From leaving children in a hot minivan to setting fire to children’s bedrooms, we count 8 of the most horrible nannies.
8. Louise Woodward
Louise Woodward was an English nanny who was arrested and later charged for the shaking death of 8-month old Matthew Eappen.
Working for Sunil and Deborah Eappen in Newton, Massachusetts, Woodward’s crime of child abuse was discovered after Matthew was admitted to a Children’s Hospital in Boston. Doctors found that the comatose infant had a fractured skull, and five days later he passed away. It was determined that Matthew had “shaken baby syndrome” after a doctor noticed retinal hemorrhages.
Woodward was found guilty of second-degree murder, but days later a judge changed the conviction to involuntary manslaughter.
7. Yoselyn Ortega
In an apartment in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, nanny Yoselyn Ortega murdered the two children in her care and attempted to commit suicide.
The brutal act occurred because, according to Ortega, she was angry at the family for changing her schedule and making her clean. In addition, she also blamed her financial issues. Ortega, who suffered from delusions, believed that stabbing the children – a girl, 6, and a boy, 2 – in the bathroom while their mother was picking up the third child was justifiable. After stabbing the children, Ortega slit her own throat but ended up surviving.
Later on, Ortega apologized profusely for the crime but remains in a psychiatric hospital.
6. Kristin Marie Jones
An Oregon nanny found herself in very hot water after leaving two children in her care in a very hot minivan.
The nanny, 23-year-old Kristin Marie Jones, left the 2-month old girl and 3-year-old boy in the minivan while she went into a tanning salon. It was 90 degrees outside and the children were sweating and screaming. A witness called the police, and an officer arrived and let them out. The heat from one of the children could easily be felt through the officer’s bulletproof vest!
Jones was charged with two counts of first degree criminal mistreatment, recklessly endangering another and first degree child neglect.
5. Martha Dreher
Babysitter Martha Dreher was at her wit’s end with the bad behavior of the two girls she had to watch. Instead of giving them a tedious time-out, Dreher decided to set their bedrooms on fire.
The 57-year-old Texas woman went into the house one night while the two girls were out of town with their father, and their brother was out. She went to the girls’ bedrooms and set them on fire. When she was done, Dreher closed the doors to try and contain the fire. An hour after she left, their brother returned home and noticed the smoke, but by then the fire had burned itself out.
Dreher was charged with arson, but denied committing the crime despite surveillance footage of her entering the house, then leaving 20 minutes later. That was the same time flames could be seen in the girls’ bedrooms.
4. Nicole Candelaria
‘Harsh’ is probably too light of a word to describe the punishment Arizona nanny Nicole Candelaria gave a 3-year-old girl for pooping in the bathtub… she forced the little girl to eat her own feces!
The 27-year-old, in addition to making her boyfriend’s 3-year-old daughter eat her own poop for the accident, also held her down on the toilet seat and shoved a bar of soap in her mouth. Candelaria called the little girl a liar, but her siblings confirmed their sister’s story. Doctors also found bruising on the little girl that indicated she was held down with force.
Candelaria was charged with felony child abuse.