Babysitter Bestie Breaks Baby’s Bones: Police

0:00She was my friend, and it's like you can't trust anybody. Friends, family, strangers. A trusted babysitter arrested and charged after detectives say a baby in her care suffered a broken bone. And so I detect her again, and I'm like, why is there bruises all over her head? I mention it, Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Sarah Smith is a 27 year old mom. She babysits, or at least she used to babysit. On social media, she looks like a loving mom and a woman who likes to have fun with filters. She has a lot of photos on Facebook, but recently she had a photo taken that wasn't so flattering. Sarah Smith had a mugshot taken at the Baldwin County Jail in Georgia, where she was booked on a charge of cruelty to children in the first degree. The victim in this case, Georgia's Bureau of Investigation

1:00says it was a four month old baby girl, a defenseless little baby whose mother trusted Sarah Smith to watch her children. You'll hear from that mother of the children very shortly. Last February, the mother of the baby girl posted these X-rays on Facebook showing injuries, including a broken arm. The mother also shared text messages that she said she exchanged with Sarah Smith asking her about her baby's injuries in one message, Samantha wrote to Sarah, hey, how come Jenny has bruising on her forehead and her knee? Smith then provided a long response about the baby being in a shopping cart at Walmart and being accidentally hidden in the head with a box of cereal and another explanation about a child tripping over the baby while the child was on the floor of her home during tummy time. Now there were other follow-up text messages about other injuries. Samantha Mullin then posted on Facebook,

2:01why would you hurt my baby? Jenny is the most happiest little girl on this planet. She never cries, just always smiling, talking and sticking her little tongue out, being silly. I just knew when I picked her up that day, my baby was not acting herself. Now my Jackson and my Genesis scream, cry when I'm not in their sight for a second. My babies are traumatized. I trusted you, I trusted you. This was not their first time in your care. How could you do this to my baby's man? Anytime I watched your kids, they never had a scratch on them when they were returned to you. So why would you do this? How could you do this? I would never understand ever. After Samantha Mullin took her baby to the doctor, the injuries were reported to law enforcement. And deputies in Baldwin County, Georgia asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist in the case that was in February. Now it's April. And Georgia's Bureau of Investigation announced that Sarah Smith, a 27-year-old mother,

3:02has been charged with cruelty to children. I want to bring in Samantha Mullin. She is the mother of this poor baby who was harmed and who Sarah Smith is charged with treating cruelty. Samantha, first of all, thank you so much for joining me. Second of all, how are you and your poor little baby girl doing right now? If man, thank you for having me. We're good. My baby, she has been so tough. She's been just like the best. She's always been like the happiest baby ever. She's been able to smile, laugh, and be her normal self throughout the whole process. You can tell when it was going on, she was in pain here and there. But she was still able to be herself. So it was just amazing. She was able to still laugh. She would look like she'd want to move her arm and everything. She was just ready to be out of the arm because they had her in and everything.

4:04She was so strong. Oh my God. I can't imagine having a three, four-month-old baby. It was tough. It was hard cast. It was tough. It was just velcro. But at the same time, I couldn't take her out of it. And I couldn't picking her up was hard. I had to make sure I wasn't hurting her. When I was picking her up, putting on her car seat, taking her out, but going her in, getting her dress, giving her a bass. It was just tough. It was hard. She hated it. She hated being wrapped up. She did not like, you know, I had to keep her arm still. She did not like that. She hated it. Has she been able to heal from the injuries that she suffered? Oh, yeah, for sure. I took her back to the ortho to get a clear picture of her X-ray after a couple of months. And the bone is perfectly healed back together. It's one bone again. She's doing great. She's moving it freely. Before I even knew it was healed, before we even took her to the doctor to see it was healed,

5:04she took herself out of the arm cast. And she was like, no, do not put me back in there every time I tried. She was like telling me no, taking herself out. So I called the doctor. I told him what she was doing. We took her and her arm was ready to go. And she knew before I did. Well, I'm glad to hear that. Take me back to the beginning, though. Before we started recording here, you and I were talking. And Sarah Smith is somebody that you considered your friend. You guys were friends. So talk to me about how you trusted her to watch your daughter and not only your daughter, but your son. Yeah, for sure. I moved here where I lived a few years ago. So I've been here for about four years. And when I moved down here, that's the first person I met. Because I was already looking for myself looking for a babysitter or something else to do on the side. Because I was trying to get a job and everything, because I just moved.

6:05We clicked. We linked up immediately. We just got along. We had the same kids around the same age. We hung out with the kids together. I watched her kids at first. I was her babysitter first. And then we just started getting closer, hanging out together. We celebrated birthdays together. I came to her kids parties. She came to mine. We went to the parks together. We did a lot of stuff together as friends and our kids together. This was not the first time my kids had been at her house. This was not the second time, not the third time. There's many times before that they've been there. They slept there whenever I had my Jackson. I had J. Let. They slept there when I was in the hospital given birth. I'm saying. So it was just like a big surprise. She was my friend for about four years. She was someone I trusted, someone I would never, I didn't ever think this would happen. There was no like red flag beforehand that would make me think, you know, she's going to harm my baby like this. Well, and finding good childcare as a parent is really hard.

7:08It's really tough, you know, you trust these people. And to take care of your baby is something, you know, and then they do these horrible things that you don't even think like, know how it is, how they're capable of doing stuff like this. I don't understand. My baby, you know, at the time she wasn't crawling. She wasn't rolling. There's no way she would have rolled off so far and nothing like that. There's no way she should have had any type of scratch on her. No bruising of any kind like anything. None of that is just unacceptable. No way. When did you realize that something was wrong with your baby girl, that she was hurt and whatever pain she was in was not normal? So I had dropped them off Saturday on a Saturday. It was like afternoon-ish and then I picked them up Monday morning. So when I picked them up Monday morning, I met her to go get them.

8:08And immediately when I was walking up to go get my kids, I seen my son's face, you know, from afar. And it's looking like he has purple like makeup on. I'm like, you know, he's playing a makeup or some. And I'm like, you know, why does he have makeup on? But you know, it's just whatever I'll wash it off. So I'm walking up to him. When I picked him up, I can just see like there's bruising knots and he has a black eye. And I'm like, immediately, okay, what is going on? Why does this face look like this? She's like, okay, we just got here. She was at this house. She's cleaning. She works as a cleaning person or whatever. So she was at this house. She was like, we just got here. We just got off the car. He must have just fell right now. So sorry, I didn't see. I didn't notice whatever, you know? I'm like, okay, where's Genesis? That's my baby's name. I said, where's Genesis? She said, she's still in the car. We just got here. I said, okay, I get her car seat. When I pick her up at the car seat and she sees me, she just starts bawling crying. And like I said, my baby does not cry.

9:09She's not a cryer. She never really cried like that. Other than when she's like hungry and it's barely even, it's like a soft cry. But I could just tell like by her cry, like it's not like something was going on. She's telling you something's wrong. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I'm taking the car seat or walking to my car. And I'm just talking to her, trying to calm her down. She's not like hearing that. She's just so fussy. So I'm like, okay, let me just get her home. I put Jackson in the car, you know, we go home. I'm ready to get, because she's crying the whole way home with about a 50 minute drive back to my house. So she's crying the whole way. So immediately whenever I get home, I just take her out of her car seat. And when I pick her up out of her car seat, her arm is just like, you know, just kind of like dangling behind her a little bit. And I'm just like noticing, but I'm not thinking nothing like crazy, you know? I'm just like, okay, my baby's fussy. Like I'm feeling she needs a diaper change. So I'm like, okay, let me go change her diaper. Maybe she needs a bottle.

10:09So I go to my bed and I go lay her down. And I'm unzipping her, you know, Wednesday to change her. And she has a bruise on her left knee. Just like a circle bruise on her left knee. And on a bruise on her forehead and a scratch in the middle of the bruise on her forehead. And I immediately pick up my phone and I take Sarah and I said, why does Genesis have a bruise on her forehead and on her knee? Immediately, she sends him back like two huge paragraphs. And I'm already like, what? Could I ask you one simple question? I should get one simple answer. I'm already skimming through seeing none of that says why there's a bruise on her hearing here. So I'm irritated. I'm like, what's going on, you know? After seeing his face and now seeing this, I'm like, okay, what's going on? So then I open up her diaper. I see another bruise. Oh, and I'm just like, what? Sorry.

11:10It's okay. And so I text her again and I'm like, why is there bruises all over her? And again, she's just sending me like these paragraphs that have absolutely nothing to do with why I'm asking her this question. It's just nonsense at this point. And I'm like, okay, I'm frustrated. So my baby's like upset. I'm still not knowing anything about her arm other than it's like just hanging a little bit. So I call the doctor and I make her an appointment. That day I call the doctor and I make her an appointment. And they're like, okay, we'll see you the next morning. I don't really say too much on the phone, other than I need to get her seen, you know? So for the bruises, because that's what I'm thinking so far only. So the next morning we go to the doctor and immediately the doctor comes in the room, you know, she's ready to, you know, check out Genesis. I'm just like stopping her and telling her like what just happened. And there's bruises on her. I'm showing her the bruises. She's looking at Genesis arm

12:10because I'm telling her, you know, showing her how it's hanging. She's like, yeah, it looks really swollen. And I'm like, you know what, it does. Because my baby, she's super chunky. So it's hard to even tell if she is swollen but I can tell in the slightest it was bigger than her other arm. And then she's touching on her legs on the, checking out the bruise on her knee and she's like, her legs are also swollen. And I said, okay, so what does this mean? She's like, I'm not sure. We're gonna have to go get X-rays done. So immediately from there in the pediatric office, we just go straight to the hospital right across the street. We get some X-rays and then they sent, they tell me then and there. And they show me that my baby's arm, it was literally like in two, just like that. And each of her legs and her tibia were fractured. So from there, we get the X-rays. And as soon as I get the X-rays, I text her again and I said Sarah,

13:11what the fuck did you do to my kids? And she immediately sends more paragraphs. And I'm just like, okay, I can't do this anymore. Now that Sheriff's are talking to me, now DeFax is talking to me, I have nothing to say to them. Other than I have no idea what happened. My kids were at the babysitters. I was at work, I'm thinking everything's okay. Every time I'm checking on them, every picture I'm getting, every message I'm getting. If Jeff, good news, nothing's looking wrong, nothing of concern, no broothings in the picture is nothing like that. So it's just like, I have no idea when this happened, how it happened or none of it. So I have nothing to tell them really. Other than where they were, everything that's in my phone from the message is not that. Did the Sheriff's detectives in GBI talk with Sarah? Did she ever speak with them? I'm sure she did. I don't know when they contacted her

14:12or when they went to her house and all that, but I know they were doing the same process they were doing with me. Talking to me. They ultimately ended up filing a charge against her of cruelty to children. And that has to do with Genesis, your baby girl. So I mean, that happened just in the last several days. So how are you feeling about that? Thank God, Genesis wasn't more seriously hurt, but this is still a very serious charge. And I'm not so glad that she's healing, but how are you feeling about this? I mean, I'm glad that she's got charge. She is out. She got bonded out, though. So we're just waiting for a court date to see like if she's going to get, you know, actually in trouble, still she's going to get cut loose. I don't know if she needs to be in trouble, you know, she needs to face jail time.

15:13People need to know, you know, because this woman goes on Facebook and she's like, I can watch your kids. I can watch your kids say everybody, you know, offering to watch all these kids and she's watching the other kids too. So and she has her own kids that people need to know like this lady's not safe to have your kids. I didn't even know what actually happened and who knows if it's actual truth until the date she was booked and this happened in February. So. Could Sarah ever offer you an explanation besides this? She never even texted me. The last day we texted about anything was the day I found out. That was the last day never checked up on me, never checked up on Genesis, never checked up on the situation, never anything. No, it was the last day I heard anything from her and I didn't feel like I should reach out to her because I was angry, like I'm still angry at her. In those text messages, I read some of them that were posted on social media, sounded like she was blaming other kids. Yeah, but the thing is, the thing is my baby

16:17at that month, all three months old, she should not be on the floor around babies that aren't even over five years old. You know, it doesn't make any sense. My son, that's one year old, was there. Her daughter, that's two years old, was there and her five year old daughter and her six year old daughter. So there's no excuse for that. My baby should not be on the floor, getting run around, getting trampled on by all these kids and you're not doing anything about it and I'm not knowing anything about it. I'm the mother, you know? I should know immediately if anything happens. She's charged with cruelty to children, though, so it doesn't sound to me as if that's what the sheriff's office and the GBI investigators believe happened. I'm not sure what they believe happen. I know they don't believe what she's saying. I don't believe what she's saying. It's been so many stories, so much nonsense come out of her mouth. And like I said, I didn't even know what she told the sheriff. Like if you think that I didn't even know

17:17she told the sheriff until the sheriff told me, you know, she wasn't telling me this stuff. So it's just like, who knows if what she even saying happened is the actual story. What do you want people to know from what you've been through? I mean, I don't know, it's just as hard like, you know, I'm a single mom and I have four kids and I have to work to take care of them. You know, it's like she was my friend and it's like, you can't trust anybody. Friends, family, strangers, like it doesn't, you don't even know who can do this to your kid. I just want them to know like she's not safe to watch her kids. If she's offering to watch her kids, you know, do not take them over there. Because I thought she was safe and she's not. I trusted her and she broke my trust. I'm not sure if she still is. I just know like, you know, when she was watching my children, when it recently happened,

18:17she was watching other kids as well. So, and you know, she comments on all the posts, you know, I have people coming to me now. Like, I'm so glad I didn't take them over there. She offered to watch my kids several times, you know, stuff like that. So. Well, Samantha, I'm so glad that Genesis has healed and is continuing to heal and I'm so glad she wasn't more seriously hurt. And I'm glad your son is doing, doing better. Thank you so much for talking with me. I really appreciate it. You have me. Thank you for having me. Thank you. As Samantha Mullin mentioned, Sarah Smith posted bail, a future court date for her has not yet been set. But guess what? The GBI says this investigation is active and is ongoing and they're asking for people to contact them. Anyone with information about Sarah Smith or injuries to other children is asked to call the GBI.

19:18They can also submit tips online. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix, Simon Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube. You can also watch and listen to us on Spotify. I'll see you back here next time.