She Kept Her Niece In A High Chair…Locked In A Closet For TWO Weeks – Then Does The UNTHINKABLE!

07 Apr, 2016 by McGuire

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A Denver woman has been arrested after she allegedly beat her three year-old niece to death and then hid her under a bed after locking the toddler in a closet for two weeks. This sickening act of criminal abuse made me just SICK to my stomach.

Gossett Officially Charged_7855853_ver1.0_640_360

From the Daily Mail:

Shanna Gossett, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, second-degree kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Bethannie Johnson was found unresponsive in the middle of a living room floor at a home in Grand Junction on March 17. She had been severely bruised on her head and stomach, and bruises were also found on her legs.

Paramedics also found dried blood in her airway, which indicates possible older injuries.

An autopsy determined Bethannie had died of blunt force trauma, suffering multiple internal and external injuries in the head.

Gossett, who is Bethannie’s legal guardian, told police the toddler had been throwing herself down to the ground and hurting herself.

To help control her, Gossett said she strapped Bethannie to a high chair and confined her in a closet for two weeks according to The Daily Sentinel.

Gossett was temporarily staying at the home where Bethannie was found because she provides childcare for the resident.

She told police that she fed and bathed Bethannie during the two week she was in the closet, but had told the resident that the girl had been picked up by her mother, the affidavit states.

Police said they believe Bethannie was confined ‘pretty consistently’ in the closet for those two weeks.
Gossett told police she let Bethannie out of the closet on March 15 and the girl threw a tantrum.

That’s when Gossett pushed her down, causing the girl to fall and hit her head on the vacuum cleaner. When Bethannie got up, Gossett pushed her head into a wall, she told police.

Bethannie did not get up this time. She stopped breathing.

Gossett said she performed CPR on Bethannie and the girl momentarily started breathing on her own again.

But Bethannie continued to remain unresponsive, and so Gossett decided to hide her niece under the bed until the next night when she put the toddler in her crib.

An unidentified person called 911 the next day and a reported a child who wasn’t breathing. Police said Gossett was home when the place was made but that she was not the caller.

Gossett said the resident at the home did not know about Bethannie’s injuries or that she had been hidden in the closet or under a bed.

Paramedics could not revive Bethannie at the home and she was pronounced dead at St Marys Hospital just after 8am.

Gossett first told police a completely different story.

She said she dropped off Bethannie with her mother at a gas station two weeks earlier because she needed a break from her child.

Gossett claimed her sister then showed up to the home on March 16 with Bethannie and walked away, the affidavit states.

She then said she wiped clean a bloody nose for Bethannie and then put her to bed, claiming when she woke up the next morning Bethannie was unresponsive.

The aunt had also blamed Bethannie for her bruises, saying the child threw herself into things because she had reactive attachment disorder.

But Gossett’s story changed when her sister revealed she had been in Texas for the two weeks before her daughter’s death.

Police are still investigating how nobody else in the house knew Bethannie was in closet for two weeks.

This is the EPITOME of ridiculous to me. How is it possible in any way that the other residents of the home had no idea that a baby was stuck in a closet for so long? My nephew is 3 and believe me, he lets it be known that he is unhappy and you will know. The ones who stood idly by while this child was abused are just as guilty as the horrid aunt. I hope she gets the book thrown at her and then she rots in hell. What a horrible person.

Written by Katie McGuire. Send your hate mail to the author at [email protected], or feel free to mean tweet me at @GOPKatie, where I will be sure to do very little about it.