Autumn Lee Hallow was born on August 24th, 2011 in Coon 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 Sand’s High School in Elk River, located about 34 miles 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 50/50 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 charge 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 gift 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 used the court system to gain additional control. She convinced Judge Mary Yunker 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. Autumn and her brother Noah lived 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 the 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 Yunker 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. Noah missed school again on Monday.

On 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. Brett and 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 and twisted, 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 seemed to realize that having Brett and Sarah 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, and 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 and 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. Autumn 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. The 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: “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.” In April 2020, Kelsey tried to get help through the family court system, but Judge Yunker 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 called 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 they arrived at apartment 214, which, mind you, was Brett and Sarah’s apartment, they found the stepmother performing chest compressions on Autumn’s 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 face 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, and 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 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 deal 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 and 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 Emmons 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 Emmons asked if the food in question was rotten and 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. In 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 muffle 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 into Noah’s mouth while Brett held him down. Attorney Emmons 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 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 admissions 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 to 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 incident 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; when 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, and she had been throwing up for days. According to her autopsy report, she was already suffering from internal bleeding in her belly; her bowel 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 of built-up 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. Unprompted, 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 Autumn 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, and 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.

In her own words, around this time the couple’s 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 into the bathroom and saw Autumn 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 3:00 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 asphyxiation and blunt force trauma; she had been beaten and suffocated badly. She had puncture wounds on the top of her head, and her hips and hands were bruised. She had abdominal bleeding from the perforated bowel 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 pounds, which is what she weighed when she was 4 years old; a healthy 8-year-old should be at least 70 pounds. She was malnourished and dehydrated. Her muscles were atrophied 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’s celebration of life was held on August 23rd, 2020 at Zimmerman Lion Park. Her funeral arrangements were made in the care of Dare’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 and 160 months, which is a little over 13 years, of supervised release. Sarah 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, and didn’t have any remorse or guilt behind it. Brett said nothing at the sentencing.

Kelsey filed a lawsuit against the Elk River Police Department, Sherburne 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 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 abuse or neglect in Minnesota. The study looked at 88 child deaths that occurred between 2014 and 2022. Of the 88 deaths, 14 involved torture; Autumn’s 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 Gehrman, 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 Delilah 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 placed some of Autumn’s ashes in a box inside of the bear. The family takes the bear to family gatherings and on family vacations; they include it in 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.”