little braids in what was left of her red hair. She surprised doctors by breathing on her own for more than 48 hours after the life support was turned off, still clinging to her short life. Doctors were able to put her at ease, meaning they were able to give her medicine to release some of her pain before she died—a small mercy. During her 44-day hospitalization, Arabella never regained consciousness. She died in her aunt Mandy’s arms at around 1:20 p.m. on November 22nd.
All of the doctors on record agreed: if Arabella had been taken to the hospital right after her injury, and if paramedics and doctors had been told the truth, she may have survived. The family was hoping to donate Arabella’s organs in order to help other children, but ultimately, only her heart valves were able to be harvested. Her other organs were either too damaged to donate or needed to be part of the police investigation. After Arabella’s death, the charges against Samantha and Jared were upgraded to the more serious charge of homicide.
In addition to homicide, both Jared and Samantha were also charged with obstruction in a child abuse case, false reports to law enforcement, aggravated and simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, and harassment. Jared was also charged with strangulation, and Samantha was charged with hindering prosecution. No bail was set for Jared and Samantha because of the homicide charges, so they remained in prison until their trial. Jared’s mother, Christy Lynn Willis, was charged with obstruction in a child abuse case, hindering prosecution, and false reports to law enforcement. Her bail was set at $200,000.
While in jail, Jared blamed Samantha, saying to a reporter that sometimes he hit Arabella and Samantha when they wouldn’t follow the rules, but saying it was Samantha who threw her daughter across the room on October 10th. On April 15th, 2021, Christy Lynn Willis was found guilty of felony obstruction, felony hindering apprehension by providing false information to law enforcement, and misdemeanor false reporting. She was sentenced to 17 months to 17 years in prison.
At his trial in November of 2021, officials said Jared initially denied abusing Arabella, but during an interview with Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Robert Reeves, he eventually admitted he picked Arabella up by the throat, pinned her against the wall, placed her on the floor, picked her back up, and attempted to throw her 2 or 3 feet onto a couch, but missed. He said she landed on the floor and then began to have a seizure. County District Attorney Tony Matulewicz had a videotape of this confession; he played it for the jury at the trial.
Jared testified, and I quote: “I smacked her, but not hard or excessive, maybe five times. I grabbed her by the shoulders when she was not eating. I didn’t plan for her to die. I hoped she forgives me. I didn’t forcibly throw her to hurt her, but I should have walked her the extra couple of steps to put her on the couch.” End quote. This testimony did not match the many injuries Arabella suffered. He also told the jury he was very close with Arabella, saying, “She loved me and I loved her.” It is impossible to understand how he could say this after he smashed and shattered her tiny body.
The jury found Jared guilty of third-degree homicide in the death of a child, four felony counts of aggravated assault for a person under the age of 13, aggravated assault for a person under the age of six, child endangerment, and obstruction. At his sentencing in January of 2022, he said, “I take 100% responsibility for what happened to Arabella. I ask Arabella, God, and the people of Northumberland County to forgive me. You all don’t have to, but I owe this to you. Arabella will remain in my mind and dreams.” Jared was sentenced to 24 to 50 years in prison, the maximum allowed by law.
At Samantha’s trial in May of 2022, County District Attorney Tony Matulewicz accused her of doing nothing while her boyfriend beat Arabella to death. They also said Samantha knew about the abuse and never reported it to the authorities. Samantha wept throughout most of the testimony, especially when the jury was presented with graphic photos of Arabella’s bruises and when Dr. Paul Bellino testified in detail about Arabella’s extensive injuries. During her testimony, Samantha claimed to be a victim of domestic violence. She said that she didn’t leave because she feared for her life, and also because she relied on Jared to financially support her and Arabella.
She also testified to abuse during Jared’s trial, claiming that she had been pregnant with his child and miscarried during one of his beatings. Jared’s attorney objected to her statement because there was no evidence of this pregnancy. Samantha also provided additional testimony against Jared as a state’s witness. This type of witness is often offered a plea bargain, but the DA promised the public he would not offer any deals, and he kept that promise. However, Arabella’s father, Carl Parker, as well as Jared and members of her own family, at various times accused Samantha of substance abuse, and that issue did not seem to be relevant at her trial.
In his closing arguments, the DA said Samantha had primary care, control, and custody of the child, and she did nothing to prevent Arabella’s death. Samantha was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of children. She was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison. Some believe her sentence is too harsh, saying that she’s a victim of domestic violence being re-abused by the system. Others, like the DA, think that her lies and the long wait for help killed Arabella as much as the beatings did, and they think that she chose her boyfriend over the health, wellness, and safety of her own child.
Arabella was grieved by a loving family that was also, in some ways, grieving for Samantha as well. Samantha’s sisters, Mandy, Sarah, and Lucinda, as well as her mother, Bonnie, were all devastated by Arabella’s death, and they struggled to make sense of what had happened. They asked the community to recognize that no one knew what their family was going through. Mandy said she didn’t have anything nice to say to Samantha, so she was choosing to say nothing. Sarah said she talked to Samantha every day and was committed to standing by her. She said, “Samantha knows she did wrong and she knows she should have left Jared.” Lucinda said, “Samantha’s choices in her life made us lose our niece. She did wrong and needs to pay her consequences as they all should.” Samantha’s mother, Bonnie, said, “Of course I’m going to stand by her. She’s my daughter. I know she did wrong, but she’s still my daughter.”
After her death, Arabella’s family couldn’t come to an agreement about where or how she would be buried. Her dad, still in prison, wanted a traditional burial. Her aunts and grandmother wanted cremation. Her aunt Mandy said there would have been no way Arabella could have had an open casket because of what she had gone through. The family dispute ended up in court, and Arabella’s body remained in a morgue freezer until a hearing could be scheduled. On December 9th, the court ruled that Mandy could decide. She chose cremation and had the ashes distributed so each family member could have a part of the little girl. A GoFundMe for Arabella shared on Facebook raised $2,000, and the family used it for expenses associated with the funeral, including flowers.
Arabella’s funeral was a private family service; about 50 friends and family attended. Pastor Mark Gittens from Sunbury, who had spent hours with the family at Arabella’s bedside during the 44 days that she was in the hospital, presided over the service. He told the gathering, and I quote: “As a community, we will make sure that Arabella’s voice will never go away. We will continue to fight child abuse, and we make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” End quote. He also played a recording of Carl, Arabella’s father, singing his own version of The Oak Ridge Boys’ song “Elvira”. Carl replaced the main lyric with Arabella’s name. The recording also included video of Arabella in happier times, dancing, singing, and laughing.
On the local news station WNEP-16, Mike Stevens is known for the stories he tells about memorable residents of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. When he heard the news reporting about Arabella, he was especially moved: “Usually I write obituaries or make comments about older people, folks who’ve lived their lives before moving on to a final rest. But then I heard about Arabella Parker of Northumberland County. Arabella Parker, 3 years of age. What killed her didn’t happen by accident. Police tell us they have someone in custody who allegedly beat her and beat her badly. There was a candlelight vigil the other night. Neighbors and friends of neighbors gathered here and in some surrounding communities to pray, to show support, to condemn the violence that killed Arabella. I watched the story Peggy Lee did and was reminded of how young 3 years old really is. Arabella never reached first grade, or read Dr. Seuss by herself, or did any of the other things kids do moving on through life. Peggy’s story told of how the child would be taken off a respirator and would then be on her own. She didn’t make it. Critical condition is tough to come back from, tougher when you’re only three. Arabella Parker has passed on, and if there is such a place as heaven, a place populated by angels, then she will surely be there among them. She was 3 years old—young enough, sweet enough, and pretty enough to deserve nothing less. I’m Mike Stevens, Newswatch 16.”
In an odd and tragic postscript, Arabella’s sister, Amanda Parker, and her boyfriend, 36-year-old Ernest Reynolds III, were arrested on felony charges of endangering the welfare of children in a situation where another young child with a head injury and broken skull was denied prompt medical attention. The same Amanda Parker who said, “I am lost for words at how anyone could ever harm such a sweet, innocent child,” was arrested and sent to Northumberland County Jail in lieu of $75,000 cash bail on the felony charge for not taking her hurt six-month-old baby to the hospital.
According to county officials, they received a call from Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg explaining they had the child at the hospital in critical condition with a skull fracture who needed to be taken by medical helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for treatment. This is the same hospital Arabella was taken to, and the hospital in which she ultimately died. The babysitter took the child to the hospital; it is unclear how this child was hurt. Amanda initially claimed she hit her head while in a bouncy swing, but told several different stories after that and exchanged text messages with the babysitter where they discussed lying to medical staff.
Police allege that Amanda significantly delayed the care provided to the child. CYS also informed police that multiple scheduled pediatrician appointments for this child had been missed. After Samantha’s trial, Amanda said, “I think about my sister every day and how this should have never happened. I hope Samantha thinks about this every day while she serves her sentence.” It seems like Amanda may soon need to take her own advice.
