Mom’s New Boyfriend Helps Her Boil Daughter Alive

Let’s say you are a mother with a daughter from a previous relationship. You have a new boyfriend, and you end up having another beautiful daughter together. You still love and cherish your first little girl just the same, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t automatically resent her, mistreat her, or force her to live in squalor. You wouldn’t subject her to things that would lead to her demise, right? Today’s story is about a horrible mother and her “bum” boyfriend who did just that.

Candace Renee Diaz did not have the best upbringing. While growing up in Western Kentucky in 1998, when she was just four years old, her mother, Roina Diaz, left her in the care of her alcoholic grandmother. It was during one of these days that Candace sustained severe burns all over her body during a house fire, which required multiple surgeries to correct. Roina and the grandmother were later arrested and charged with second-degree criminal abuse due to the injuries the little girl suffered, and they were incarcerated at the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Kentucky.

During her mother’s incarceration, Candace was placed in the custody of a relative and guardian, Cynthia Diaz. In June 2000, Roina lost parental rights to seven-year-old Candace after Cynthia filed a petition for custody, citing that the mother provided no support and had almost no contact with her daughter in two years. While incarcerated, Roina made a few phone calls to Candace, but eventually, she stopped doing so. But where was Candace’s father, Timothy Mullins, while all of this was going on? Well, at the time, he too was incarcerated, although the reasons for that incarceration are unclear. Later, he sought to contest the petition for custody filed by Cynthia but eventually withdrew his objections. Much like Roina, Timothy did nothing to financially support his little girl for two years after the petition. Although Cynthia adopted Candace, provided for her, and gave her a stable home life, some of the trauma that Candace suffered as a little girl caught up with her, and she went on to follow in her biological mother’s footsteps regarding poor decision-making.

It should be noted that during the course of our story, Cynthia and Candace uprooted from Kentucky to Michigan. It should also be noted that other creators on YouTube have stated that Candace went on to live with her biological mother, Roina, as an adult. This is false, and we will ensure our sources are linked for you in the show notes. As an adult, Candace and her boyfriend, Kyle Barrett, stayed in Cynthia’s home after the couple welcomed their first baby, Gabrielle Renee, into the world on July 3, 2013. Friends and family referred to the little girl as “Gabby.”

Unfortunately, like many young couples, their relationship was very short-lived, and Kyle left in 2014 when Gabby was only three or four months old. In early 2015, when Gabby was 18 months old, Candace met and began a relationship with a man named Brad Edward Fields, who was four years her senior. Soon, Candace began spending less time in Cynthia’s home and more time in Brad’s. The couple moved a few times before settling in the Rawsonville Woods mobile home community located in Belleville, Michigan—a town 20 miles southeast of Ann Arbor and 37 miles southwest of Detroit.

Gabby was left with Cynthia while her mother was out “gallivanting” with her new beau, and honestly, Cynthia was a good provider for the little girl. This would have been the more desired outcome; however, when Gabby turned four, Cynthia was unable to enroll her into Pre-K in her school district because she was not her legal guardian. As such, Gabby went to live with Candace and Brad in his trailer.

The honeymoon stage with Brad would not last long. In 2016, Candace called 911 after running from their shared trailer and seeking refuge in a community clubhouse after Brad allegedly punched her in the face, smashed her cell phone, shot the family dog, shot himself in the leg, and—as she was fleeing to safety—told her, “See if you can outrun these bullets.” It is unknown if the dog survived. When police responded to the scene, they noted the extreme uncleanliness of the home: flies were everywhere, there was a pungent smell due to old garbage that had not been disposed of, decaying foods, stacks of unclean dishes piling up in the sink, dog waste on both the living room floor and in the kids’ bedroom, and a pet rabbit living in a squalid cage that had not been cleaned.

In addition to general squalor, there was blood all over the floor. A search of the trailer yielded a taser, prescription pills, a box containing drug paraphernalia including scales, a camouflage bag containing an assortment of knives, a .40 caliber Glock handgun with two magazines, a Smith & Wesson .38 Special, and one magazine for a 9mm handgun that was not located in the search. The guns had been hidden in the heater floor grates of both the bathroom and the living room; one had its serial number scratched off, and the other was unregistered. Brad was initially arrested and charged with domestic violence (DV). However, three days later, Candace went to the police station and requested that these charges be dropped. She claimed that her boyfriend was schizophrenic and had not been taking his medication. Additionally, Candace claimed that the two firearms seized from the home were hers. Due to one being unregistered and one having its serial number scratched off, Candace incriminated herself and was subsequently arrested.

Candace’s poor decision-making did not end there. While being searched during booking, a blank prescription pad was found in her possession. Candace was charged and pled guilty to altering firearms and the possession of the prescription pad, for which she received two years of probation. There is an awful lot to unpack here, and we are not even that deep into today’s story yet. Even if Candace decided to drop the domestic charges against Brad, you would think there would still be other charges he would have to answer for. Maybe Brad could have been charged with disorderly conduct or gotten in trouble for discharging a weapon within the township. Allow me to quote the Van Buren Charter Township, which applies to Wayne County, Michigan, where Belleville is located: Chapter 58, Article 7, Division 2, Section 58-338 states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge any firearm or other instrument producing a like effect and noise within the township, except in the lawful defense of his person or property or as otherwise permitted by law.”

So with that in mind, the D.A. could have still easily continued to prosecute Brad on other charges, right? Apparently, this was not the case. It is unclear why Brad was not charged for firing a gun recklessly in a trailer park where many other people easily heard the gunshots. Beyond the handgun incident involving Candace, Brad was guilty of animal cruelty for shooting the family dog—in addition to the poor condition the rabbit was kept in—but he was not charged for that either. One would only hope that the poor dog survived the ordeal and that the rabbit was seized from the home, but there is no information available regarding their status. However, due to the fact that the kids were allowed to remain in a home filled with squalor where shots were fired, I really do not think anything was done to rescue the family pets.

Unfortunately, and that is “kids” plural: during this time, Candace had a baby with Brad—a little girl named Zoe. By all accounts, Zoe was loved and well taken care of, but the same could not be said for Gabby. A lot of the mistreatment of Gabby seemed to center around bathroom accidents she was having. She was only four years old at the time. Gabby was potty trained—Cynthia saw to that—and she was out of diapers at 18 months old, but she would still have the occasional accident like many toddlers do. However, a lot of her accidents seemed to occur at home, as it was noted by her Pre-K teaching assistant that Gabby did not have these types of accidents in the classroom. Now, I am sure you can think back to Pre-K or kindergarten where the classrooms had their own bathrooms for students to use; that was Gabby’s setup, so she didn’t have any issues going to the bathroom on her own.

Sometimes, bathroom-related issues in young kids can be a sign that mistreatment is going on in the home. It is a stress response, which only gets worse if the parent responds to the accidents through yelling or physical harm. As Gabby was not having these issues at school or with Cynthia, and she did not have any underlying medical issues, one could speculate what the problem was. That problem would become as plain as day to see as our story progresses. Rather than lovingly supporting Gabby, Candace and Brad would repeatedly strike her in the face and other parts of her body, frequently subject her to ice-cold baths, forcefully scratch her back with their nails, force her to ingest unprescribed Adderall despite her suffering from side effects, and finally, “shank” her with a fork—and that last one was in Brad’s own words, per his admission.

Brad and Candace would force Gabby to wear a garbage bag, take away her pants, strip her of her bedding, force her to sleep in the cold living room, and keep her in soiled diapers. Additionally, Brad and Candace would document their mistreatment of Gabby via Facebook Messenger, with Brad threatening to drown the little girl in his own bodily waste and forcing her to eat her own excrement. In one such message, Brad sent a video to Candace of him mistreating her daughter by making her wear a trash bag around the home, to which she responded by asking Brad if he would like anything from McDonald’s. On New Year’s Eve of 2017, Brad and Candace shared a picture of themselves holding baby Zoe, wishing everyone a Happy New Year—but there was one person missing from the family picture: little Gabby.

On New Year’s Day 2018, little Gabby Barrett suffered for the final time at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. The couple filled up the tub with scalding water and placed the toddler inside, essentially boiling the skin off her body. When she became unresponsive, rather than calling 911, Candace called her adoptive mother, Cynthia, at 10:05 a.m. Cynthia made a 30-minute drive to the couple’s home, where she attempted CPR. At 10:41 a.m., 911 was finally called.

Cynthia’s Testimony (Excerpts):

Regarding the call: “My daughter Candace… she was crying and she said Gabby wasn’t responding, and all I know is I said I’m on my way.”
Regarding the scene: “Candace met me at the door… we went back to the bathroom. [Brad] was in there giving her CPR.”
Regarding the condition of the home: “Did you notice any water in that bathroom at all? No. Was your daughter wet at all? No. Was Brad wet? To my knowledge, no.”
Regarding the injuries: “All I saw was the red marks behind her calf on each leg and on her backside… it was like there was a little bit of the skin like when you get a blister.”

Candace claimed that Gabby had a habit of sneaking off and starting her own baths. The day prior, she claimed, Gabby started a bath for herself that was far too hot, resulting in her being scalded. She claimed she wanted to take another bath that day, so Candace obliged her, filled the tub about halfway with lukewarm water, put the little girl inside, and left her unattended to go make pancakes. According to Candace, she left her unattended for about an hour or two, and when she returned, Gabby was face up in the water, unresponsive.

According to police who responded to the scene, none of the adults were performing CPR on the little girl when they arrived, and there was no water to be found in the bathtub. Aside from Gabby’s hair appearing to be slightly damp and a few wet towels, there was no water in the tub or on the floor, and none of the adults appeared to have any water on their clothes, which was extremely suspicious. There was no vomit on the floor either, but there were burns on Gabby’s body. According to paramedics, they were indeed second-degree burns past the blistering stage; the top layer of skin was totally missing.

Paramedics also found damning evidence that contradicted Candace’s version of events:

While in the ambulance, Gabby was intubated and no water was found in her lungs.
Gabby’s fingers lacked pruning, a telltale sign of being submerged for an extended period.

While in the ambulance, Candace texted Brad, telling him she was probably going to jail and to get rid of everything ASAP. She inferred that if Gabby lived, she would be taken from her because she would tell mandated reporters about the abuse. Brad responded that the police were trying to search him and Zoe. The couple’s cell phones were later seized, revealing all of the incriminating messages.

A search of the trailer uncovered chunks of skin and clumps of hair in the bathtub drain, a garbage bag with bloody gauze, plastic gloves, and boxes of topical ointment. Gabrielle Renee Diaz was transported to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she was declared dead. Her cause of death was listed as septic shock and battered child syndrome, with the manner of death being homicide.

Gabby suffered from multiple inflicted injuries, including blunt force trauma, a fatal burn pattern, thermal and asphyxia injuries, and indications of suffocation. A toxicology report revealed caffeine and amphetamines. Her body was covered in second-degree scalding burns, her big toe had completely “melted off,” and she suffered from severe malnourishment and necrosis in her teeth. It was the pathologist’s opinion that Gabby would have been in extreme pain until her very last moments.

After a few days, the couple was arrested in Lowndes County, Georgia. While on trial, the pair cited severe mental illnesses. On October 9, 2018, Brad Edward Fields was found guilty of first-degree felony homicide, second-degree homicide, first-degree child abuse (CA), and torture. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Candace Renee Diaz took a plea deal, reducing her charges to second-degree homicide and first-degree child abuse, and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years behind bars.

At sentencing, Justice Vonda Evans addressed Candace directly:

“You killed your daughter for the love of a bum… an unemployed, drug-taking, manipulative loser. Your beautiful daughter, Gabby, was a sacrifice you gave that bum, Brad, to fulfill his sick and demonic sense of love and control… You were never a mother to your child; you were a female bird who neglected your child for the love of a bum.”

Zoe, the other child, was taken into state custody, and her whereabouts remain sealed. Gabby’s biological father, Kyle Barrett, had been incarcerated at the time of her death and was released just days later. He expressed deep grief, describing her as a “little angel.”