Human Wreckage True Crime
Join us as we navigate the wreckage left behind by humanity’s darkest instincts.
Disturbing True Crime Stories, These include, murderers, kidnappings, serial killers. Solved and unsolved.
Human Wreckage True Crime
Starvation of Stephine Devine
This is Human Wreckage, a podcast that explores the lives shattered, the questions left behind, and the uncomfortable truths buried beneath tragedy. Today's story is not easy to tell, and it shouldn't be. Those who knew the family whispered another, and somewhere in between, a haunting silence that no one seemed willing to break. Stephine was just a toddler barely walking, just starting to speak. She should have had years of scraped knees, birthday candles, and bedtime stories ahead of her. Instead, she became a name on a coroner's report and a painful question mark for everyone who cared. In this episode, we dig into what happened to Stephine Devine what was said, what was ignored, and why justice, for some, still feels just out of reach. Because behind every statistic is a story, and behind this one is a little girl who deserves so much more. Stephine Devine, too, was born prematurely at twenty nine weeks in 2010. She suffered complications that resulted in a lack of oxygen to the brain and cerebral palsy. She underwent occupational therapy to improve her delayed motor skills and had a daily dose of medication which would help prevent infections. Despite her disability, Stephine was making progress. She was seeing an occupational therapist, Charlotte Weinberg, who said that Stephine was learning to feed herself and was making great progress in her ability to crawl and sit up on her own. The last time Charlotte saw Stephine was in June of 2012. Over the course of the next month, she tried desperately to get in contact with Stephanie's mother, Brandy Devine, but to no avail. On the 13th of July, 2012, Brandy put Stephine in her crib and closed the door. Despite the fact that Stephine needed constant attention, Brandy would later say she didn't open the bedroom door again until three days later. Brandy had spent the past three days smoking methamphetamine in the apartment. According to Brandy, she smoked meth because it wakes me up and makes me clean the house. When she checked on Stephine, unsurprisingly, she was dead. She had been closed inside a bedroom for three days with four cats, no medication and no food or water. A neighbor, Lydia Whitworth, heard Brandy screaming, and she rushed to her apartment to investigate. The baby's dead, said Brandy. Lydia went into the back bedroom where she found Stephine in her crib, lying on her back with her eyes rolled back in her head. She was dead. She was totally gray. Her diaper was full of poop and urine, and it was all on the bed, Lydia recollected. Brandy called 9 1.1 and explained that her daughter was unresponsive. Medical personnel arrived at the apartment at 1100 Block Denaire Avenue. When they entered the bedroom, they were hit by an overwhelming smell of cat urine. Feces covered the cluttered room. Stephine was lifted from the crib, but it was already too late. She was declared dead at the scene. A pathologist determined that Stephine had died from dehydration and malnourishment. Her skin was red from lack of water, and her abdomen was so caved that her spine was visible. The pathologist also determined that she had been dead for a day or two when found on the sixteenth of July. There was no evidence of food or water in the stomach at all, said pathologist doctor Eugene Carpenter. Following Stephine's death, a neighbor named Carlton Whitworth came forward to say that he knew Stephine and her siblings were being neglected. They were always dirty and would run to my fridge looking for food. I felt bad for them and had a sleepless night last night wondering if I should have called CPS. But it's different out here. I live in a no snitching zone, he said. Brandy told police that when she put Stephine to bed, she had a slight temperature, but said that this was a common side effect of the medication. Brandy claimed that she didn't know how her daughter had died, and at one point during questioning, even suggested that her death may have had something to do with the cats. During her interrogation, Stephine said she had four hundred dollars left on her electronic benefit transfer card, which is an electronic version of food stamps. Despite this, she hadn't purchased any groceries that weekend and also told police she could only feed her children once a week because she didn't have transportation. You were able to find dope last night. Why couldn't you get your kids some food? said Detective Justin Williamson. Furthermore, Brandy said she had expected her other six-year-old daughter to take care of Stephine and feed her. However, when her other daughter was questioned, she said she had tried to check on her sister over the course of the three days, but was forbidden from entering the room by Brandy. During Brandy's trial, her mother, Shanda Gomes, defended her, stating she loved them, she was good with them. She told the jury that Brandy had tested positive for meth when she gave birth to her second oldest daughter, but said she believed that Brandy had quit meth around a month before Stephine died. Dr. Eugene Carpenter, who performed the autopsy, told the jury that Stephine showed signs of long-term malnutrition. He said that she was about to turn three years old yet was the size of a one year old. At the time of her death, she weighed just fourteen pounds. Her skin was like red dough, which was a sign of dehydration. He described how Stephanie would have suffered a slow and agonizing death. During closing arguments, deputy public defender Marcus Mumford didn't contest the child cruelty and meth charges, but alleged that Brandy didn't know that not feeding her child would result in death. According to Mumford, Brandy was criminally negligent but didn't commit homicide. Deputy District Attorney John R. Maine refuted this argument, however, and said that Brandy knew her actions could have grave results. He said that there was plenty of formula in the home and Brandy had fed her other children over the three days. The jury of six women and six men deliberated for around an hour before Brandy was found guilty of second degree murder. During the sentencing hearing, Brandy addressed her family. I accept full responsibility for my actions. I want to apologize to everyone who has been affected by my actions, she said. Brandy Williams was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. Stephine Devine was only two years old. She didn't get a chance to grow up, to leave her mark on the world in the way most of us do. But in her absence, she leaves behind questions hard ones, about who failed her, about who should have stepped in sooner, about the systems, the silence, and the shadows that too often swallow the most vulnerable among us. We may never get all the answers, but what we can do is refuse to look away. Stephine wasn't just a case file, or a headline, or a moment of outrage that fades with time. She was a child, and if her story reminds us of anything, it's this behind every tragedy is a human life small, fragile, and deserving of protection. Thank you for listening to Human Wreckage. If you know something, if you've seen something, say something. Because the truth doesn't die just because someone's too young to tell it. I'm Thomas. Be safe, be kind, and keep asking questions.