215: The Death of Annie Burkett Shell

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2024

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Parents have to trust caregivers. It’s just a fact of life. Often we feel more comfortable with a family friend than a daycare. That’s what Tiffany and David Shell did for their daughter Annie. They trusted Brandi Giannunzio. She babysat their two youngest daughters. She was good with their girls. They had no reason to believe Brandi would leave their girls with her boyfriend. They had never met Benjamin Brown. But on August 9, 2018, he was left alone with their daughters. And then they had to face the unthinkable.

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Erica Kelley & Gemma Harris
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder and Erica Kelley

RESOURCES FOR CHILD ABUSE
Visit this website for preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome
US National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
For resources specific to each state, visit this website
Canada: visit this website to find the hotline in your area
UK Child Abuse Hotline: 0808 800 5000
Visit this website for help recognizing child abuse

Sources: https://southernfriedtruecrime.com/annie-burkett-shell

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Southern Fried True Crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners,
0:05.0	and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:08.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:19.2	I don't usually cover cases involving children. I know that for many people it's something they simply can't stomach especially parents and caregivers.
0:24.4	And I obviously count myself in that group.
0:27.9	I struggle deeply with covering children.
0:31.2	This isn't a story I wanted to tell just for the sake of telling it.
0:35.0	It involves an insidious type of crime I wanted to bring more attention to.
0:40.0	Something unique to the deaths of babies and toddlers that we don't see in the deaths of older children or adults.
0:48.0	It is inflicted by adults who should and do know better.
0:54.4	For some, it is a brief moment of anger and frustration, and they may not realize how grievously
1:01.5	they could injure a child.
1:03.9	But others know what they are doing is vicious and wrong, that it is child abuse, but they still
1:10.1	don't know it could end in death.
1:13.3	The first time I remember hearing about this kind of abuse
1:16.8	that led to the death of a child
1:18.8	was in the late 90s when an American case went international.
1:24.0	30 years later, shaken baby syndrome cases are still often national news.
1:31.0	Because despite how long the medical community has agreed about the
1:36.0	syndrome, in courtrooms, expert opinions suddenly began changing.
1:41.2	And in the media, it started to be considered controversial, which is unconscionable to many people.
1:51.2	Parents and medical professionals alike do not see a gray area.
	...

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