Ohio cheerleader acquitted of killing her baby, found guilty of abusing corpse
by Tim Pearce
| September 12, 2019 04:52 PM
A jury found former Ohio cheerleader Brooke "Skylar" Richardson not guilty of killing her newborn, bringing the two-year investigation and trial to an end.
The jury delivered the results of the trial Thursday. Because she buried the baby in her parents' backyard, Richardson was convicted of the gross abuse of corpse, which the defense argued was stillborn.
Richardson became pregnant her senior year of high school and never told anyone in her family, though she did see a doctor who told her she was pregnant. Days before her senior prom in 2017, she gave birth in her bed at her parents' house in the middle of the night, managing to keep quiet enough not to alert anyone else.
The defense said Richardson cradled the dead child, whom she named Annabelle, on the floor of her bathroom for several hours before burying her in the backyard.
In the following days, she sent a series of texts to her mom exclaiming, "My belly is back omg I am never ever ever evertrrr letting it grt like this again your about to see me look freaking better than before omg." Richardson has lived with an eating disorder for years and her weight often fluctuates dozens of pounds at a time.
Months after Annabelle's midnight burial, police arrested Richardson on charges of killing her baby.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ohio-cheerleader-acquitted-of-killing-her-baby-found-guilty-of-abusing-corpse
