There's a certain image that comes to mind when you think of a small southern college campus, quiet walkways, close-knit dorm life, the kind of cozy hometown charm that makes the world feel just a little safer.

Georgia, Southwestern State University in America's Georgia has that exact reputation.

It's this place known for nursing students,

heading to late night clinicals, business majors, grabbing coffee between classes, Greek life

community that keeps the social scene alive, even in the middle of its rural surroundings.

And like most colleges, GSW has rules, clear rules meant to keep that community

safe, dorm curfew hours, guest restrictions, and strict guidelines about who can be inside

residential halls. Most students don't think much about those rules, because honestly, why would

they? College life, right life right freshmen and sophomores

don't usually have toddlers though tagging along to chemistry class babies don't belong in dorm

hallways and they definitely aren't supposed to spend the night but in the story we're diving

into today those rules weren't just bent, they were

ignored, and the presence of one tiny child inside a college dorm night after night wasn't just

unusual. It was prohibited. More importantly, it was the first domino in a sequence of events that would end in an unfathomable tragedy.

Because if certain boundaries had been respected, if an 18-month-old little boy had never been staying inside a GSW dorm room under the care of someone who didn't want him there, we would not be telling the story today.

This case is layered, emotional, and confusing at times. It spans two states, complicated

relationships, and a series of decisions that, in hindsight, feel like flashing red warning signs. So before we step onto the

GSW campus and before we get to the events of that final day, we need to go back all the

way back, back to where this story truly begins in the year 2021. Because to understand what happened to baby JD, you have to

understand the people involved, the tangled dynamics leading up to this moment and the choices

that brought everyone to that dorm room on a cold January morning. My name is Lauren Matthias. And at Hidden True Crime, we go beyond

the headlines. We dig into the court docs, uncover relationships, delve into the psychology

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