Virginia NICU Attacks Target Boys-Nurse Charged as Investigation Expands
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True Crime Today
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🗓️ 8 January 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
The father of a Virginia toddler injured as a newborn in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has revealed unsettling details about a string of mysterious attacks on infants at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond. Dominique Hackey, whose son Noah suffered a fractured tibia in September 2023, said the victims shared one disturbing commonality: they were all boys.
“There were all different injuries, and two boys had multiple injuries,” Hackey said. “So far, in chatting amongst ourselves, we can't find a pattern of why our babies, other than that they were just boys.”
On Christmas Eve, the hospital shut down its NICU after launching an internal investigation into seven cases of "unexplainable fractures" among newborns. The incidents, three of which occurred in recent months, appear linked to four others dating back to 2023.
Authorities arrested Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, a 26-year-old registered nurse, on charges of malicious wounding and child abuse in connection with one of the cases. Police are now investigating six additional incidents, including the Hackey case, which was initially closed without charges due to insufficient evidence.
Rumors that race played a role in the attacks have circulated online, but Hackey dismissed these claims, stating that only two of the victims were Black. He has been in contact with five other families and is working to meet the final one.
Hackey’s son Noah, born prematurely at 28 weeks and six days, sustained a fractured tibia that investigators later deemed the result of child abuse. The incident left Hackey devastated.
“The first emotion that my son ever experienced was pain, and that’s not supposed to happen,” he said. “The first emotion is supposed to be joy and laughter...and that wasn’t the case for my son and six other boys.”
Hackey recalls encountering Strotman during his family’s NICU stay, describing her as “nice” but “insignificant.” He only recently learned that the hospital had placed Strotman on paid leave, suggesting they suspected misconduct long before her arrest.
The hospital has since implemented stringent security measures, including 24-hour surveillance, parent live-streaming options, and mandatory two-person protocols for staff entering patient rooms.
“We are both shocked and saddened by this development in the investigation,” the hospital said in a statement. “We remain focused on caring for our patients and supporting our colleagues during this deeply personal time.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Broadcasting live from the true crime today's studios to the world. |
| 0:05.4 | This is Murder in the Morning with Tony Brewski and Stacy Cole. |
| 0:09.9 | From the hit killers podcast, murder in the morning. |
| 0:16.5 | Do you remember the Lucy Let Me story, which is still ongoing? |
| 0:20.9 | This has a lot of the same marks of it. |
| 0:26.6 | And I guess the question is, why is this happening? |
| 0:30.3 | Or are we just better at catching it now? |
| 0:34.1 | There's a good question. |
| 0:35.1 | It's what I wonder, too, where it's always like, oh, the world's burning, all these horrible stories. |
| 0:40.5 | We communicate in a very different way than we used to. |
| 0:43.3 | We used to have to, you know, either catch it on TV or read it in a newspaper or hear it on the radio, |
| 0:48.3 | and that's how we were informed. |
| 0:49.6 | Now, instantly, we can hear about every horrible thing left and right in real time. So it certainly does create a sense of things being worse than they are, but I don't know, I don't know that they are, or just that we are informed of them much faster. |
| 1:01.7 | I don't know what this one. |
| 1:02.9 | The father of a Virginia toddler injured as a newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit, the NICU, has revealed unsettling details about a string of mysterious attacks on infants in Henrico Doctors Hospital in Richmond. |
| 1:18.2 | Dominique Hackey, whose son Noah suffered a fractured tibia in September of 23, said the victim shared one disturbing commonality. |
| 1:27.5 | They were all boys. |
| 1:29.2 | Oh, God. |
| 1:30.0 | There were all different injuries, and two boys had multiple injuries. |
| 1:35.2 | Hackeray said so far, in chatting amongst ourselves, we can't find a pattern why our babies, other than they were just boys. |
| 1:42.0 | On Christmas Eve, the hospital shut down its NICU after it launching an internal investigation into seven cases of unexplainable fractures among newborns. |
| 1:50.0 | The incidents, three of which occurred in recent months, appeared linked to four others dating back to 23. |
... |
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