Wisconsin mother let disabled teen daughter sit in feces-filled diaper for days till she died of sepsis
APPLETON, WISCONSIN: A Wisconsin mother has been jailed for letting her severely-disabled daughter sit in an excrement-filled diaper until she caught sepsis and died.
Nicole Gussert 39, was sentenced to 17 years of prison in Appleton, Wisconsin, for causing the death of her teenaged, disabled daughter due to neglect.
Brianna Gussert, aged 13, was found dead in her room, having been deprived of food and wearing a filthy diaper. Nicole was convicted of neglecting a child and causing the death of her daughter, as well as possession with intent to deliver amphetamine.
Brianna suffered from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome since birth, which left her unable to speak or walk. Her body was discovered in May 2017, and the investigation revealed that she died of sepsis after having been abandoned for several days.
Authorities had been called to her home after receiving a call to perform a wellness check. An officer reported that how the house was filled with "a smell in the air of rotten food, human waste and death."
Brianna was found unfed, wearing a used, unchanged diaper, and her skin had partly begun to decompose.
She was found to have been killed by sepsis after being left to sit in an unchanged diaper for several days and weighed just 1.25 pounds. Her mother made sure to give the family’s pet dog food and water, while ignoring Brianna’s most basic needs, stated a Metro report.
According to Daily Mail, Nicole claimed that she had been battling depression and not taking her prescribed Adderall, however, officers found texts that she had been selling pills or giving them to people to whom she owed money. Brianna had been left alone in her room for an estimated five days.
Nicole appeared to show remorse for the act, pleading no contest in February 2019, and telling the judge that her actions were not out of "malice or spite", that she loved Brianna very much and had "failed her".
Nicole told officers that she couldn’t remember when or how many times she fed her daughter the previous day.
The Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis believes that Nicole treated her dog better than she treated her daughter, saying, "She is able to care for another living creature, but doesn't have the decency that weekend, at all, to walk upstairs and check on her daughter."