Brooke Skylar Richardson Texted Her Boyfriend She Felt 'Happy' After Secretly Burying Her Baby. Inside the Shocking 2017 Case

Brooke Skylar Richardson secretly gave birth at home, days after her high school prom

NEED TO KNOW

• Brooke Skylar Richardson was about to graduate high school when she gave birth to a girl in May 2017
• Richardson buried the newborn in her parents’ backyard and didn’t speak of the event until that July
• She later faced several charges related to her daughter’s death, ultimately being found not guilty

Brooke Skylar Richardson received shocking news days before her senior prom in 2019: She was eight months pregnant.

The Ohio teen’s world was rattled once again less than two weeks later when, in the middle of the night of May 6, 2017, she went into labor in her bathroom. Having told no one about her pregnancy, Skylar delivered her baby solo — only to discover the infant allegedly had no pulse. Shortly after, she buried the baby girl, whom she named Annabelle, in a shallow grave in her parents’ backyard.

Skylar kept the tragic events of Annabelle’s birth a secret for more than two months — until, in July 2017, police arrived on her doorstep. The authorities had received a tip about a potential stillborn birth and wanted to question Skylar. A subsequent search of the family’s property uncovered the baby’s remains. Skylar was then arrested and charged with aggravated murder in the infant’s death.

The case quickly became a spectacle in Skylar’s small town of Carlisle, Ohio, with social media and prosecutors alike accusing the teenager of killing her baby and then burning the remains in an attempted cremation. Throughout her trials in the court of law and public opinion, however, Skylar maintained her innocence — holding steadfast to her claims that the baby was stillborn.

A jury ultimately agreed and found Skylar not guilty of the most serious charges leveled against her. She was convicted on one count of gross abuse of a corpse and sentenced to three years probation in September 2019.

Though Skylar’s case gripped both local and national headlines during her trial, she has largely avoided the spotlight in the following years. Here is everything to know about Brooke Skylar Richardson and where the former cheerleader is today.

Who is Brooke Skylar Richardson?

Born March 9, 1999, Brooke Skylar Richardson — who goes by her middle name, Skylar — is the older child of Scott and Kim Richardson. She and her younger brother, Jackson, were raised in the small town of Carlisle, an Ohio community of about 5,000 people, CBS News reported.

By all appearances, Skylar’s upbringing was idyllic. Both Scott and Kim had successful careers as an accountant and an HR manager, respectively, according to Cosmopolitan. The family lived in an upscale subdivision in Carlisle and both Skylar and her brother excelled at school and sports, with Skylar competing on the cheerleading team and Jackson playing football.

But behind closed doors, Skylar struggled with an eating disorder, and was diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia in middle school. Her eating disorder persisted throughout middle school and high school, but by her senior year, it appeared to be under control, according to her parents.

The teenager was on the honor roll and student council, had been accepted to the University of Cincinnati and had started dating. (She had a brief relationship with a friend’s cousin at the start of her senior year, and then began seeing a junior at her school named Brandon in January 2017.)

But one of the most positive changes the Richardsons’ noticed in their daughter was that she had started to put on weight. “She looked healthy,” Kim said to CBS News. “For the first time in my life, I thought, she's healthy, she's in a healthy relationship, she really cares about Brandon.”

What happened to Brooke Skylar Richardson in the spring of 2017?

On April 26, 2017, Kim took Skylar to her first gynecologist appointment with Dr. William Andrew at Hilltop OB-GYN. Kim had noticed Skylar’s relationship with Brandon had been becoming more serious, and wanted her daughter to obtain a prescription for birth control.

However, at the appointment, Dr. Andrew informed the cheerleader that he could not prescribe her birth control pills — as she was approximately 32 weeks pregnant. Skylar reportedly left the visit in tears, and hid the pregnancy revelation from her mother.

Kim assumed her daughter was upset because her first OB-GYN appointment “was traumatic,” she recalled to CBS News, and didn’t pry. Less than two weeks later, on May 5, 2017, Skylar attended prom with Brandon, wearing a form-fitting red dress and continuing to keep her pregnancy a secret.

“At the time, we just thought she was eating good and not making herself throw up,” Skylar’s aunt Vanessa told Cosmopolitan. “She looked curvy and radiant.”

About 36 hours after attending her prom, during the overnight hours between May 6 and 7, Skylar began experiencing intense cramps and felt the sensation that “something needed to come out,” she told Cosmopolitan.

The then-18-year-old secretly gave birth in her bathroom to her baby — a girl she decided to name Annabelle. The baby was allegedly stillborn, and Skylar buried her in a shallow grave in the family’s backyard.

What crimes was Brooke Skylar Richardson charged with?

At a follow-up visit to her gynecologist in July 2017, Skylar revealed to her doctor that she had given birth to a stillborn baby and buried her in her backyard.

The doctor filed a report for the death of the infant with the Ohio Department of Health, but left the cause of death blank. After the coroner received the report, Carlisle police were alerted and brought Skylar in for questioning.

Following two separate interrogations, Skylar was arrested on a charge of reckless homicide on July 20, 2017, with the police alleging that Skylar’s baby had been born alive, then was suffocated and burned before being buried.

But when the teenager was brought before a grand jury in early August 2017, she faced an onslaught of more serious charges — including aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse, local outlets reported.

Prosecutors alleged that Skylar hid her pregnancy and killed her child to maintain her “good girl” image in their community.

“Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances,” Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said in a press conference.

A teen pregnancy, he added, “was something that simply was not going to be accepted in that household, at least by Skylar and her mother.”

Skylar and those closest to her vehemently denied those claims, however. The teenager pleaded not guilty to the charges, and her lawyers and family spoke out against the prosecutor’s narrative in the press.

Skylar’s attorney, Charles Rittgers, told reporters that he had seen no evidence that “supports the prosecutor’s claim,” per Cincinnati Magazine.

“She is a good person. A high honors student. She has never been in any trouble of any kind,” he added. “She didn’t drink. She wasn’t a partier or a smoker. By all measures, she is a good girl.”

What was the outcome of Brooke Skylar Richardson’s trial?

After rejecting a plea deal in July 2019, Skylar’s trial for the death of her newborn daughter began on Sept. 3, 2019.

The narrative presented by prosecutors was that Skylar did not want her baby and had no intention of becoming a teen mom, as it foiled her plans for starting college in the fall of 2017.

In a hearing prior to the trial, they claimed that Skylar ignored phone calls from the doctor after learning of her pregnancy, and didn't return for an ultrasound, bloodwork or any other treatment.

Additional evidence presented by the state at trial included video of Skylar allegedly telling her father that she “tried to cremate the baby” and internet searches reportedly made by Skylar for “how do I get rid of a baby.”

The prosecution also revealed what they claimed to be incriminating text messages between Skylar and her mother and her boyfriend. “I’m literally so excited for dinner to wear something cute yayy my belly is back now I am takin this opportunity to make it amazing,” Skylar allegedly texted to her mother 24 hours after the baby died.

She also reportedly texted her boyfriend the morning after the baby’s death, writing, per USA Today, “Last night was like the worst ever. But I feel so much better this morning. I’m happy.”

Defense attorneys, however, honed in on the fact that medical experts could not provide any evidence that Skylar had killed her baby — or that the baby girl was even born alive. 

Psychiatrists also testified that, in addition to her eating disorders, Skylar suffered from a “personality disorder” that led her to want to please authorities and could result in false confessions.

A forensic pathologist later took the stand on behalf of the defense and testified that the baby’s bones showed no evidence of charring, refuting the prosecution’s claims that Skyler burned the baby’s remains.

After an eight day trial and nearly four-and-a-half hours of deliberation, jurors found Skylar not guilty of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. She was convicted on one charge only: gross abuse of a corpse. (The judge had previously thrown out the charge of tampering with evidence, saying the prosecution did not meet its burden of proof on that charge.)

Skylar, who remained silent for more than two years, spoke out for the first time at her sentencing hearing.

“I would do anything that you ask,” she told Judge Donald Oda II. “I can sometimes be selfish, but I’m getting better. I’m forever sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ve hurt a lot of people. I am really, really sorry. And I understand.”

How long was Brooke Skylar Richardson on probation?

Skylar was sentenced to three years probation for burying her baby’s body in her backyard.

Judge Oda reprimanded the teenager while making his decision and referenced her baby by name.

“I firmly believe … that if you would have made different decisions, Annabelle would still be here,” he said. “I think that your choices before birth, during birth and after show a grotesque disregard for life.”

However, in November 2020, a different judge granted Skylar’s request to terminate her probation after only 14 months, CBS News reported.

At the hearing, Skylar apologized for her actions once again and told the judge she had undergone mental health treatment, but still “[suffers] a lot in silence.”

Where is Brooke Skylar Richardson now?

At the hearing to end her probation, Rittgers revealed that Skylar had been attending college, receiving exemplary marks (with a 3.8 GPA) and working part-time, according to ABC’s Cincinnati affiliate. He also told the judge that she had goals of attending law school and becoming a public defender. At the same hearing, Skylar expressed to the judge that she wanted “to be a normal person again.”

In October 2022, Skylar took another step toward “normalcy” when Judge Oda granted her request to have her conviction records sealed, the Journal-News reported. He ordered that the “official records pertaining to the case shall be sealed, all index references hereto shall be deleted and the proceedings in this case shall be deemed not to have occurred.”

Over the years, Skylar has maintained her privacy. Speaking to Cosmopolitan in November 2019, she shared that the legal firm that represented her in her criminal case had offered her a job.

“I said that if I could survive the trial, I would get all the help I needed,” she told the magazine in her first post-trial interview. “I want to make the best of my life and use my experiences to help in one way or another,” adding that she hopes to one day be an attorney with the Ohio Innocence Project.

Following her trial, Skylar and her family also held a proper burial and memorial service for her baby, Annabelle. The Richardsons buried the baby in a plot far from their town of Carlisle.

“It is such a relief to know that Annabelle is now in her final resting spot,” Skylar told Cosmopolitan. “I visit every week.”

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