Brooke Skylar Richardson's parents say teen was offered plea deal before her murder trial and it proved to be 'the absolute wrong thing'
The parents of former cheerleader Brooke Skylar Richardson who was accused of murdering her newborn child, have spoken up for the first time revealing a plea deal she was offered. The plea deal would have dropped most of the serious charges against the then 18-year-old Richardson, according to CBS. No other information was provided.
Richardson, who had been struggling with severe eating disorders for years had found out she had become pregnant and had birthed her baby in secret, on her prom night. The teen had given birth alone in her family home in Carlisle, Ohio in the bathroom, in the incident that had occurred in May 2017. She had said that the baby had been stillborn, to an OB-GYN during an appointment later. She had also said that she had buried the baby in the backyard. Her parents had been happy that she was finally putting on some weight and had not suspected the weight fluctuations.
An investigation was launched into the matter after the confession she had made to the doctor and Richardson was charged with murder, manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse and child endangerment based on a pathologist's statement that the baby's body had been burned. This observation was made after the pathologist had found the bones to be darker than normal. However, this opinion was recanted but it was already too late.
Richardson had already been coaxed to give a confession and her parents had felt that it was the right thing to do. "We thought we were doing the right thing by cooperating. It turned out to be the absolute wrong thing," her father Scott said in a preview of the new episode of 48 Hours on CBS airing this weekend on Saturday, September 28. The episode focuses on the cheerleader's story.
"I don't know when it hit me but I was a grandmother and I never had any of the benefits of it. Our lives had been completely turned upside down," said her mother Kim, adding that the media frenzy over the case was like a sporting event. "It felt like Super Bowl level. It was like the world stopped. Everyone wanted to know what was going on in our backyard and what had happened. The sidewalk was lined with people sitting in lawn chairs. We have no privacy, we're followed, stalked," she said.
Social media had also turned against them she said, calling Facebook a "hate-book". The couple said that their daughter's mistake had been that she had done it without telling anyone. "She had a stillborn and she made a poor choice after that, not telling anyone and burying the baby," Kim said.