She Boiled Off Child’s Ear Because “He’s Ugly”

He was 7 lb 2 oz. He was full-term and born alive. His mother didn’t give him a name. Relatives who had not seen his mother in years, who did not know that she was pregnant, and who did not know he existed would give him one. They called him Jeremiah. He was born on the 26th of March 2026 in Gretna, Louisiana.

He died the same night. He never had the chance to be anything. He never got to take his first steps or blow out his first candle or to start preschool. He never got to make friends or watch Bluey for the first time. This is what we know about Jeremiah. And it is everything that’s available. >> Laquisha Lamell was 37 years old and living on the streets of Jefferson Parish.

 According to investigators, she had no roots in the area and her relatives lived out of state. How long she had been in Gretna or what had brought her out there is not part of the public record. The employees at the Waffle House at 52 Westbank Expressway in Gretna knew her face as she spent her nights near the restaurant and they fed her when she had nothing to eat.

 January of 2026, Laquisha became known to the Gretna police. Court records show she was arrested that month for entering homes without permission. But she was soon back on the streets, back near the Waffle House, and back to her same old routines. None of the employees who knew her knew that she was pregnant.

 She carried the pregnancy to term and told nobody. Sometime in the early morning hours of March 26th, Laquisha went into a port-a-potty at the Westbank Shopping Center. It’s located at the 62 Westbank Expressway, about a block from the Waffle House where she slept. There she gave birth to a full-term baby boy. And then, she left him in the tank.

Laquisha then walked to the Waffle House. It was approximately 3:00 in the morning and the employees who had been feeding her were working. She walked through the door and told them she had just given birth nearby and she asked them to call an ambulance. Rongelias Stedman, who worked at the Waffle House, later said, “She left the baby in the porta-potty and came in and asked for an ambulance for herself.

” One of the cooks went to the porta-potty to check and then they called 911. Gretna police and EMS were dispatched at approximately 3:17 in the morning. Lakeisha had blood on her pants when they arrived. She confirmed she had given birth but wasn’t able to tell the officers when. She also claimed to have no information about the baby’s condition.

 Eventually, she told him where he was. Gretna Deputy Chief Jason DeMarco of the Gretna Police Department, “They found a porta-potty and they went in there looking for him. Sure enough, unfortunately, the horrible scene of a newborn inside the tank of the porta-potty. He appeared to be lifeless. First responders tried to save him, but unfortunately, the newborn baby that would go on to be known as Jeremiah was pronounced dead at the scene.

” An autopsy performed by the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office confirmed what police already believed, that he had been alive at the time of his birth. He weighed 7 lb 2 oz. Deputy Chief DeMarco said Lakeisha had delivered approximately 1 week early. Jeremiah’s cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning in a mixture of raw sewage and chemicals.

Deputy Chief DeMarco said, “The coroner thinks he was a healthy kid. The kid could be alive and well, living a productive life, had a chance of something as opposed to the way it was. This isn’t anything you can prepare for. This isn’t something you expect to see, a newborn. It’s horrifying.” >> Police obtains an arrest warrant for Lakeisha the same day Jeremiah’s body was found.

She was hospitalized. Deputy Chief DeMarco told reporters that once she was released, she would be booked on a second-degree murder charge. She was eventually held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna. On July 16th, a Jefferson Parish Grand Jury indicted her for second-degree murder. Her arraignment was scheduled for July 17th at the Jefferson Parish Magistrate Court, but according to court records, Lakeisha refused to leave the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.

Due to the disruption, her arraignment was rescheduled for July 20th. As of the date of this recording, the case remains active and no trial date has been set. As she’s yet to be found guilty of any crime, Lakeisha is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law. >> When investigators finally reached Lakeisha’s family, they found people who hadn’t seen her in years and had no idea that she was pregnant.

Lees Naccarri is the founder of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies, or CBIB for short. It’s a New Orleans nonprofit that has provided dignified funeral services for abandoned infants since 2003. Lees coordinated with Lakeisha’s relatives to arrange a funeral for Jeremiah. She said, “They were very saddened by the whole event and expressed that they would have taken in the baby had they known.

” She added that, “This baby would have been alive today and his mother wouldn’t be in jail.” The case also renewed attention on Louisiana’s Safe Haven Law, a law that exists precisely for situations like this one. Under the Safe Haven Law, a parent can anonymously surrender a newborn up to 60 days old at any designated location, such as a police station, a firehouse, or a hospital, with no questions asked and no criminal charges on the line, as long as the baby is unharmed and handed directly to a person on site.

Deputy Chief DeMarco addressed this in the days after Jeremiah’s death, saying, “That child could have been brought here to a firehouse, to a hospital. The mother would have had no consequences. As long as you’re handing them over to a person and not leaving them outside in the natural elements.

 No questions asked. No criminal charges can be brought against you.” Mike Labreche, the fire chief of the David Crockett Fire Company, confirmed that crews are prepared to receive safe haven surrenders. He said, “The parent can bring it up to 60 days old as long as it hasn’t been harmed. No questions asked.” Rongelias Stedman, who knew Lakesha from the Waffle House, had her own words for her.

 She was quoted as saying, “You could have brought the baby to the fire station, police station, anywhere instead of having the baby in the porta-potty and leaving it. You could have given that child to anybody. You could have come up here by us where you asked us for food and help.” >> On April 29th, 2026, 1 month and 3 days after he died, baby Jeremiah was honored with a jazz second line funeral, which was organized and paid for by compassionate burials for indigent babies.

Some of Lakesha’s relatives attended. >> Jeremiah was buried at St. Patrick’s

Cemetery number one, located at 5000 Canal Street in New Orleans in C-Beb’s official crypt. Lease Nacre described it as a respectful, moving, and loving service. We are here standing in the space where we held baby Jeremiah’s funeral. Baby Jeremiah was tragically found submerged in a porta-potty in Gretna. Throughout the funeral service, the deacon reminded us that we cannot let baby Jeremiah’s death be in vain.

We must continue to remind people that the Safe Haven Law exists to help women and prevent tragedies such as this. The Safe Haven Law allows women to give up ownership of their baby after birth, so they can bring their baby with no signs of to any hospital, police station, fire department, Safe Haven baby box, anything such as that, as long as there are no signs of abuse, and they will be relinquished to the state.

Only through this can we continue to seek to prevent tragedies such as baby Jeremiah, and we are so, so thankful for C-Beb for hosting such a moving funeral such as this one. We want to start this next story by telling you what we can’t tell you. We don’t have his name. He’s 4 years old, he’s alive, and every outlet we found covering this story has his identity out of print.

 As well they should with surviving child victims. Cowboy State Daily reported that he’s a little boy and that he was born in 2022. So, there’s no obituary to read from, no memorial page, no family interviews, nothing that would let us tell you who he actually is. But what we do have is a court file, a charging statement from the Park County Prosecuting Attorney, and what this 4-year-old little boy told a foster parent and then told law enforcement.

>> Richelle Lena Alana Vinita Lorraine Rule Monroe was born in 1999. She graduated from Lovell High School in 2018. By July of 2026, she was 26 years old. At some point before the events of today’s story, Richelle Lena and her own child were living in a home in rural Powell, Wyoming with a 4-year-old boy and that boy’s father.

 It’s unclear what the relationship was, but in the first week of July of this year, the boy’s father was reportedly out of town for work. The night of July 1st, according to what Richelle Lena later told investigators, she had water heating on the stove for oatmeal. She said she took it off without realizing the 4-year-old was standing nearby and the water splashed onto his left ear.

She did not take him anywhere that night. By her own account, it was the next morning when his ear was now red and swollen that she decided to get him to the emergency room. So, on July 2nd, she brought him to the Powell Valley Hospital. The charging statement in this case comes from Park County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Skoric and it lays out what hospital staff found.

 They and a Wyoming Department of Family Services case worker noticed what Attorney Skoric called many bruises and scabs on the boy’s arms, his legs, his face, and his nose. According to reports, deputies saw these injuries as well. >> Then, a forensic nurse documented the injuries one by one. Partial thickness burns and blisters to his left ear.

Bruising to his left eye, as well as a corneal abrasion. Bruises and abrasions all over his face and body. A skin tear near the gluteal cleft, which reports described as a tear on the child’s bottom. Then came the imaging. A CT scan showed possible subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages, or bleeding inside the skull around the brain.

A scalp hematoma, which is a pocket of blood under the skin of his head. And finally, a possible fracture to the occipital bone, the bone at the lower back of the skull. The hospital admitted him, and while he was there, doctors who specialize in CA evaluated his injuries. One of them was Dr.

 Kelly Christiansen, who documented, and I quote, “Multiple abrasions that are very concerning for a child of this age, along with multiple bruises in different stages of healing.” Dr. Christiansen also flagged the delay in care. According to reports, the doctor was surprised the boy’s caregiver hadn’t brought him to the ER sooner, given how bad the burn was.

He wrote that, “Overall, I think the multiple of these findings suggest strongly that this child is likely to be a victim of physical Oops. >> The boy was taken into protective custody, where he told his foster parent that it was Rishalena who put the hot water on his ear. And the reason he gave was that she found him ugly.

 He told law enforcement the same thing about the water, that she poured it onto his left ear, and that it made him cry. He also told them that she had thrown him down the stairs, showing that this wasn’t just an accident of spilling water. There was a history of intentional harm. Richellena’s being represented in court by attorney Brandon Vilos.

 In court, attorney Vilos said that the Department of Family Services had been given some information about what he called the long laundry list of alleged injuries. As he understood it, the boy had been discharged from the hospital at one point, but according to attorney Skoric, the wound on the boy’s ear kept getting worse.

>> On July 8th, an air ambulance took him to the University of Utah’s Burn Center, where a team out of the Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital examined him. What they found was non-accidental. By the time the specialists looked at it, they were calling them third-degree burns. On the afternoon of Friday, July 10th, Richellena was asked to come down to the Park County Annex to take a urine test.

According to attorney Vilos, she showed up about 20 minutes later. She was not given a urine test, but was instead arrested. >> Richellena has been charged with one count of aggravated CA, which is a felony. Attorney Skoric’s filing alleges she inflicted serious bodily injury on the boy either intentionally or recklessly.

Either theory gets to the same charge. The maximum penalty is 25 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. On Monday, July 13th, she was in Park County Circuit Court in Cody for her initial appearance. They argued bond the same afternoon. Attorney Skoric asked for $150,000 cash only, calling it an extremely serious case.

 He also told the court what the Children’s Hospital team had concluded about three specific areas: the boy’s ear, his neck, and his face. Those injuries, the team found, were consistent with inflicted trauma. Attorney Skoric said, “The state believes the danger to the community posed by the defendant in this type of case is significant.

” He also argued that the amount of prison time she was facing gave her a reason to run. He added that “Either way, we’ve got serious injuries to a child, and in the state’s estimation, there’s not much more public safety risk than someone causing harm to a 4-year-old child.” Attorney Vilos argued that there were explanations for these injuries, and his client had given them.

 He said, “She’s going to defend these charges that have been leveled against her.” Attorney Vilos pushed back on the flight risk. He said that his client grew up in Big Horn County and still had relatives there and had made Park County her home for years. Several of them were in the courtroom that Monday.

 He also told the judge she had no criminal history. There was also the question of how she ended up in custody in the first place. According to Attorney Vilos, she went to the annex when she was asked to. She had hired a lawyer. Both of these things showed that she’s not intending to run. He brought up her own child who is right around the same age as the 4-year-old boy and said there had never been an allegation.

“There’s never been any evidence of CA.” He said, “That child has not been taken into protective custody.” Adding, “I suppose after this hearing, there will be an attempt on that one.” Attorney Vilos also went after the public safety argument. With the 4-year-old already in protective custody, there was no ongoing danger to anyone, and he raised doubts about how strong the state’s case actually was.

 He said, “If we’re just looking at the gravity of the allegations, I don’t believe that even remotely warrants a $150,000 cash only.” Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah came in under what the state had asked for, $125,000 cash or surety. The surety part means she doesn’t have to produce the full amount in cash.

 She can go through a bondsman for somewhere around $12,500 and be released. In his charging statement, Attorney Skoric wrote that authorities are still investigating the boy’s other injuries. At Monday’s hearing, he told the court the boy was expected to remain hospitalized for some time. A preliminary hearing was tentatively set for July 22nd.

 As Richellena has yet to go to trial, she’s considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. >> There’s no funeral in this story. No burial, no headstone because thank goodness, he’s alive. He is 4 years old. He went into protective custody in early July of 2026, then to a burn center in another state where he’s expected to be there for a quite a while yet.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, he told a foster parent why. He said it was because he was ugly. And I’m sure that wasn’t true at all.