SERIALously - 18: WARNING Very Graphic! Baby Brianna: The Unspeakable Abuse, The Heartbreaking Betrayal and The Unforgotten Tragedy

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Baby Brianna Lopez was born on February 14, 2002, in New Mexico. What should have been a day of celebration and joy soon turned into a nightmare that would shock the world. In the short months of her life, Baby Brianna experienced unimaginable cruelty and unspeakable abuse at the hands of her own family members.  In this episode, we'll explore the heartbreaking details of Baby Brianna's life, the circumstances leading up to her tragic death, and the aftermath that forever changed the lives of those involved. Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise xx For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ About Me: https://annieelise.com/

hey true crime besties welcome back to an all-new episode of serialously Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime BFF with another case for you today. Now the reason I wanted to do this as a bonus episode is because it's one that's a little bit more sensitive and one that so many of you guys have been requesting. So I've been following and have been interested in true crime for nearly 15 years now and when I first decided to start my channel, one of the biggest requests that I kept getting over and over from you guys was to cover the case of baby Brianna. Now, I get a lot of requests daily, as I'm sure most podcasters and YouTube creators do, but this one was one that kept coming across my screen so frequently. So, I decided to research

it and dig a little bit deeper. Now, if you've been subscribed and following along on my channel for a while now, then you know too that I'm very passionate about speaking out against child abuse and child trafficking. And in doing that, I'm not really stranger to a lot of these horrific cases. A lot of them that are going on out there involving child abuse, child sexual abuse, with family members or relatives. I mean, you know, the list goes on and on, and because I cover so much of this content regularly, I'm made privy to a lot of these cases. But when I started researching baby Brianna's case, something inside of me was honestly just completely triggered, And I actually had a physical reaction and got very, very

emotional. I got sick to my stomach and I actually had to just like turn off my computer completely and walk away from it. And I didn't like doing that because, again, if you've been watching my videos or listening to my podcast, you know something that I constantly say and try to reinforce is that as uncomfortable as it is for us to talk about some of these cases or watch some of these things or hear about it, imagine how uncomfortable it is for the victim on the other side of it, for the victim experiencing it, and that it's the absolute least we could do to bring awareness and hopefully bring some justice to them is by hearing what happened and hear their story and tell their story and be their voice for them. So I kept trying to tell myself that and talk myself into reading more about this case and

continuing to research it. But I'll be honest with you, I couldn't. And initially, I had to shelve it for a little bit because it was just too much for me so I still after shelving it continued to get tons of requests to cover it for weeks and weeks and then the weeks turned into months and everybody kept saying you know when are you going to cover baby Brianna when are you going to talk about the baby Brianna case so finally I had just kind of decided like I needed to own what I say live by what I say about as uncomfortable as it is to still talk about it because of the bigger goal. And I knew that I needed to man up, for lack of a better phrase or word, and I needed to research it and talk about it.

So I ended up covering it back in 2020 on my YouTube channel, but it was a very abbreviated version of the case and of Brianna's story because, again, it was really hard for me to get through. So today we're going to revisit that case. It's going to be audio only because it will 100% get flagged over on YouTube due to the nature of the content, and I do want to warn you that it is extremely disturbing. It is graphic, and like all of these cases, it is truly heartbreaking and horrifying. So I want to warn you ahead of time, before we get into it, that this is definitely not going to be an easy one to listen to. The story of baby Brianna is unfortunately a really hard one, but it's the ugly truth and ugly reality of child abuse. On February 14, 2002, in Las Cruces, New Mexico,

19-year-old Stephanie Lopez and 21-year-old Andy Walters gave birth to baby Brianna, born on Valentine's Day. Brianna was a beautiful, healthy, happy, glowing little baby girl. The horror behind this case reveals itself just five months later, in July of 2002, when Brianna was just five months and five days old. On Thursday night, July 18, 2002, around 6 p.m., Brianna's father, Andy Walters, went out to grab a case of beer and then headed home to the house in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He returned home and he and Brianna's mother, Stephanie, along with Stephanie's twin brother, who is 19-year-old Steven Lopez, started drinking beers with each other, hanging out and just

enjoying each other's company throughout the night, kicking back, having a few beers, and just really being mellow and hanging out. Well, not being mellow, as we will soon learn. However, the next morning, Stephanie called 911, and she reported that she was unable to wake up Brianna, and that Brianna had fallen out of her high chair. When Stephanie spoke with investigators, she tells them that she had about three beers the prior evening, and then she went to bed while the father and the uncle, her twin brother, continued to drink beers, hang out, and play with baby Brianna. And then she tells investigators that when she woke that morning, she found Brianna on the floor and was unable to wake her. Brianna was rushed to the hospital, and what was soon uncovered not only rocked the

entire community, but the investigation and the case was so emotional for the officers and the investigators involved that counselors were brought in to help them deal with the case. Brianna arrived at the hospital and was literally bruised from head to toe, all the way from the top of her skull down to her big toe on her right foot. She had bite marks on her face, on her cheeks, on her head, on her torso, her arms, legs, literally everywhere. Just a short time later at 11 10 a.m., five-month and five-day-old baby Brianna died at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. As they examined Brianna and performed an autopsy, it was revealed that she sustained massive injuries, both externally and internally. She had bruising all over her head and face, and her little fingers and her toes were lacerated. Brianna had 11 human bite marks in various stages of healing all over her body, indicating that this had been ongoing.

Baby Brianna had massive bruises, multiple bruises, swelling of the brain, and bleeding in the membranes surrounding the brain. swelling of the brain, and bleeding in the membranes surrounding the brain. She also had bleeding around her optical nerves, which means that she had been violently shaken. Brianna also had fractures to both of her legs, and an injury expert says that this happens when you are taken and violently pulled with both legs in a jerking motion very quickly. pulled with both legs in a jerking motion very quickly. Brianna's skull had five to seven day old fractures on two different bones, both old and new blood was present, indicating that there was a prior injury to the brain. Brianna also had two rib fractures that were weeks old. Additionally, she had significant abrasions on her butt that led into her rear cavity, which indicated that sexual assault had taken place on a five-month-old baby. Now, I want to

warn you, this next part is very graphic, but the opening in her rear end was so traumatized that it gaped open. That is the term the medical examiner used, gaped. And during her autopsy, it was determined that it had been dilated a full inch. Honestly, I don't even have the words for it. It is so fucking cruel, horrible, disgusting, vile. I mean, cruel, horrible, disgusting, vile, I mean, you name it, that's what it is. Internal examination showed a half-inch injury as well, also additional trauma and tears to the front side of her pelvis area. All of these horrific discoveries in Brianna's autopsy showed a significant amount of sexual abuse and long-term physical and sexual abuse. It revealed that she had suffered abuse almost her entire life, and deputies say that this was the worst case of child abuse that they had ever seen. Now guys, I just want you to take a quick pause, and I swear I'm not trying to be gross here but I want that to really sink

in for you. This baby, this five month old baby had a one inch gaping hole because of how badly they were abused and sodomized. A five month old baby is so extremely small. So a one inch hole is like literally the size of half of that baby's foot. Imagine a hole in your body that was the size of half of your foot. And I know that that's not exactly how math works, you know, but I'm trying to just like explain to you how fucking horrific this really was. Because one inch sounds bad even for a grown adult like us but for a five-month-old baby whose body is so tiny and small and just like innocent it is so fucking cruel and heartbreaking it really really is it is so fucking disgusting but what happened who was responsible? Who could have fucking done this to a five-month-old child? Well, Brianna's mother, father, and uncle, the mother's twin brother, were all arrested. They

were questioned by investigators, and the investigators were able to get a little bit more clarity as to what took place the night before Brianna died, also what took place that morning, and it also outlined the sequence of events of what happened. Now, we already know that they were all drinking some beers together, and that according to baby Brianna's mother, Stephanie, she had three beers, then went upstairs and went to bed, and that the father and the uncle continued to drink together and play with baby Brianna. But this is where the new details and the real story emerges. Uncle Stephen and her father Andy were drinking beers and began tossing Brianna in the air, tossing her up in the air to where she would hit her head on the ceiling,

and they wouldn't catch her. They would throw her and let her fall and hit the ground. And they did this repeatedly. Around 12 30 a.m, Brianna's father Andy finally decides to go to sleep, but he was unsure where Brianna was. Which I just have a huge fucking problem with that. How are you going to go to sleep and you don't know where your newborn daughter is. That is a serious problem, which first of all, how do you even do that as a human being? How do you abuse your daughter repeatedly, throwing her up into the air to hit the ceiling and then hit the floor, then just go to sleep? So at three in the morning, Andy says that he awoke to find baby Brianna on the floor, that she was on the floor so that he covered her with a blanket and then put her in her bouncer. Which, why was she on the floor? Why wasn't she in a crib? Why

wasn't she in a bassinet? And also, by the way, putting a baby to sleep in a bouncer is extremely dangerous. Having them in a bouncer unsupervised period is extremely dangerous, but to sleep also with a blanket is just absolutely neglectful. This entire thing just infuriates me. So Brianna's mom, Stephanie, if you can even call her that, awoke early in the morning to hear Brianna screaming in agony. She discovered five-month-old Brianna covered in fresh bruises. So she asked Andy and Steven what happened the night before, and they both told her that they had been a little rough with Brianna, later admitting that they had thrown her into the ceiling multiple times, hitting her head and allowing her to fall to the floor multiple times, as though it was some kind of sick fucking game. Both men told authorities that Brianna was screaming and wailing as this abuse continued.

And Stephanie says that she didn't hear anything, that she was fast asleep and didn't hear any of the screams from her five-month-old child. So after hearing this story from Stephen and Andy about getting too rough and physically abusing her daughter, Stephanie doesn't ask any further questions. And get this, she goes back to sleep. Which, I'm sorry, but what? You ignore her pain and injuries, her agonizing screams, and you just go back to sleep, what kind of monster are you? You clearly don't care about your daughter, and again, how can you even sleep in a moment like that? At about 7 a.m., Andy Walters, Brianna's father, wakes up, and he admits to going and changing Brianna's diaper. He also admitted to investigators that he wrapped a baby wipe around his finger and sodomized baby Brianna, and then, like her trash mother, he went back to sleep. It is vile. It was later discovered during police investigations that Stephen Lopez, Stephanie's twin brother and Brianna's uncle,

admitted that he began to sodomize baby Brianna the night before as well, but then he stopped because apparently he realized that what he was doing was wrong. Uh, yeah, no shit, and that's a direct quote from him. I stopped because I realized what I was doing was wrong. Both men violated and sexually abused this five-month-old child, one man being her own father and the other man being her uncle. They had no regard for her life or her well-being. They abused her, they assaulted her, and they had no remorse. And it got even worse. So at this point, Stephanie was back asleep after discovering the bruises, discovering that Brianna was crying in agony. She goes back to sleep, completely ignoring Brianna. Then, the monster mother wakes up again at 10 a.m. She goes

and checks on Brianna, which, okay, great, a little late, and she realizes that Brianna isn't breathing, and that's when she makes that 911 call. From there, we know what happens next. They're all arrested, and they're all talked to by investigators, and everything starts to come to light. Police arrested all three of them and charged them with child abuse resulting in a death, and Andy Walters, Brianna's father, was also charged with criminal sexual penetration of a baby, this all according to court records. Andy admitted to biting Brianna, but said, I didn't take a chunk out of her. Again, a direct quote. He also said during his interview with investigators that the mother, Stephanie, would also pinch and bite Brianna when she would

become frustrated with her. Stephen Lopez, Brianna's uncle and Stephanie's twin brother, later admitted to having sex with baby Brianna. They added that he and Andy had also penetrated her on several different occasions. Baby Brianna was beaten and she was raped by her own family repeatedly. Every single day of baby Brianna's short five month life was pure agony, and her mother also took part in this abuse, not only biting her, but allowing the sexual assault and the abuse to happen. Brianna was relying on her mother, somebody that she should rely on, somebody that she should believe loves her and should be protecting her. She relied on her, and Stephanie failed her.

She failed her at every corner. She wasn't there when these men were assaulting her, raping her, beating her. So where the fuck was she? Why wasn't she protecting her daughter? Why was she complicit and allowing it to happen? Baby Brianna was horrifically abused from almost the day she left the hospital on Valentine's Day in 2002 until the day she died, just five months and five days later. On a daily basis, she was slapped, kicked, punched, thrown by her father and uncle,

and her mother as well. And get this, guys, the grandparents were also aware of the abuse that was happening, but not one of them said anything. In fact, later Stephanie's mom testified, and she testified that Stephanie would bite and pinch Brianna whenever she would become frustrated with her. And she also said that she was aware of the abuse that was happening, including being beaten, pinched, that she was aware of the abuse that was happening, including being beaten, pinched, all of it. But she says that she didn't want to get involved. Again, a direct quote, saying, I knew what was going on, but I didn't want to get involved.

Sheriff records showed no signs of child abuse claims happening at the home. They did have a few domestic disturbance calls, but nothing involving the children. The other two children, Brianna's 18-month-old brother and 8-year-old uncle, showed no signs of neglect or abuse, but they were immediately placed in protective custody. The jury found Stephanie Lopez not guilty of intentional child abuse, but guilty of child abuse resulting in death. She was given a 27-year sentence, but we're going to get to what that 27-year sentence really became in just a minute. Brianna's father, Andy Walters, was also convicted, and I'm going to read what he was convicted of because it is a laundry list. He was convicted of intentional child abuse resulting in death

or great bodily harm, conspiracy to commit intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm, criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 in the first degree, intentional child abuse not resulting in death or great bodily harm, and negligently permitting child abuse. He was sentenced to 57 years in prison. Steven Lopez, the twin brother and Brianna's uncle, was of course also convicted, and he was convicted of intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm, conspiracy to commit intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm, conspiracy to commit intentional child abuse resulting in death or great bodily harm, and criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 in the first

degree. He received a 51-year prison sentence. But it didn't stop here. As I told you, the family was aware of what was happening and was complicit in what was going on, and they were also held accountable. Andy Walter's mother Patricia and his brother Robert were also convicted of failing to report child abuse, but they were only sentenced to 60 days. How is that the sentence? How are you sentenced to two months for being complicit and not reporting child abuse? How is it possible that you get sentenced longer for stealing a fucking candy bar from a store? Why isn't there a stricter punishment for this? I just don't understand. In an extremely heartbreaking detail in this case, it was discovered that no picture of Brianna existed. No picture of Brianna

was found at the home. Not a single one, not a single picture was ever taken of this precious baby. So because of that, the lead investigator took a photo of Brianna on that autopsy table, and he retouched it and edited it so that it didn't have the bruises in it, because he felt like there needed to be a photo of this young child, and it's the only picture of Brianna without any marks on her body. Take a minute to digest that and consume that. Not only were there no photos of her in the residence, which clearly shows they didn't care about her, but it's the only photo that exists of her without any marks or bruises, and only because it was photoshopped to be that way. It's so clear that she wasn't loved by her family in any real way, and thank goodness this lead investigator took it

upon himself to do this with that photo, and to try to keep a sliver of her dignity and innocence because clearly her family members weren't going to do anything about it. He knew that the community and everybody who was showing an outpouring of love and support wanted to remember Brianna in the way that she should have lived, innocent, unharmed, happy, and joyful. And that's why he did this. It's even more heartbreaking, if you can even believe it, that at first, nobody even came forward to claim Brianna's body. So it was her community who came together and arranged her funeral. Brianna's remaining family held a private and quiet funeral service, excluding other family members. But no headstone

was placed on her grave, only a marker at the top of it, at the top of the grave, and the dirt was just raked completely flat. No headstone, no memory, nothing. Just a grave marker and dirt. People in the community of course wanted to do something, so they started bringing flowers and balloons decorating this gravesite, showing that baby Brianna didn't die in vain. A display to say, baby Brianna, we all love you, we all care about you, we support you. But her family wanted the death to be quiet, so they actually had the fucking audacity to order a metal fence type cage that surrounded the burial site so that the community members couldn't get in and leave their flowers or their stuffed animals and their well wishes. Just absolutely disgusting. Haven't

you put this child through enough? Now you're not even allowing the public community to come and show their support and their love for her? In 2002, at the time of Brianna's murder, intentional child abuse resulting in death only carried a maximum sentence of 18 years. In 2005, three years after Brianna's murder, the Baby Brianna Bill was enacted, and this made child abuse resulting in a death a class A felony, carrying a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison. But unfortunately, the bill can't be enacted retroactively, so it only applied to future cases. But at least it was a step in the right direction. Now remember Stephanie Lopez, Brianna's mother, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison? Well, Brianna's mother, Stephanie Lopez,

was released from prison after just serving 13 years of her sentence, meaning that she served less than half of her sentence for good behavior and was essentially completely out free after this abuse, torment, and violation of her newborn child. Sentenced to 27 years and walked free after 13. How on earth is that justice? Unfortunately, cases like this are not that uncommon. We see family members being involved, mothers being involved, fathers being involved, and I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. The reason it's so important for us to bring awareness to these cases and talk about these cases is not to have some sort of sick entertainment or relive these gruesome details, but it's to bring awareness so that we can

open our eyes to what's happening around us. So that not only are children like baby Brianna getting justice and given a voice in their defense, but also so that if we start to see these behaviors or indicators in children or any people at any age, if we see these indicators and behaviors around us, we won't stay silent and we will know to speak up. And the only way to know that something is wrong is by educating ourselves. And unfortunately, the only way to educate ourselves on it is to become privy to information like this and expose ourselves to actual real-life situations and cases that have happened. It's not easy. It's

definitely not comfortable, but it's unfortunately necessary, especially in the world that we're living in today where child abuse, child trafficking, human trafficking, human abuse is so rampant and being ignored by so many different people. It's the only way we'll ever be able to affect any sort of change, whether it's in the legal system or hopefully somehow saving these kids and other victims and humans from this abuse. Guys, I know this wasn't an easy one, but thank you for sticking around and listening with me as we continue to try and raise awareness so that so many other victims who still haven't received justice get their story told and their voice heard it is just so important when

abuse is at an all-time high especially child abuse and child sexual abuse it's absolutely disgusting and it's in my opinion one of the worst kinds out there it's the hardest and the worst cases to cover which is why i don't think they get covered enough because they are so difficult to talk about. And I think that's why mainstream media doesn't cover them enough. But I believe that's why they are the most important that we talk about, because they are the ones that need awareness so that this cycle can, I don't want to say be broken because that sounds so cliche, but like so that it can be dented at least so I appreciate you guys sticking with me on this one guy and listening because I know it wasn't easy and I know it was

just absolutely foul to hear these details I'll be back with you guys with more bonus episodes in addition to the normal Monday release of true crime episodes so if you haven't subscribed or followed the podcast yet, make sure you do so so that you get updated when those bonus episodes drop. As always, I always come back bright and early with you every Monday with a brand new true crime case, so check those out as well. If you appreciate the case coverage today and creating more coverage and stories like this, please just take a quick second to show your support for the podcast

by giving this a rating on Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast app you use. And if you could take an extra 30 seconds and write a review, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. It is a free way to show your support for the podcast and it helps push the podcast out there in the algorithm so that more of these cases get the awareness and it helps push the podcast out there in the algorithm so that more of these cases

get the awareness and get heard which is of course the goal and what we want so any help is greatly appreciated in that regard all right guys thanks again for hanging with me today i will see you bright and early with the next episode it is me annie your true crime bestie, signing off. All right, guys, take care, stay safe, and hug your loved ones tight. Until next time, bye, guys. Thank you.