Alyssa Dayvault: South Carolina YouTuber who dumped her two newborns in trash to die gets jailed for 40 years
A YouTube makeup artist from South Carolina has been awarded 40 years in jail after she was convicted of two counts of homicide by child abuse for dumping her two newborns in the trash to die. Alyssa Dayvault was convicted on October 15 in her absence as at the time, no one knew where she was and police were searching for her. But later, she handed herself over to the police and remained behind the bars until Thursday, November 5, when the sentencing was announced. The 32-year-old was given four decades of jail time for the deaths of her two newborns — a girl and a boy — as she faced 20 years to life on each charge.
Reports stated that Dayvault hid her two pregnancies — one in 2017 and the other one in 2018 — before giving birth to the babies secretly. In 2017, she gave birth to a girl while a year later, a boy was born, but after each delivery, she put them into garbage bags and discarded them. When the woman, who has two other daughters, was given a chance to speak in the Horry County courtroom, she became emotional and said as reported by Myrtle Beach Online: “I want to apologize — to my family, especially my daughters. I hope that one day they will be able to forgive me for what I've done. I never meant to do anything. I never harmed anyone. I made a horrible mistake.”
According to the Daily Mail, Dayvault could not be tried for murder as prosecutors had no evidence to prove that she strangled or suffocated the newborns. The woman’s previously taped interviews stated that she told investigators that she delivered a girl in 2017, whose umbilical cord was around her neck. The same year, the child died in November and she threw her in public waste disposal outside her apartment complex. A year later in 2018, Dayvault became the mother of a baby boy. She claimed that soon after the delivery, she fell unconscious for fifteen minutes and when she got back to her senses, the baby was dead.
However, a pathologist claimed that the baby boy was alive when he was put in the trash bag. He insisted that the newborn seemed to expel meconium, fecal matter babies have when they are born, inside the garbage bag, but later died as his oxygen supply was cut due to the plastic. Reports stated that the criminal activities of Dayvault came to light after she visited a doctor days after delivering her second child in 2018. She went to the doctor after developing an infection in a tear caused by her labor. The woman was provided with blood transfusion at the time, but suspicion grew when an undelivered placenta was discovered in her uterus. When Dayvault failed to account for the baby, the police were informed. After questioning, she told investigators about her 2017 pregnancy also. She gave the reason for her wrongdoing as she said her boyfriend was against kids and she was not sure about her mother’s reaction.
On October 15, Dayvault's boyfriend Chris Matechen said, “For two years, I’ve been living with this burden, no type of closure — or anything like that. She’s been able to walk the streets for the last eight months — a free woman. Hopefully with this it will be a little easier for me and my family to get through this. It is by far and away the hardest thing we've ever had to deal with. Justice coming to her makes it a little easier to comprehend.”
Dayvault’s lawyers tried to shorten her sentencing, but Circuit Judge Steven John dismissed the plea as he said: “I did not take into consideration in any shape, matter or form the fact the defendant was not present. That doesn't affect the sentence at all. It is the facts and evidence presented.” The woman will only be eligible for parole after serving 34 years in jail.