Hardly Anyone Knew They Existed- The Story of Sofia & Julian Brito

Hardly Anyone Knew They Existed- The Story of Sofia & Julian Brito

A handwritten note written on Monday that investigators say they found says the children were bad and that they were beaten.

The story I have for you today is one that took place in the same town where Jeremiah Oliver was killed: Fitchburg, Massachusetts. There are actually two children in today’s story, Sophia and her brother. He survived; sadly, she did not. Both of these children were somehow hidden from the world, and they suffered greatly at the hands of their mother, all the while their father stood back and did nothing. This is the story of Sophia and Julian Brito.

Sophia Brito was born on April 14, 2011, in Lowell, Massachusetts. When she was four, she had moved to Fitchburg with her mother, Shaina Pedrosa, her father, Marvin Brito, and her older brother, Julian. Julian had also been born in Lowell in 2008. These children didn’t go to school, there was no relative checking in on them, and there was no child services involvement in their lives. So, there was very little known about Sophia and Julian other than the fact that they were the very best of friends.

The family had moved into their home here at 139 Stony Brook Road in Fitchburg in 2015. The neighbors said that the family was rarely seen and often kept to themselves. Since the children didn’t attend public school, many neighbors didn’t even know of their existence. But this is where two innocent children would unknowingly be abused for years. Julian had attended public school very briefly in 2012, but after that, neither child stepped foot back in a school again. In 2017, their mother Shaina had submitted a homeschooling application for both of the children. This was their first and only recorded interaction with the city’s school district. So these children were not attending school from 2012 to 2017, and nobody had any idea or did anything about it.

Both of the children’s parents, Marvin Brito and Shaina Pedrosa, were originally from Lowell, Massachusetts. Prior to their moving to Fitchburg, they lived on Ford Avenue in Lowell, and much like their neighbors in Fitchburg, the people that lived near them had also reported that the family was very rarely seen.

On the morning of April 10, 2018, Shaina Pedrosa texted her husband to tell him that there was something wrong with their daughter Sophia. Marvin, who was on his way back home at the time, told Shaina that they needed to call the police, but Shaina replied back telling him that she wasn’t going to jail and instead she was going to flee. A few minutes later, at 11:58 a.m., Marvin dialed 911 and told the operator that his daughter Sophia was not breathing. He also told the operator that he believed his wife and son were back at the home with Sophia; he was still on his way there.

Shaina, however, was not home; she had run as she said she would. When police arrived at the home, nine-year-old Julian was sitting outside on the front steps, and he was visibly injured. He told police that his little sister Sophia was upstairs dead. Once they entered the house, police found six-year-old Sophia. She was lying unresponsive in one of the upstairs bedrooms. She had extensive bruising throughout her body, and her brother Julian also had lots of bruising, two fractured legs, a neck wound, as well as various other cuts and burns.

This is UMass Memorial Hospital in Leominster, which is about seven miles away from the family’s home. This is where Sophia and Julian were both originally brought and where Sophia would also be pronounced dead. Julian would later be transferred to UMass Memorial in Worcester for more intensive care. It was later determined by the chief medical examiner that Sophia had died from blunt force injuries, and her manner of death was homicide. Ironically, as all of this was happening, the family’s minivan that sat in the driveway had a sticker on the back that showed a smiling, happy family of four—far from what was really going on in this family.

So police were on the hunt for Shaina, who was nowhere in the house or the surrounding area. A “be on the lookout” was issued by police for Shaina as well as the car that she was driving. The public was told that she may be armed and dangerous. Not long after that, Shaina’s car was spotted in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, which is about a 40-minute drive northeast from Fitchburg. However, no one was in the car at the time, so the search for Shaina continued.

Police would try to ping Shaina’s cell phone multiple times, and it would end up pinging near a cell phone tower on High Rock Road in Fitchburg, only about two miles away from her home on Stony Brook Road. Around the same time, a woman who had heard the “be on the lookout” for Shaina had seen a woman matching Shaina’s description a short time later talking on her cell phone. The resident didn’t think that there was anything out of the ordinary about this, however she called the police just to be safe. So officers were dispatched to the area where the cell phone tower had pinged Shaina’s phone.

Upon their arrival, police found Shaina and placed her under arrest. When they arrested her, they found that she had on her an envelope containing several thousand dollars worth of cash, as well as a journal. In the journal, police would find an entry from the day prior, April 9, in which Shaina talks about beating her children and she put a note saying that they were bad and beaten. She also said that this beating had left them both bedridden.

Shaina was originally charged with two counts of assaulting a child and reckless endangerment. Marvin Brito, the children’s father, was also placed under arrest, and he was charged with reckless endangerment and permitting injury to a child. A search warrant for the family’s home was obtained, and they found small droplets of blood throughout the house as well as many holes in the walls that looked to have been caused by a hammer. In addition, investigators would end up uncovering even more journal entries by Shaina—hundreds, in fact—that detailed the beatings of both of her children since 2014. These diary entries suggested that a high degree of trauma and physical abuse had existed in the home. What a sick individual, recording how she hurt her children! What is it, so she can go back and look at them later and smile about all the awful things she’s done? God!

Both Marvin and Shaina were arraigned at the Fitchburg District Court, and new charges had been added. Shaina Pedrosa was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and battery on a child, as well as reckless child endangerment in regards to Julian. The 37-year-old pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and was ordered held without bail, as she was clearly a flight risk. Marvin Brito was also held without bail after pleading not guilty to his charge of manslaughter, permitting aggravated assault and battery on a child, and reckless child endangerment.

When Julian had been brought into the hospital for treatment for his injuries, he had immediately been taken into emergency custody by the Department of Children and Families. He had tons of wounds, cuts, scars, and burns; one large wound on his neck had actually been superglued shut by Shaina. Julian was also found to be bone-thin and malnourished. When police had spoken to the little boy at the hospital, he told them that he and his sister had actually been attacked by bullies when they had been left outside on a walk alone. I’m guessing that’s the story that his mother Shaina fed him prior to her fleeing the house.

Julian also told the police how he had tried so hard to help his little sister that day, but he couldn’t because he had fractures in both of his legs. He said that he had heard his mother in the bathroom with his sister, screaming at her, and then he heard his mother pick up Sophia and throw her down. He went on to say that he badly wanted to call 911 to try to save his sister’s life, but neither one of his parents would let him. Julian also told police that originally his mother had become angry on the morning of April 10 because his sister Sophia wouldn’t drink her water. Yep, she ended up getting killed because she wouldn’t drink water!

The little boy also said that after his sister’s death, he himself wanted to die so he could be with her. He described Sophia as his best friend and said they always had fun together. Julian would remain in the ICU for 10 days, and then he would be released to his uncle who lived near Boston—Shaina Pedrosa’s brother and Julian’s uncle was actually a licensed clinical social worker too, and he himself said he had never encountered such brutality from a parent in his career.

Now, Shaina had claimed that she had homeschooled her children, but she had taught them very little, if anything. The main purpose of their homeschooling, as I’m sure you know, was to hurt them and then hide the evidence. Shaina had hit Sophia and Julian with belts, a hockey puck, a crowbar, and sticks. It was also very clear that Shaina knew what she was doing was wrong, because after she beat her children she would try to cover their bruises up with makeup. She would sometimes hit her children so hard that the leather belts would rip, and sometimes it was so hard that the children would nearly pass out. Additionally, Shaina would also withhold food from her children and call them idiots, making them believe that they deserved the treatment they were getting.

The thing is, as I had said, the family was never known by the Department of Children and Families. Police had only ever been called to the home a few months prior to Sophia’s death, on February 2, 2018, but it was only because a small fire had started in their basement at their home on Stony Brook Road. It had been started by a candle near a television stand in the basement, and clothing had caught on fire. One of the adults in the home, however, was able to extinguish the fire before it caused too much damage or before the first responders had a chance to provide assistance. So since it had become unnecessary for the police to enter the home because they had taken care of it on their own, nobody saw the children at all that time.

Even though Shaina had been the primary abuser of both children, on occasion Marvin admitted that he would spank them, but he said he only did this when he felt like it was warranted—never to the extent that his wife Shaina had. Marvin, who was a long-time employee at a concrete company, also was not home during the day, so he said he had no idea the extent of the abuse that the children had been going through. He said that when he wasn’t working during the days, he was forced to live downstairs in the basement for the rest of the time; Shaina was the one who primarily raised their children.

Text messages would corroborate the claims that Marvin had given police that he lived in the basement and his wife forced him to live down there. These messages showed that Shaina even made her husband ask for permission to go upstairs for things like going to the bathroom, eating, and showering. But Marvin also told police that he often heard his wife upstairs yelling and striking both of their children, as well as the screams of pain that these attacks produced. He also admitted that he had seen Shaina strike the children and he had witnessed bruising on Julian’s arms. In one of Shaina’s diary entries that had been found, it said that her husband Marvin had threatened to punch her in the face if she didn’t stop beating the children. Other than that, there was no evidence that he did anything to try to stop the abuse. Julian would later say about his father, “I don’t know why he stood by, but she manipulated everyone. If it wasn’t for Shaina, we would have had a good life with just my dad.”

In December of 2021, Marvin Brito would plead guilty to his charge of manslaughter. His lawyer told the judge that his client was pleading guilty so that he could accept responsibility for not saving his daughter and letting down his son. A special prosecutor that was assigned to the case also told the judge during Marvin’s hearing that it was a very serious case with egregious facts, and he spoke of the extremely disturbing photographs that had been taken of the children’s injuries. The prosecutor said it looked like they were painted in purple from their shoulders to their knees.

Marvin’s lawyer additionally told the judge that his client wanted both his son and daughter to know that he was sorry for what had happened to them and that he was sorry he had not protected them. He also said that Marvin is very hopeful and would love nothing more than to one day, on Julian’s terms, speak to his son again. The prosecution had requested that Marvin be sentenced to 12 to 14 years in prison, while the defense asked for just time served. He would end up being sentenced, however, to eight years behind bars. He did, however, receive credit for the 1,340 days he had already served in jail. He will also be placed on probation for three years following his release and will not be able to have contact with any children under the age of 18. He is also not allowed to speak to Julian until Julian is 18, if he wishes to.

Shaina Pedrosa would go to trial in June of 2022, and she would take a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as well as assault and battery on a child with substantial injury and reckless child endangerment. It was the priority of the District Attorney’s office to spare Julian from the anguish of a trial and having to relive all the awful details of what he and his sister had to go through. So instead, they had wanted this plea deal, and Shaina decided that she needed to plead guilty because they had so much damning evidence against her. Her attorney actually said that because of all the journals that had been found in Shaina’s handwriting, if it had gone to trial his client didn’t have a prayer and she would quote “be a goner.”

Shaina’s attorney described her as highly intelligent, as she held a psychology degree and had worked for a year and a half as—get this—a case manager at the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children! She helped out first-time mothers and fathers, and then she later worked to help families with daycare vouchers. Ironic, isn’t it? Shaina, however, had never been diagnosed with any type of mental illness her entire life.

Julian would read his victim impact statement in front of the court during Shaina’s sentencing, and he said that he did this because he wanted to show his mother—whom he would only call by her first name—that he was no longer afraid of her. He said that he had trusted her, and she failed him. She had made him and his sister believe that she was beating them for their own good. He said that Shaina deserved worse than the death penalty, and life in prison would be too easy for her because she would get food and water, unlike he and his sister had. Julian also said that he struggles to understand why his sister was killed and not him, because he always thought that his mother hated him more. Shaina would look at her son while he was reading his statement, but Julian refused to even glance back at her.

Julian said in his victim impact statement about his sister Sophia, “I still miss her. She would be 11 now, and we could do even more together.” It took Julian an entire two years after his sister’s death to sleep in his own bed again—that’s how scared of Shaina he was! Julian also said that once he went back to school, he was having trouble at first because Shaina didn’t teach him anything and he was way behind his peers. He also said he had a very hard time making friends because he had never been exposed to any other child but his sister. Additionally, Julian has been in therapy for years now, and his uncle said he is resilient, strong, and unwilling to cower or be silent.

Shaina’s brother, who took custody of Julian after Sophia’s death, said that his sister needs to be held accountable for all the evil she has done. He said that his sister Shaina had fallen apart emotionally and withdrawn into a deep, toxic state of isolation. “The girl I knew has been buried under layers of hatred, mental illness, addiction, and resentment,” he wrote. He however did not give any details as to what he meant by her mental illness or addiction. He said that Shaina had always been a reclusive person who had exhibited concerning and angry behavior on the limited number of occasions she had visited with family, and she had always seemed very controlling of her children. At one point during Shaina’s brother’s statement in court where he spoke about how much he missed his niece Sophia, Shaina would roll her eyes.

After pleading guilty to her murder charge, Shaina Pedrosa was sentenced to life in jail. She was also given an additional five years for assault and battery and reckless endangerment. She will, however, be eligible for parole after serving 25 years, and the 1,149 days that she already served was counted towards her sentence. She also is not to contact Julian until he’s at least 18, though I have a feeling he’s not going to want to talk to her even then! Get this: Shaina’s attorney actually asked the judge if she could be granted protective custody when she arrived at MCI-Framingham, the women’s state prison, but the judge said he was not going to make a ruling on that. He had asked for protective custody for his client because, quote, “they’ll kill her the minute she gets in there.” So ultimately, Shaina was told that she could expect up to one year in protective custody.

Wonder Fund, a private nonprofit that helps children who are receiving services from DCF, started accepting donations to help pay for Sophia’s funeral expenses. Fitchburg resident Bob Pouler had helped to organize the fund for Sophia’s funeral, and he also helped organize a toy and clothing drive for Julian Brito. A candlelight vigil was held in Riverfront Park in Fitchburg on April 13, 2018, to honor Sophia Brito and her brave big brother. Many people turned out for the little girl and boy that hardly anyone even knew existed. In fact, no one who was in attendance at the vigil said that they knew the family, but they were all very saddened by what happened to Sophia and Julian. Candles arranged in a heart sat in front of a table with pictures of both children and a sign with the words, “Stand up for children.” Residents signed posters with prayers for Sophia and words of encouragement for her brother Julian.

Well, thank you for listening to Sophia and Julian’s story today. Julian was so strong to stand again in front of his mother in court. She not only tortured and abused him for years, but she ended up taking the life of the one person he loved most in this world. It’s so cruel, and it’s infuriating that their father did nothing to stop her. He threatened to punch Shaina in the face one time—big deal! He couldn’t even do that. He left the house every single day for work and left his children in her hands, knowing full well that she was regularly hurting them. There is no way he didn’t know, even living in the basement.