Mason Sadler

Name: Mason Sadler.
Died: August 29, 2021.
Age at death: 3.
Cause of death: Drowning.
Location: Spring Hollow Township, Missouri, USA.

Details:
Mason’s parents left him with a babysitter. While under her care, Mason left the house, found a nearby pond, and drowned. Though the incident looked at first like one of the accidental drowning deaths so common among water-loving autistic youngsters, authorities found surveillance video and established that Mason’s babysitter had left him alone for more than an hour. They charged the babysitter with first-degree child endangerment.

Editor’s note: In the typical accidental drowning, a caregiver turns their back for just a minute, and the child is gone. These are tragedies, accidental and unforeseen. To prevent accidental drownings among autistic children, it is highly recommended to teach them to swim, and to fence off all ponds and swimming pools. However, leaving a three-year-old alone for an hour is obvious negligence, which makes this death very different from the sad accidents that take children even from conscientious parents.

References:
Laclede County Woman Charged In Autistic Child’s Drowning Death Pleads Not Guilty
Lebanon family speaks out after hearing about arrest in Mason Sadler case
Charges Filed in 3-Year Old’s Death
Lebanon woman charged with toddler’s drowning death

Brandon Steckler Jr.

Name: Brandon Steckler Jr.
Died: July 31, 2018.
Age at death: 4.
Cause of death: Abuse (Torture-murder).
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Details:
Brandon was a rambunctious boy known to jump off the back of the couch and aim a pro-wrestling-style elbow drop at his father.

Four-year-old Brandon was left in the care of his mother’s friend, a cruel woman who severely abused him and eventually killed him. Before she killed him, she sexually assaulted him, drugged him with methamphetamine, and tortured him so severely that he was unrecognizable. Because of the severity of her crimes, the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty.

References:
DA seeks death penalty for woman, 42, in torture death of autistic boy
Woman ‘abducted and tortured every inch of friend’s autistic son’
Death penalty sought for woman in Las Vegas child abuse case

Amareon Williams

Name: Amareon Williams
Died: June 9, 2014
Age at death: 5
Cause of death: Strangulation
Location: Michigan City, Indiana, USA

Details:
Since the age of 3, Amareon Williams had been a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. He loved to play with his cousins and sisters. He had an infectious smile. He was a good student who had graduated kindergarten at the top of his class. He attended church with his family.

One day at day care, Amareon was playing on a play fort, and he became tangled in a jump rope that had been tied to the fort. The rope tightened around his neck and Amareon was strangled; other children tried to help him, but no adults did–No adults were there to help him because he had been left completely unsupervised, and not one of the day-care employees even attempted CPR.

Only after Amareon was dead did his mother discover that the day-care center was already under investigation for some serious offenses such as failing to report suspected child abuse and inflicting cruel punishment on the children. She is suing the day-care center, which is now shut down. The day care center employees are being charged with negligent manslaughter and reckless homicide.

References:
Autopsy: Boy accidentally hanged himself
Obituary: Amareon Dewayne Williams
Charges Filed in Death
Michigan City day care sued over 5-year-old boy’s death

David Roberts

Name: David Roberts
Died: January 20, 2013
Age at death: 2
Cause of death: Head trauma (Abuse)
Location: Mount Vernon, Washington, USA

Details:
David was “one of the happiest kids ever”, says David’s father. He loved his older sister and the family pets. He was always smiling.

At two years old, David went to day-care, and at 5 p.m. his parents got a call that David was unresponsive in the back of an ambulance. His parents rushed to his side and he was airlifted to a hospital. But he never woke, and two days later little David died.

Years later, no one has been charged, but David’s death was determined to have been the result of a head injury inflicted by an adult no more than four hours before the time he had been taken to the ambulance, unconscious. He had been in day care all day, and one of the adults at the day care had felony convictions which, although he reported them, had not kept him from being cleared for a job in child care.

It is still unknown who actually killed David. David’s family greatly miss him and want justice for their little boy. They want stricter guidelines on people with felony convictions in child care jobs.

References:
Mom makes plea for justice after son, 2, dies
Home | Justice for David Roberts
Day care felons: Investigation reveals disturbing legal loophole

Cameron Hamilton

Name: Cameron Hamilton
Died: December 5, 2005
Age at death: 2
Cause of death: Murder (Head Trauma)
Location: Idaho, USA

Details:
Cameron attended a day-care center where one of the staff was an ABA therapist who had lost her license for heroin use. On the day he died, she took him to her home for a private session (though she didn’t have permission to do so), and then returned him to the center unconscious and bruised, claiming he was asleep.

Cameron was taken to the hospital, but his brain was too injured to recover; it wasn’t long before it became clear that he was brain-dead. Cameron was taken off life support and died in his father’s arms.

His killer is now in prison, where she continues to use heroin when she can get away with it.

References:
Cameron Hamilton
Autistic toddler murdered by ABA therapist
E. Idaho prison disciplines woman inmate in drug plot