← Murder, Mystery & Makeup
Murder, Mystery & Makeup
“No one could hear them scream.” The babysitter from hell - Christine Falling
00:35:20
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- [00:00]
Bailey Sarian
Hi, friends. How are you today? I hope you're having a good day. Are you? My name is Bailey Sarian, and today's Monday, which means it's Murder Mystery and Makeup Monday if you're new here. Hi, my name is Bailey Sarian, and on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. Let's get into today's story. The babysitter from hell. Oh, there's kids in today's story, so just a little heads up. All right, here we go with this one. Because I was like, how did this go on for so long? And nobody, like, said anything. And I'm always surprised. And it's like, why am I still surprised? But I'm always still surprised. Today we are covering the case of Christine Falling. Who from the years of 1980 to 1982, she had killed five infants and one elderly man. She attempted to murder three other infants during this time. Luckily, she was unsuccessful. But this crazy ass bitch got away with so much. So much. So here we go. Great. So Christine Laverne Slaughter later should be falling, but her last name was Slaughter. Already not off to a great start. Okay. She was born in 1963 in Perry, Florida. Now, Christine did not have a great life and upbringing. So Christine's mom, her name was Anne. Well, she was only 16 at the time of Christine's birth. By the time Christine was born, Ann already had another daughter named Carol, who was Christine's older sister. So, okay. Young. Yes. And it doesn't make it better that Christine's father, Anne's husband, his name was Thomas. And Thomas was 65. Yep. So not great. Sure, we can all agree on that. Not great. 65 and a 16 year old. Wow. Thomas, he worked as a woodsman and he did things in the wood. He did things in the woods. And he was known to be inattentive and violent. Okay. Christine's early childhood was marked by, like, persistent poverty and neglect. And despite Ann having two young daughters at home, she would go missing for like, months at a time. Yeah, she would just up in Leith. Sometimes Ann would return pregnant, and sometimes she just wouldn't return at all. In the two years following Christine's birth, Ann would go on to have two more children, two boys, Michael and Earl. Earl, A name you don't hear too often. Earl. So of all four of the children, the dad, Thomas, he. He would only claim that Earl, the youngest of all four of them, was his actual biological son. So with that being said, like, he treated all the other kids like shit, and that was his excuse that they weren't his. So even after she had her two young sons, Ann, she would still disappear. She would go missing. You know, it is what it is. And I guess during her absence, Thomas, the dad, would take the children with him out in the woods where he worked and, like, make them help him with the work. I guess there was one day when Thomas was out working with the kids and he suffered from, like, a major back injury, something like that. But because of this injury, Ann was forced to come back and, like, rejoin the family because he needed help and he couldn't take care of the family alone. But instead of it being, like, good that Anne was around more, it only resulted in just more, like, constant conflict in the house. Everyone was fighting all the time, and everyone was just angry. So not great. So when Christine was four, Ann and I guess Thomas could no longer afford to care for her. So Christine and her sister Carol were adopted by the Falling family. So the Fallings, they were a religious bunch, you know, but Christine's time with them, I guess, was just filled with more pain and more suffering. Both Christine and Carol would say that they were subjected to physical and sexual abuse by their adopted father. His name was Jesse Falling. So they came out, the two girls, they spoke out saying that they were being abused and assaulted. And the Fallings, they denied the allegations, you know, saying that the girls were lying. Jesse ended up getting arrested twice for sexually abusing Carol. But the allegations, they were dropped. And I guess, like, one had gone to trial, and it ended with a hung jury. And the second charge resulted in just, like, it was just dropped. So, like, nothing came from it. So the Falling family still had the two girls, and, like, their home was just very toxic. It was said that they would go to church, right? And the local, like, church pastor noticed something was going on, and then he finally stepped in and intervened. And as a result, Christine and her sister Carol were sent to Great Oaks Village in Orlando, Florida. And this was like a group foster home specifically designated for neglected and abused children. Christine would later comment on how much she enjoyed her time at Great Oaks. Her caretakers, though, they had something else to say. They described Christine as a habitual liar, a compulsive thief, and as someone who would often break rules to get attention. I guess Christine's relationship with the other children at the foster home, I couldn't, like, find too much. But what was said was that people that encountered her said that she was horrific. Yeah, I Guess Christine was known for her violent behavior. And I mean, I'm talking violent because she would literally kill animals. Small animals. Oh yes, she would. Which we all know is not a great sign. But she would take cats. Yeah. And she would drop them from like super high up from I don't know how many, how many stories this building was, but she would go to great heights and then she would drop them because she wanted to test the cat's nine lives. She was also caught a handful of times strangling cats because that's how she showed them her quote, unquote love.
- [07:20]
Unknown
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- [07:36]
Bailey Sarian
I don't know.
- [07:38]
Unknown
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- [08:20]
Bailey Sarian
Boom.
- [08:20]
Unknown
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- [08:26]
Bailey Sarian
You know, they'll get you a policy.
- [08:27]
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- [08:48]
Bailey Sarian
So Christine's worrisome behavior was compounded by like, the fact that she was considered developmentally disabled. She was prone to obesity, and she suffered from fits of epilepsy and aggression. So. So Christine was never able to acquire developmental skills beyond those of a sixth grader. Now, because of Christine's appearance, her poor social skills, and the fact that she wasn't very intellectual, she got picked on a lot. Okay? A lot of the kids that were at that foster home Were just mean to her, picked on her, made fun of her, called her. I don't know what they called her, but it was said that they had a lot of cruel commentary. And just after one year of staying at Great Oaks, both of the girls were sent back to live with the fallings. Yeah, I don't know why, I mean, I thought it, you know, I guess because technically, like the father wasn't convicted of anything, so they must be fine. So bad. But they get sent back to live with the fallings and you know, the physical and sexual abuse, they just, just continues, continues on. I guess there was like one instance in October of 1975 where the adoptive father Jesse had like beat Christine so bad that, you know, it left her all bruised and battered. And then like the next day he forced her to wear shorts to school so everyone could see the quote, unquote, justice marks. Like he was fucking sick. I guess after that instance happened, like literally the very next day, both of the girls, Christine and Carol, they ran away. I guess they ran away to one of Carol's friend's house where like the family took them in. But after a few weeks together, Christine took off and went to go live with their birth mother, Ann. Yeah, she was in like Bluntstown, Florida. I don't know how she found her, but she found her. So she's down in Blunstown. And Blunsttown is like a small farming town. At the time it had a population of 2,400 people. I don't know if it's still like that today, but small. And again, because it's small, like I say it a lot, but you know, it's one of those places where everybody knew one another and they knew everyone's business. So then at the age of 14, Christine. Don't ask me how, there's a lot of blanks here, but she's 14 and she ends up marrying a man in his 20s. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. Obviously not great, right? But it happens. They get married. And I guess the marriage like right off the bat was there was daily beatings and altercations. And it was said that at one point like they had gotten into a really bad fight. And Christine, 14, she picks up this 25 pound stereo, she chucks it at the guy, like just throws that at his head. And I guess after that the marriage ended like the marriage ended in divorce after like six weeks. So it was quick, very quick. Not sure how it happened, but it ended just as quick. So that happened so like after her failed marriage, this is when Christine started to have like hypochondriac, like episodes. Over the course of two years, she was hospitalized 50 times. 5, 0. She had complained of hallucinations. She was seeing like red dots in her eyes. She claimed that her menstrual bleeding was like super. She thought like she was dying essentially. I think she just didn't understand like how her body worked. But you know, like, she still went to the doctors over it because she was freaking out. And then she, on multiple different occasions she had gone to the doctor saying she had, she had snake bites, but like no snake bites. And I was like, weird. But doctors, like, they would see her every time, but they were never able to find anything wrong with her. So when Christine was 17, that's when she started working as like the local babysitter for neighbors and friends. Despite her limitations, she's still in the neighborhood. She was known for like, deeply caring for children and she was also just pretty reliable. So In February of 1980, Christine was caring for two year old Cassidy Johnson, and I guess Cassidy Johnson was doing fine. And then in the middle of her having to babysit, Cassidy had to be rushed to the hospital. So Christine had told the doctors and whatnot that Cassidy had passed out and then fell out of the crib. She had no idea what happened. And the hospital staff, they were all praising her, like, oh my God, Christine, you're so great. You handled this emergency so well. Because I guess Christine had wrapped the baby Cassidy in a blanket and had attempted mouth to mouth resuscitation on her way to the hospital. Allegedly. While at the hospital, baby Cassidy was diagnosed with encyclopa, which is brain inflammation. And baby Cassidy would die like a few days later. The autopsy listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the skull, which you think would like raise some flags, but it sure didn't. Sure didn't. Now the physician who initially saw baby Cassidy did not believe Christine's story about, you know, the baby falling out of the crib. And this physician was like, something ain't right. They wrote a note and they were like, look into Christine handed it to the police in hopes that they would investigate it further. But the note that they wrote was somehow lost. They misplaced it. Police did do an interview with Christine, but there was no evidence, you know, that was brought against her. So the case was closed. So that same month, Christine was caring for 4 year old Jeffrey Davis, watching them for the night. Everything's going fine. And then out of nowhere, Jeffrey stopped breathing. So Christine, she dials 911 and the paramedics, they rush to the house. But when they get there, it was too late and they were unable to save little Jeffrey. So, I mean, this death was also like really suspicious. But an autopsy was ordered and the cause of death was listed as myocarditis.
- [15:53]
Unknown
Sorry if I.
- [15:54]
Bailey Sarian
It was a heart condition that is rarely fatal. But still, the medical examiner noted that there was no other potential cause of death and therefore the case was closed. They're like, oh, that's rare. Close that. Case solved. Okay, Well, I mean, Christine, life just continues on. Okay. Literally a few days later. Okay. Christine was asked to babysit 2 year old Joseph Spring, baby Jeffrey's cousin. And the parents wanted to attend baby Jeffrey's funeral. So they're like, Christine, can you come and like watch Joseph? So during her time babysitting, once again, Christine called 911 and told the operator that Joseph wasn't breathing and that like she could not wake him up from his nap, literally. The parents are at the funeral of the baby that Christine just, you know, oh yeah. They bring baby Joseph into the hospital and the doctors end up diagnosing him with a viral infection and they're trying to keep him alive, but sadly he dies shortly after getting there. Now at this time, the doctors note that this is probably what was responsible for baby Jeffrey's death and as well, you know, like, oh, probably the same thing. Unfortunately, there was no investigation into the deaths of these two young boys. You know, it was just listed as a viral infection and that was that. I'm not kidding you when I say this, but one month later, one month later, three year old Kyle Summerlin was being babysat by Christine. And while Christine was watching him, he became critically ill. Now he gets rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, like the doctors were able to recover him and they diagnosed him with meningitis. And baby Kyle would be, he would go, he would be okay, he would be okay. But the doctors are thinking like, God damn, like some weird stuff is going on around here. I wonder what, like they're just. Babies are getting sick. It's wild.
- [18:10]
Unknown
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- [19:03]
Bailey Sarian
I know.
- [19:03]
Unknown
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- [19:40]
Bailey Sarian
Makeup so baby Kyle would go on to be okay, but Christine would, like, still continue working as a babysitter in the area for quite some time. Like, nothing stopped this bitch. So after this, Christine kind of chills out for a bit. Just for a year. Just for a year. And then the following year, Charles, who was 3, and Jeffrey Heal or Heil, who is 14 months, became ill and were hospitalized while Christine was babysitting them. Luckily, everything was okay and the two of them would go on to recover. But you think because this is a small farming town and everyone knows one another, like people would be putting some pieces together, connecting some dots or maybe be like, hey, wow, this Christine girl has some really bad luck. Am I right? No, no one. No one is. I'm not trying to blame, you know, but you just would think it's a small town. Like, literally, it's like everyone knows each other's business. I don't know. A miss here. There was a miss happening. Well, eventually, I guess Christine is like, okay, I gotta get out of here. You know, I gotta get. I gotta get out of here. So she ends up moving to her hometown of Perry, which is in northern Florida. And while she's there, she got a job working as a nursing assistant and housekeeper for senior citizens. Oh, no. I know. Oh no. How she got this job, I don't know, but she did. So she was assigned to work for a senior named William Swindle. So they're like, okay, you're assigned to William. Bleep, blah, blah, right? This. She couldn't even. She couldn't even wait. One day, on the very first day Christine started caring for him, William passes away. William was found unresponsive on, on his kitchen floor. When he was found, he was rushed to the hospital and then pronounced dead. Because of his age and his poor health, the local authorities, like, they didn't investigate his, his death and there was no autopsy performed. So his cause of death was listed as a heart attack. Which is so sad. I mean, all of it is sad. Yes, yes, yes. But, you know, so that same month, same month, Christine's half sister and Christine go to the supermarket. Christine's half sister, like, is like, oh, I'll be right back. Can you stay with my kid in the car? And her daughter's 8 months old, her name is Jennifer. And she gets left in the car with Christine's half sister. Christine's like, yeah, I'll watch your baby, no problem. Christine's half sister comes out and she sees that Christine's like in a panic and that her baby was dead. So obviously freaking out. Right? Oh my God. And mind you, like, there's a lot of like missing pieces here, but like, this is what we know, I guess. Baby Jennifer had received her vaccinations earlier that morning. So the cause of death was thought to be a reaction to the vaccines. Doctors also suspected sudden infant death syndrome, also known as sids, as a possible cause of death. But once again, like, the child's death was determined to be of natural causes and there was no investigation. Mm, mm, mm. Her own half sister. So then after this, a year would go by without any one, any infants or older elders dying under Christine's supervision. But then In June of 1982, Christine was watching babysitting a 10 week old Travis Coleman. And Travis suddenly experienced respiratory issues. Well, under Christine's care, baby Travis would end up being rushed to the hospital just like the previous victims would end up surviving and staying in the hospital for about a week and then was released, recovered, sent home, I guess, like returned home July 1 and the parents had to step away again or something and they freaking asked Christine to watch the baby again. Again. We're not, we're not blaming the parents. They didn't know, but it's like, what the fuck? Anyway, so Christine now gets a second chance, I guess. So she's back watching baby Travis. This time, under Christine's care. Baby dies, huh? Baby dies. Oh my God. So this time an autopsy gets done. And when the autopsy comes back, it finds that there was like internal injuries that could only have been caused by suffocation like that was the only way to get these injuries. But even after this incident, the doctor, her name was like, Dr. Flora Wellings, who studied, like, several of the deceased children's cases. She said that she believed Christine was a, quote, victim of circumstances and that she had, quote, no scientific reason to think otherwise. Yeah. Even though, like, the suffocation thing, like, I don't know what's going on over there. I don't know. But they're like, she's like, no, I don't think it was Christine. It was just like a weird coincidence.
- [25:16]
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- [26:59]
Bailey Sarian
So then after baby Travis death, there's a local newspaper. It's called, like, the Tallahassee Democrat. This local Newspaper calls Christine up and they're like, we would love to do an interview with you, like, just talk to you. Because they found out, like, all these babies had died in her care. And they wanted to get Christine's input. And she tells them that her hardest job was to, quote, keep my mind off of it as much as I can. I've been through five youngins. It's enough to get you scared. That's what she tells the newspaper, that she's been through five youngins. Girl, she said that's in a newspaper. Christine also mentions that when she gets too tense and, like, things get really serious, she blacks out. And she suffers from epileptic seizures, which then often lead to hospitalization.
- [27:49]
Unknown
I'm trying to draw attention back to her.
- [27:52]
Bailey Sarian
In that same interview, Christine had added that when she was a child, she tried several times to end her own life by like, you know, cutting her wrists or like, overdosing on pills. Again, like, I'm not trying to discredit what, anything she's, you know, I'm not trying to discredit that. But it was like, it was a way for her to draw attention back to herself and kind of going back to, like, when she was younger and she was a liar and stuff. Like, it was this kind of, you know, you want to believe, but at the same time it's hard to believe her anyhow. But then in this interview, she said, quote, the way I look at it, there's some reason God is letting me go through this. If God hadn't wanted me to go through this, then he wouldn't have let it happen. That's pretty fucked up, Christine. Christine. That's pretty fucked up. So after this came out, like in the newspaper, luckily someone was paying attention. One of the police officers was paying attention. So they ended up bringing Christine in for questioning. And like, I guess it didn't take long for them to know that something was not right. And they admitted her to the psychiatric hospital for assessment. And it was while she was there. That's where she confessed to killing three of the infants that were in her care. She denied the others, but she said that she killed those three babies by smotheration. She told detectives that she would press blankets and pillows over their faces because she heard voices chanting, kill the baby, kill the baby. Like, over and over again, kill the baby. You know, kill the baby, kill the baby. So Christine was arrested and charged with first degree murder in July of 1982. But she was only charged with the murders of Cassidy Johnson, the first child she killed, Jennifer Daniels, her niece, and Travis Coleman, who was her final victim. But In November of 1982, an agent in Florida's Department of Law Enforcement testified that Christine had told her sister Carol that she had indeed killed five children who were in her care. And I guess that Christine was. Would go on to state, quote, I don't know why I done what I done the way I done it. I seen it done on TV shows. I had my own way, though. Simple and easy. No one can hear them scream. She gave, like, a taped confession. At one point in her taped confession, Christine said that she smothered Cassidy Johnson because she had, quote, gotten kind of rowdy or something. And then when asked about the others, she went on to say that Jeffrey Davis, quote, made me mad or something. I was already mad that morning. I just took it out on him and just started choking him till he was dead. End quote. Geez Louise, I'm sorry. I know the fuck she said. Joseph Spring was napping when, quote, I don't know, I just got the urge and wanted to kill him. She seems to not know a lot, huh? And that Jennifer Daniels was, quote, continually crying and crying and crying, and it made me mad. So I just put my hands around her neck and choked her till she shut up. What do you even say? Huh? What do you even say to that? And then as for Travis Coleman, he was sleeping, and she said she killed him for, quote, no apparent reason. Just very like, yeah, I don't know. I'll circle back. The girl obviously is not okay. In December of 1982, Christine pled guilty to murdering three children. In exchange for her guilty plea, the state didn't pursue charges involving the two cousins who died in her care. They also didn't seek the death penalty. Instead, she received three concurrent life sentences. Christina eventually confessed to squeezing the life out of William Swindle, the elderly man whose death was thought to be a heart attack. She squeezed the life out of him. I don't know, you guys. I don't fucking know this. I don't know. You know, I hate saying it, but there's some people I think that maybe, you know, the death penalty, like, you know, you know, you know, like, if I look away and it happened, you know, but maybe I'm a bad person. Well, Christina's still alive. She's imprisoned at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida. Oh, she's there.
- [32:27]
Unknown
Okay.
- [32:28]
Bailey Sarian
She's still alive. In 2017, after having served 25 years, Christine was eligible for parole. Her application was rejected by the parole Review Board. No one showed up to her parole, like her parole hearing, because they can and like show support, whatever. No one shut up for this bitch. She better not get out. She has no business getting out. During her time in prison, Christine has said that, you know, she hears voices. But doctors have rejected these claims. So either way, Christine returned to her old habit of like being sick all the time. I guess she goes to the medical bay for like mystery illnesses and non specific symptoms, like all of the time. It seemed Christine's need for attention, which counselors at Great Oaks had noted was transferred to getting attention from medical professionals. I mean, this need for attention seemed to peak after her failed marriage. Yeah, maybe, I don't know. Observation. It's believed that Christine possibly developed Munchausen syndrome. Those affected by Munchausen, they seek comfort from medical personnel for exaggerated or self inflicted inflicted symptoms of illness. Munchausen syndrome is closely related to Munchausen by proxy. Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which the afflicted person abuses others, usually a child, to get attention or sympathy for themselves. The exact cause of Munchausen syndrome is not known, but researchers are looking at the role of biological and psychological factors in its development. There's some theories that suggest that a history of abuse or neglect as a child might be factors in the development of the syndrome. In this case, seems about right. Just to say, like, Munchausen syndrome is rare, but obtaining accurate statistics is really difficult because dishonesty is common with the illness. Isn't that nuts? So it's like, it's hard for them to like gather evidence and stuff. Anyways, how do you end this one, huh? That, my friends, is the awful story of Christine falling and how she got away with bullshit for way too long. Sadly, no one caught on. She just went under the radar for quite some time, huh? Seriously, like geez Louise. Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be seeing you guys later. Goodbye.