True Story Media

Please note that this show discusses child abuse, which may be difficult for some listeners.

For resources about abusive head trauma, go to shakenbaby.org.

In the days following Nolan Kelly's tragic death on December 13, 2015, Dr. Sally Smith and Dr. Russell Vega submitted their reports,

leaving no remaining doubt what type of investigation the sheriff's office had before them.

This was a homicide case.

On December 22nd, Detective Stephen Luke, who led the investigation into Nolan's death, brought

Dr. Vega and Dr. Smith together to conference about their findings.

They needed to get as precise as possible about the questions of timing, what symptoms

Nolan was showing and when, and who'd had

access to him when the injuries occurred. Someone had killed Nolan, and the devil was in the details.

I know we talked about it extensively the other day with the bath. You gave him a bath. How did he

seen during the bath? He sat right there in the sink. I mean, he sat up right there in the sink. This is Nolan's mother, Danica, talking to the police about the period of time on the evening of Friday, December 11th, when she and John were at home with the baby, the night before Nolan's second seizure and the 911 call.

What was he playing? I mean, every time I ever give a child a bath, you know, that age,

you know, they're playing with the water, the splashing, all kinds of stuff. What was, what's his

Nolan? I don't usually give Nolan a bath in the sink.

Okay. I usually bathe them either at my dad's house or at my mom's house because my mom has a bathtub and my dad has a stand-up shower.

John's shower is not really the cleanest.

Okay.

You know, I'm not going to stick my one and a half year old on the shower floor in there

because his dog's shit in the shower and then he just it's just

not gonna put him in there you know what I mean it's gross to me

...