Miranda Casavez Case: 4-Year-Old Dies After Starvation Abuse in San Antonio

Now part of the Darkcast Network. Welcome to Indie Podcasts with a Dark side. At around 11am on August 17, 2021, Miranda Casarez was on the phone with 911 driving her car towards the hospital while her four year old stepson Benjamin Benji Cervera Jr. Lay unresponsive in the backseat. She told dispatch that his breathing was shallow and his heartbeat was faint. By 11:32am rushed into the children’s hospital, San Antonio doctors stopped resuscitation efforts. Benji was pronounced dead. Now this morning, this whole series of incidents didn’t come out of nowhere. The night before, Miranda had called 911 not about Benji, but to complain about her own inability to sleep. And going back even further, there were already signs that something was very wrong inside that house. Welcome LaMs. Welcome to Love and Heartbreak to Homicide, your weekly true crime podcast that tells you cases of relationships that have turned to murder. I am your host Kai and thank you for being here. Thank you for returning if you’re a returning LaM. And thank you for joining me if you are a new LaM. In today’s episode, I tell you about a four year old boy who died while asking for one thing. Food. What investigators would uncover inside that house would reveal a slow documented decline that never should have been missed. But before we get into it, if you’ve been following the Gerhardt Koenig case, I just wrapped up my full coverage over in Patreon along with my commentary. And you know what my commentary entails. Patreon.com/loveandmurder at the $10 a month tear, you get my full thoughts. Breaking it down, start to finish. Why I didn’t agree with the verdict, I. Oh uh, the verdict annoyed me but you know I’m not part of the jury so you get to hear why I didn’t agree with the verdict. Plus at that tier you also get at least two bonus episodes every month. And let’s be real, it’s usually more you get after shows, case files and the deeper unfiltered conversations that don’t always make it onto the public feed. Patreon.com/loveandmurder you also get an after show like with this episode there’s going be a show after it. Sometimes I put it out for the public but most um, times you get it as part of being the LaM Patreon fam. Oh yeah. And you also help keep this podcast listener funded while continuing to amplify the victims voices. Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, let’s get back to this case of love and Murder. Miranda, um, Caceres had grown up in Pleasant Town and dropped out of school in the 11th grade, later claiming that she dropped out because she was pressured to do so by a violent and abusive boyfriend. She eventually met 28 year old Branda Cervera Sr. On social media and within about a week she and her own son moved into his home with his two sons, including Benji. So Benji was his son? She had her own son, just one boy, and then he had two. One of those two was Benji. Now answer me this. How do you not know somebody and you have a kid and you move into that person’s house with your kid, either him or her? Like how do you not know somebody and bring a stranger around your children? Can anybody tell me that? Let me know in the comments below. Do you know anybody who’s done that? And what was your advice to that person? Or did you cut them off? Brandon described himself as a hard working dad who focused heavily on being a provider, often working eight to 10 hours a day and leaving the domestic duties to Miranda. The couple raised several children together. Brandon’s two sons from a previous relationship, Miranda’s son and eventually a daughter they had together. While Brandon worked, Miranda was a primary caregiver. By March 2021, the family had moved into an apartment in northeast San Antonio. According to Miranda, this is when Benji’s behavior started to change, including throwing tantrums. Now what appeared to be a busy blended family was actually a house of horrors. Leading up to Benji’s death, his older brother, referred to only as BCJ, witnessed systemic abuse. He remembered that while he and other children were fed, Miranda would deliberately withhold food from Benji. At first, according to BCJ, Miranda did feed Benji when Brandon was home, but. But over time that changed. By June 2021, cameras were set up inside the house, specifically in the kitchen and the children’s bedroom so their movements could be monitored. So now there was video evidence showing Benji searching for food late at night. And how is Brandon just allowing this to happen? So she felt comfortable enough at first she was like feeding Brandon, feeding Benji when Brandon was around. Cause I guess she was testing the waters. And then she started feel feeling comfortable enough to withhold food from Benji even when Brandon was there. So are they both pieces of shit? Let’s find out. To ensure the hungry child couldn’t help himself, locks were installed on the kitchen cabinets, the refrigerator and even the pantry. When Benji would try to sneak food, He was met with the chancla or flip flops. You know, like, it could be flip flops or your house slippers, you know, chancla. And he was met with the chancla being thrown into the air so he would crash to the ground. Or if the chancla didn’t work, he was met with spankings with a belt that often hit his back instead of his butt. Then it gets even worse, if you can imagine this. Miranda would reportedly force him to drink things like hand, uh, sanitizer, hot sauce, and even urine. There were times she would wipe the other children’s shoes with bread and then force him to eat it. And he did, because he was starving. He, quote, ate it all. And despite all of this, Benji still showed attachment to her because in videos, he can be heard calling her mom while begging for food. I wonder where their actual mother is. I wonder if, like, maybe she died or like, where is their actual mother? In the months leading, um, up to his death, there were very clear physical and behavioral changes in him. He was always thirsty, started regressing developmentally, which, like, he was going back to using diapers, for instance. And he started showing what was described as, quote, self soothing behaviors, like picking at, uh, his ears and banging his head against the wall. In the meantime, the investigation into Benji’s death began almost immediately. At the hospital, a nurse had noticed that Benji was severely underweight and covered in bruises. He weighed only 28 pounds when he died, or 12.7 kilos. This is actually the weight of a, uh, two going on three year old, according to medical charts. Nurses alerted police right away. And when detectives started looking into the home, they found everything I told you before, the locks on the food storage, the surveillance cameras, and the evidence that this wasn’t a one time failure. The most damning evidence came from Miranda’s own cell phone. Investigators found more than 30 videos showing Benji’s slow deterioration. My question is, was she taking pleasure watching a child starve to death? Would she go back and watch these videos? Would she be sharing it with people? Why is there video evidence? More than 30 videos. In these clips, the boy is seen crying and begging for bread, pizza, water and milk. One video recorded on August 13 shows Miranda complaining that Benji wouldn’t stop screaming because he wanted bread. Give him bread. What is wrong with you? There was another video recorded just three hours before his death, showing a crying Benji in the back of a car, not in a seatbelt, pleading, quote, I want bread. Not long after that, he then became unresponsive. And I do want to pause here, uh, because I did say an Expletive earlier. I mean, sometimes you’re going to hear me curse. That’s just what it is. Because I get really angry at these people. I get really angry. So please forgive me for slipping up once in a while. But the focus is on the case, not if I say a curse word. So I just wanted to point that out. Thank you. Text messages between Miranda and her mother further confirmed they discussed withholding food from the child as a form of control, so the apple didn’t fall far. She learned this from her mama. Like, what’s going on here? Then there were messages involving Brandon, including one where he said he doesn’t need to eat dinner because he had already been given bread earlier. So that answered my earlier question. They are both pieces of shit. Investigators also found that about a week before Benji died, around August 10, 2021, there were medical visits, including an ENT and an emergency room visit. So that was a week before he died, and he was only 28 pounds, and both an ENT and an ER saw him and nothing happened. So then in continuing with the investigation, uh, six months later, in February 2022, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that his cause of death was starvation related. Medical experts back that ruling up with specifics. First, there was almost, uh, no internal fat in his body. His protein levels were low and his body had started breaking itself down for energy. Basically, this means that his body had started eating itself for nourishment. And despite claims that he had only eaten a loaf of bread the night before, the autopsy found almost nothing in his system, only pepper seeds in his digestive tract. What makes this even harder to process, as if all that wasn’t hard already, is that, uh, there were opportunities to intervene. Child Protective Services had been involved and he had been seen at a hospital before, but he was cleared and left in the home every time. By the time Miranda and Brandon were arrested and charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission, the timeline already showed months of decline leading up to that morning in August. Miranda’s trial started in April 2024 and was held in San Antonio, Texas. What the jury had to decide was whether all of that evidence pointed clearly to deliberate abuse and starvation or whether there was enough doubt to accept the defense’s version of what happened inside that home. The prosecution, led by prosecutor Thomas d’ Amico and Michael Villarreal, came in with a case that was direct and backed by both physical evidence and Miranda’s own documentation. They showed the jury more than 30 videos taken from her phone, capturing Benji crying, begging, and asking for food. In one video, he cried continuously, repeating, I want bread. I want bread. I want bread. This wasn’t something the prosecution had to explain. It was basically there already. They paired those videos with text messages that showed conversations, like I told you between Miranda and her mother and Miranda and Brandon. Then they also showed the jury the physical conditions of the home. So they just showed them pictures of the locks on the fridge, the cabinets, the pantry, the surveillance footage. You know, stuff like this. The defense, you know, defensed. I know you. I know the word is defended. But kids these days would say, the defense defensed. And I like how that sounds. So the defense defensed. When Miranda took the stand, she denied responsibility outright. Quote, I didn’t starve him. She told the jury her defense centered on shifting the blame to Brandon. She testified that he was the one who physically abused Benji and that he controlled the household. Wow. Uh, you know, I should have been expecting this. She literally, like, just threw him under the bus, drove forward, backed up, drove forward, backed up, drove forward, but then stopped over him, you know, so how would she explain how she wasn’t feeding Benji before Brandon knew about it? That’s. That’s what I would want to know. How. How do you explain that? Miranda, when she was confronted with one of the text messages to her mother about Benji, she. She initially even denied sending it, but later. Oh, my God. But later she claimed that Brandon had dictated what she wrote. Really bombastic side eye. She also tried to explain away the videos. According to her, she wasn’t documented abuse. Oh, no, of course not. She was trying to get Brandon’s attention and show him what was happening. She told the jury, quote, my plan was to leave with them. If I would have known it would have led to this, I would have took off with them. I mean, for a, uh, four year old to be the size of a two year old doesn’t happen over a short period of time. So how long were you thinking of waiting while this boy is starving before you executed your plan? I just. Just asking for a friend. Actually, I’m asking for a lot of friends. My LaM’s out there. So we’re asking, how long were you thinking of waiting? During her testimony, Miranda cried on the stand. Ugh. Uh, not the tears. You know, as a lawyer for the prosecution, as she started crying, I would have just, like, started playing a video of Benji crying and just been like, what did you do when he was crying? What do you expect us to do now that you’re crying like, this is what I would have done. I’ve been thrown out of court, of course, but I’d have still done it. Worth it. So, anyway, she started crying on the stand as she was shown pictures of the boy and told jurors, quote, I lost everything I felt like any parent would feel when they lost their kid. She also reiterated that, quote, I didn’t starve him. I’m sorry. Did you not have video that you were looking at and sending to Brandon and your mom, but now you’re seeing still pictures, and now that’s making you cry. Not only did you have video that, again, you shared with people, but you had the little boy in your face, watching him turning to a skeleton. But now that you’re in front of people and you’re seeing pictures, that’s making you cry? Okay, yeah, we believe this. At one point, she showed a tattoo on her left arm with Benji’s birthday and death date. What? I mean, excuse me. What? Wow. And when asked if she would trade her life for his, she, uh, answered, quote, yes. Okay, so why weren’t you giving him your food then? As a prosecution, that would have been my next question. Why didn’t you give him your plate while you starved? Then her attorney, Anthony Cantrell, tried to build a broader narrative around her life. He described her as, quote, a, uh, compassionate individual who loved children. You know, except this one child that she starved to death. Obviously, he didn’t say that last part and pointed to her upbringing in Pleasant Town, saying that she had dropped out of school in the 11th grade under the influence of an abusive boyfriend. What does that have to do with her starving a child? So anybody who dropped out of the 11th grade, Chime in in the comments below and tell me if you’ve ever starved. I. I’m doing some research here, so I. I need your input, please. Thank you. The defense argued that her background and circumstances should be taken to account and even asked for probation instead of prison time. Sir, are you crazy? Are you a, uh, serious. It’s a serious question. Are you. Well, he suggested that Benji might have had autism or was a picky eater, who. Which led to his malnutrition. Again, let me ask my LaMs who have children with autism, if you have a picky eater, are, uh, any of y’ all starving your children, or do you just literally just give them what they want to eat because they’re picky eaters and you would rather them eat what they’re asking for? You know, say, bread, pizza, stuff like this that Benji was asking for, rather Than watch them starve. You know, when the defense defend. They get on my freaking nerves because you defend the wrong things. This woman literally, uh, can you imagine starving as an adult? Can you imagine starving? And she let this little boy starve. And you as a lawyer are sitting there trying to ask if she can get probation, and let’s take her dropping out of school in the 11th grade into account. Like, who the frick cares? Are you kidding me? And then you’re trying to blame the little boy and say he was a picky eater. So, I mean, he might have starved himself. Am I right? Anybody up top? No? Okay. Ah. Uh. These people get on my nerves. From there, the prosecution leaned heavily on medical testimony. Dr. Kimberly Molina testified clearly that Benji died of starvation and that his death was ruled a homicide. In her report, she noted that there was no indication of myocyte. Myocyte. Myocyte. Myocyte, I think, loss. And during rebuttal, Dr. Molina explained that while myocyte loss, which means the body digesting its own heart muscle, is typical in chronic starvation, it may not necessarily be present in acute starvation. She also explained there was no underlying medical conditions that could account for his condition. She specifically ruled out type 1 diabetes after finding normal glucose levels in vitreous fluid, an absence of ketones, and the presence of insulin producing islet cells in the pancreas. I’m not medical. I might have said some of those words wrong, so please forgive me. Either way, she was saying, look, he was starved to death and stopped trying to make up excuses and say that it was his fault. And also stopped trying to say any kind of medical reason was why he lost all this weight and died. No, he was starved to death. That’s basically what Dr. Molina was saying. Then, uh, Dr. James Lukefer supported that conclusion, saying, quote, in my opinion, there was substantial evidence that Benji had been the victim of starvation leading up to his death. He said that his weight dropped, quote, pretty abruptly after his fourth birthday and that Benji had never been a picky eater. He also told the court something that seemed obvious, but, you know, you can’t take that at face value. So he said, you know, it seems obvious to everybody, but let’s be real, Common sense ain’t common. So he decided he was going to say this out loud. And he looked at every. This is in my imagination, that he looked at every person in their eye, and then he directly looked at the defense, because that’s something I would have done. And I would have just, uh, stared the defense in the face and just been like, this is what he said. Children don’t starve themselves. Quote, children should be growing during childhood. They should not be losing weight if they are receiving proper nutrition. And then if I was him, I would like pick up the mic, because, you know, the only mic that’s there is the one that’s bolted into the platform. So I would have tried to pick it up so I could drop it and then walk off. But this is all just in my head. Except for the quote, he did actually tell the defense that children don’t starve themselves. The court was also shown more photos. And these showed the growth of langugo, uh, L A N U G O, which is a fine peach fuzz hair that grows on the body when it’s starving. I never knew that. I never knew that when the body is starving, it starts growing. Growing a particular type of hair. Huh. Do we want to find out why this happens? Let’s find out why this happens together, because I am a very curious person and I want to know. Let’s see. Okay, so, uh, according to WebMD and, you know, the joys of editing, so it seems like I only did this in five seconds. It says if you’ve ever held a newborn baby, you may have noticed a layer of soft, downy hair over their body. This hair, also known as Lang Yugo, usually goes away within a couple of weeks. So if you’ve ever held a newborn baby, now you know what I’m talking about. But it says Lang Yugo can also show up in adults, especially those with eating disorders. So, like I said, it’s the soft, feathery hair that grows all over the body, most often on the back and shoulders. Um, experts don’t know. Oh. Uh, they don’t know what causes it, but the most common theory is that it helps insulate the body that might I otherwise have a hard time staying warm. Got you. So if you’re, like, starving yourself, then you have no fat to keep. To keep you warm. So your body, possibly this is a possibility, because they’re not really sure, compensates by growing this hair. Ah. Uh, interesting. Oh. The medical evidence didn’t just confirm starvation. It showed how prolonged and severe it actually was. At the time of the autopsy, Benji’s ribs were visible. He had extensive bruising across his body. His arms, legs, torso, scalp, and the back of his head. And those injuries were in different stages of healing, pointing to ongoing abuse. So not just starving him. They also raised questions about the system itself. If Benji had been seen by CPs and medical professionals in the week before his death? Why wasn’t he removed from the home? Why didn’t anyone intervene if the signs were as obvious as the prosecution claimed? In closing statements, attorney Villarreal told the jury, quote, you got to meet the monster that Benji had to live with. The jury deliberated for about an hour, which they were literally just writing that whole time, because everybody went back there and were like, guilty, guilty, guilty. Everybody cool? Okay, let’s write this down. We need to get everybody’s spelling of their name done proper. That’s literally all that deliberation was. And they came back out with a, uh, guilty verdict. Miranda was convicted of serious bodily injury to a child. Why was it not murder? Because she literally slowly murdered this child. I mean, she didn’t do it with her bare hands, if you’re looking for technicalities, but she murdered this child. During the sentencing phase, the court heard a heartbreaking statement from Benji’s biological mother. So she was alive. Uh, I would like to know the backstory there. Why did Brandon have the kid and not Benji’s mother, which I wonder if she’s mother to all three boys, or was it just Benji? And, uh, why did Brandon have custody of the children? Just a question, just curious. Not blaming the mother at all, just wondering why he had them and not her. But her statement was read aloud by his aunt, which was her sister, Amy Flores Zepada. She told Miranda, quote, I will never forgive you. I hope that pain keeps you up at night. Instead of laughter. You will hear my son’s cry while he rests in peace. Although Miranda’s attorneys begged for probation so she could care for her new three month old baby that she was breastfeeding during the trial, the judge was unmoved. So was, uh, Kai. And Miranda was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Now, I know some of y’, all, not all of y’, all, but some of y’ all are like, oh, my God, that’s so heartless, Kai, she’s breastfeeding her three months old. How don’t you care? Well, think about this. She starved a four year old, even though that wasn’t technically her kid. She starved a 4 year old. How can you be certain that she won’t hurt any other children, hers or not? You know, the only certain way you know she’s not going to hurt a child is if the child is not near her at all. So that’s why I’m like, that does not move me. You can pump. We can come pick it up and you can pump and give us the milk. Miranda reportedly remained stoic as the sentence was announced. Even during the punishment phase, she acknowledged that she had failed to adequately care for Benji. But she still maintained that she was not responsible for his starvation. No accountability whatsoever. Her attorney immediately said that they would appeal. Of course they did. Saying, quote, it’s one of the few cases where I 100% believe my client is innocent. Are you, Are you serious right now? I’m looking around at my pretend audience, like, uh, you know, the pretend audience that sits in front of me as I deliver this case to you. Because I’m, uh, wondering, do y’ all think he’s being serious here? It’s one of the few cases where I 100% believe my client is innocent. I honestly, I think he’s just saying words. He’s just used to saying words. I don’t think those words mean anything to him. He argued that there was enough evidence to create reasonable doubt. Let’s play with this frickin reasonable doubt, why don’t you? And later attempted to secure a retrial, claiming that medical records from visits shortly before Benji’s death had not been provided. What do you think they’re going to show? He was 28 pounds with no fat whatsoever on him. What do you think those records from shortly before his death are going to show anyway? As I would. The judge denied the request on July 2, 2024, and ruled the defense failed to prove the records were unavailable during the initial trial. Yeah, why didn’t you bring it up then if it was going to help her case, why didn’t you bring it up now for Brandon? Uh, because we’ve already established that he’s a piece of turd, just like Miranda. His trial took place in October 2024 and lasted seven days. It would have lasted seven hours for me. His defense, led by attorney Jody Sorayas, argued that the locks in the house were not for deprivation, but were a response to Benji’s excessive hunger and behavioral issues. Excessive hunger based on the fact that he was starving? I’m pretty sure if you’re starving, you would be excessively hungry. Brandon testified that he was, quote, on the verge of leaving. Oh, my God. Okay, uh, so both of them were on the verge of leaving everybody and then taking the children. Both of them were just, uh. I was just about to do it. I was. Look, if it was just one more day that she was mistreating my son, I was about to cry. Pack him, both of y’, all, really. Anyways, let’s go through this lie that he about to say out his mouth. Brandon testified that he was, quote, on the verge of leaving Miranda because of how she treated his son, but claimed he never thought she would actually hurt him. I mean, she would just watch him starve to death while you watched him starve to death turning into a skeleton. But I never thought she would actually hurt him. He insisted he was at work for most of the day and didn’t know the extent of what was happening except you can come home and see that your child looked like a freaking skeleton. There was no hiding starvation. Have you ever seen those commercials that say, for only 50 cents a day, you too can help feed young Ramon or young Benji or young Bob. All his village needs is just a cup of rice and for 50 cents a day, you can provide that. Have you ever seen those commercials? And you see these little children that are literally skin and bones and skeletons and it makes you feel really bad and you’re just like, give me the number so I can call and provide my 50 cents a day. Now, if you saw a child like that walking the streets, please tell me if you couldn’t see that that child was being starved to death. What child do you know that does not have some type of medical condition and or being abused? What child do you know that his skull actually looks like a skull? Like the bone part of the skull. Children usually have, ah, so much baby fat on them that when they grow up, you see the baby fat coming off as they now switch into like their adult skull kind of looking faces. Y’ all know what I’m talking about. I don’t know how to explain, but you know what I’m talking about. So this little boy was four. He should have all types of cute chubby cheeks. Baby, look at his widow cheek. And you’re talking about. I was at work. I see nothing. Seriously, after seven hours of deliberation, again, why did it take so long? Look, it would have been 30 minutes. But after seven hours of deliberation, a jury found Brandon, uh, not guilty. Following his acquittal, Brandon expressed a deep regret saying, quote, I never got to tell Benjamin that day that I loved him and I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life. I don’t know. I don’t agree with that. You would have had to proven to me that you never saw your son in how long do you think it took? Because the doctor said it was really quickly. So let’s say he starved over the course of two months. You would have had to proven to me that you never saw your son in two months. And then after you Proved that to me. You would have had to explain to me how you didn’t see and why you didn’t see your son in two months. Don’t tell me you’re working too long because I work a long time. Yeah, I’m home. But I’ve also worked in corporate America. And when I came home, even if my child was in bed, I went to see my child in bed. There’s no way, There was no way that I would go a day without seeing my child. So how did you miss that he was turning into a skeleton? I really, I honestly want to know the answer to that. And I know a lot of people like the victims, uh, the family of the victims, or even the perps or the family of the perps listen to this episode because I get a lot of emails from them. So if you are listening to this, I would love to know that answer. I just want to know. I just want to know. That’s all. Miranda again attempted to appeal her conviction because you know, she doesn’t like to take accountability and requested a retrial. But her requests have been denied again. As it stands, she will remain in prison for the next two and a half decades for the starvation of a child who only wanted a piece of bread. And that’s where this case ends. What are your thoughts on what you heard? Let me know them in, uh, the comments below. And as a fictional LaM jury in our fictional court of love and murder, I want to hear your verdict. Do you think justice was fully served in this case or do you believe more people should have been held responsible for what happened to Benji? Answer those questions and then tell me, should Brandon have been found guilty as well or not? We already have Miranda guilty. But should Brandon have been found guilty as well or not? Let me know your verdict, your fictional verdict in the comments below. And speaking of your comments, I do have a couple comments to read. Let’s go through these. Last week, I didn’t ask for a fictional verdict. We didn’t get that. But we did get some comments. And there’s a couple things I want to talk to y’ all about too. So Gypsy left a comment. This was on that surprise Saturday case because I was writing an article and I was like, oh my God, I gotta talk about this. And if you remember that episode was, um, a 66 year old was marrying a 22 year old, but he had lied about his sex offender status. And also with this case, if you wanted to hear my husband’s commentary, you could join the patreon patreon.com loveandmurder um, that’s at the $3 a month tier and above. You could hear his commentary on this case. So Gypsy said, Kai, oh my God, this man needs his manhood completely removed. The parents are scum to me. They just wanted to pass her off so they didn’t have to deal with her anymore. My heart hurts for her. The clerk is a godsend. It’s about time we see a person doing their job. I want to be the one to spend at least five minutes with all three of them. I hope this encourages others to see something, say something, and then do something. Love the podcast. Love you too. Gypsy. Thank you so much for your comment. And yeah, I was just so happy that at least one person did their job. As opposed to with Benji, for instance. Nobody did their job, but at least one person in this whole ordeal with this 22 year old woman did their job. And yeah, her parents are complete, utter pieces of crap. And so was this man. You knew. You knew I could tell what was about to happen. And yeah, me and you, Gypsy, because I can’t give you my spot. Me and you, both of us together, will spend five minutes with all three of them. I can’t just give up my spot. I hope you understand. So we gonna tag team? You know, wrestling? I don’t. I don’t know if you’ve watched wwe. Well, it used to be wwe, but I don’t know if you watch. We could tag team. I’ll tag you, you’ll come off the ropes. You tag me, I come off the table. Look, don’t get me started. Thank you so much for your comment and thank you so much for listening. Then I got an email, y’. All. I got an email and it was from a cop who listens. Oh, my God. They were saying good stuff, but I was just like, oh, my God, cops to this. And I’m sitting here, B. I don’t bash all cops, don’t get me wrong. But the ones who don’t do their job, I’m like, I’m sitting here bashing them. Oh, my God. And lawyers. And can you imagine? But I want to thank that police officer who did listen. And they said they’re taking a break, um, from true crime for a minute because that case, it was a case about, I can’t remember exactly, but it was a case about, um, some severe child abuse. And they said they just had a kid. And that really hit home. And I saw your message. I didn’t get to answer your email, but I did see your Email. And let me tell you, when my daughter was born, I stopped watching the news because I couldn’t. I couldn’t cope. I couldn’t cope. So I know exactly how you feel. And doing this show, I used to listen to True Crime all the time. But doing this show, I don’t listen to anybody else’s podcast anymore. I cannot listen to True Crime. The only podcasts I listen to are, uh, like, entertainment. Like, they’re talking about Love is Blind recaps, or like, um, 90 day fiance recaps, or just like entertainment news. Like, I can’t listen to anything else. Everything I listen to while I’m writing is stories or entertainment. That’s all. So I understand how you feel. But thank you so much for listening. Either way, um, we still need to get the cases out there. We need to get the eyes and ears on it. So I understand how you feel. I understand you’re taking a break. And my top LaM, Christina Bobo, often takes breaks and then comes up, comes back and binges. So I get it. Now, the next comment. This was for Anime d’, imaglia, if you remember that case where the Florida mother left her newborn, um, to drown in the toilet and then she went to perform in the play. So this listener, Cat0120, said, I don’t like that you’re giving your opinion without any real understanding of the psychology of what would drive a person to be so afraid of their caregiver they’d hide something like giving birth to a child. So I hear you, Kat, but then I want to rebut with I don’t like that you’re giving your opinion without any real understanding of the psychology of my background except for what you’re assuming my background is. How do you know I don’t understand where anybody who would be so afraid to give birth to a child outside of marriage. How do you know I don’t have that background? You just assuming. Huh? Huh? Anyways, that is also beside the point. This girl, not that she was afraid to give birth to a child because of her psychology, she left the child to drown and said stuff like, can’t wait till it drowns. How long does it take? Would you do it again? Absolutely. That sounds like a raging lunatic to me. A sociopath, somebody with no feelings. So I wouldn’t want you to first of all assume what my background is. That’s just number one. So just like you’re chastising me, I’ve given my opinion. You sat here and gave your opinion without any real understanding of my psychology. With my background. So pot meets kettle, I don’t know. But anyways, where I was getting on her for and what I do get on anybody like this for, whether they have that background or not. And I’m not going to get into my background because I, you know, I’m, um, not. I’m not getting into my background in the public. I really don’t share a lot because I don’t want to get into it. It’s stuff that I don’t want to talk about. But even if you have a background where you’re scared of giving birth to a child, a lot of people who are scared of giving birth to a child, like, outside of marriage, and they’re afraid that their parents are going to beat them or whatever, you can always leave the child outside a firehouse, uh, a hospital. There’s a lot you could do and nobody’s going to ask questions. But leaving it to drown in a toilet, saying stuff like, yeah, how long does it take? I got to go. This taking too long. I got to go to perform in a play, you know, or they ask, would you do this again? And absolutely, I’ll do it again. That’s, that’s completely different than me talking about somebody who’s just afraid to give birth to a child because, you know, uh, some parents are freaking unhinged. And the level of strictness and the, the pressure they put on their children. And it’s like, you were a child too. Like, you made mistakes too, you know, let us make mistakes. And you need to just sit there and, and be there for us and help guide us in a rational way. We learn from our mistakes, not from you being an abusive jerk. Because when you’re an abusive jerk as a parent, then all the child does is find ways to get around it. That’s going to more than likely hurt them. So this is what I was talking about. I wasn’t talking about her psyche in terms of being afraid to give birth. I was talking about her psyche in terms of being a fricking psychopath and letting a newborn drowned and not caring and doing and saying stuff like, I’ll do it again. That’s what I was talking about. And no, I’m not yelling at you. I’m yelling at the situation, uh, of what Anime did. But also, I’m kind of annoyed that, you know, you came at me with that comment. And it’s like, if you just think about your comment towards a stranger, you’re talking to a stranger because you don’t know me, you don’t know My background, then it’s pot calling kettle. Anyways, either way, thanks for listening and I hope you continue to listen. I have nothing against you. Um, I have everything against people who do stuff like this, which is not you. At least I hope it’s not you. So I have nothing against you. Thank you for listening. I hope you continue listening. Now, I said earlier LaMs, that I need you to do something for me. So if you listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, if you could do me a huge favor and leave me a five star review that would be greatly appreciated. Because I get unfounded 1 star reviews for stupid reasons like the last one. I don’t go and look at my reviews often. I just don’t because I’m not in this game for reviews. But I know you need reviews to be able to get more eyes on your podcast. And my goal is to get more eyes and ears on this podcast on the cases, you know, get these stories heard. Maybe it’s going to help other people. So with that, I have to, you know, go in and look at my reviews. Da, da, da. Uh, not that I really care about them, but sometimes you, you, you, you, you know, sometimes there are reviews that just grinds my gears. So this review I saw, I don’t even know, I think it was the end of last year that I got a review that said one star and something like I say oh my God a lot, which I don’t. What I can see if you say I say like a lot, I say like an unhealthy amount of times. Like if you go through this podcast and I don’t know, drink apple juice every time I say like, you’re going to be a diabetic by the end of this podcast. So I can understand if you say I say like a lot. But again, what the hell does that have to do with the stories that I’m telling? What the hell does that have to do with getting the ears on the victims and, and, and getting the stories out there? Even if I said oh my God, an unfounded amount of times, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? So I get a one star for this. So anyways, I got a one star because this person said, I said oh my God a lot, which I’m pretty sure he doesn’t listen to my podcast because you would then see that I don’t say oh my God a lot other than this rant right here. If you said I said like that much, then yes, I would agree with you. So anyways, that’s why I got one star. Not that I was telling incorrect cases, not that I was given incorrect information, not that I was plagiarizing or something like that, but because I said, oh my God a lot. Oh, I’m calling on my LaMs. If you listen to me on Apple Podcasts or even if you don’t, if you can go to Apple Podcasts and just give me a five star review in the comment box, you could say anything like, uh, I don’t know, I got you, Kai. Or you know, we do this to get the victim story heard. Or, I don’t know, LaM for life. You could say anything really quick. You don’t have to put a whole comment in there. But if you can go to Apple Podcasts, look up love and murder heartbreak to homicide and leave me a five star review, that would be greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated. And everybody who left me comments, good and bad, I want to thank you for listening. Thank you for leaving your comments. I want to hear from you either way. So that is all I have for you today and that is all the ranting that I have for you, whether it’s about the case or whether it’s about your comments, whichever way. And I want to remind you what we say at the end of every episode, we say that it’s say it with me now. All, uh, love and no murder, y’. All. See you in the next episode. Bye. Also, stay tuned for your after show if you’re part of the LaM Patreon Fam. Bye, Foreign. Hey LaMs. Welcome to your after show. If you want to hear after shows, which are just cases that I want to talk more about and I now leave probably at the end of every full episode, or at least almost every full episode, then join us over in the Patreon. Patreon.com loveandmurder as part of the LaM Patreon Fam. You do not even get this intro here. You don’t get the intro at the beginning of a regular episode and we just get in, into, right into the cases and you can get this and more starting at only $3 a month. Patreon.com forward/loveandmurder so let’s get into your after show that was requested by LaM Patreon Fam member Candy Cherie. As with all of my after shows, this is an ah, article that I wrote up and I actually haven’t come up with a title of this yet because this case is going out tomorrow. But the gist of it is a man shot his wife 15 times in front of their child because he thought she was cheating on him. So let’s get into it. So if you’re not part of the LaM Patreon fam and you want to continue hearing this episode, join now at the $3taron above patreon.com loveandmurder and I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye.

Past Cases Mentioned in this Episode:

Florida Mother Left Newborn to Drown in Toilet and Went to Perform in a Play | Anne Mae Demegillo
https://murderandlove.com/florida-mother-left-newborn-to-drown-in-toilet-and-went-to-perform-in-a-play-anne-mae-demegillo/

Wedding Stopped as Groom Arrested for Allegedly Lying About Sex Offender Status | Bradley D. Armstrong
https://murderandlove.com/wedding-stopped-as-groom-arrested-for-allegedly-lying-about-sex-offender-status-bradley-d-armstrong/

Sources: (what the sources say)

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/miranda-casarez-sentenced-for-fatal-neglect-of-stepson-benji-child-abuse-starvation-prison-sentence

https://lawandcrime.com/crime/i-hope-instead-of-laughter-you-hear-my-sons-cries-stepmom-sentenced-for-starvation-death-of-4-year-old-stepson-forced-to-drink-urine-hand-sanitizer-and-hot-sauce/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13331743/Texas-Stepmom-jailed-starved-four-year-old-boy-death.html

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/09/30/i-want-some-bread-jury-shown-more-than-30-videos-of-child-begging-looking-for-food/

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/pictures-video-show-decline-of-starved-boy-19394349.php

https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/nation-world/cervera-found-not-guilty-for-starving-son-speaks-out-san-antonio-texas-brandon-cereva-benjamin-miranda-casarez

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/stepmother-found-guilty-of-injury-to-child-after-4-year-old-boy-dies-of-starvation

https://morbidology.com/the-boy-who-begged-for-bread-benjamin-cervera/

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/04/18/woman-sentenced-to-25-years-in-prison-for-starving-her-stepson-to-death/

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/fourth-court-of-appeals/2025/04-24-00293-cr.html

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/07/02/woman-denied-retrial-in-stepson-starvation-death-case/

https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/cervera-found-not-guilty-for-starving-son-speaks-out-san-antonio-texas-brandon-cereva-benjamin-miranda-casarez

https://morbidology.com/the-boy-who-begged-for-bread-benjamin-cervera