Jealous Mom Dumps Daughters De@d Body In Feces & Vomit

Jealous Mom Dumps Daughters De@d Body In Feces & Vomit

Candice Cartagena was the mother of 8-year-old Bianca Cartagena. Now, on November 29, 2010, Bianca was dropped off by her grandmother, Kathleen Sweeney, at the home of Candice at 2:15 p.m. Kathleen is the mother of Candice. Kathleen described Bianca as a healthy, lively 8-year-old girl who exhibited no signs of ill health or physical injury. The plan was for Bianca to spend some time with her mother before leaving her with her father, Ruben Cartagena, and his family for Disney World—pay attention to that, I’ll come back to Disney World at the end. Mrs. Sweeney was going to pick Bianca up around 5:00 p.m. and take her to gymnastics.

But earlier that morning at 7:30, Candice texted her mother asking to come along so that they could chat outside of Bianca’s presence. Now, shortly before 3:00 p.m., Candice texted her mother that Bianca wanted to skip gymnastics and go to Dave & Buster’s instead. She explained that her friends had promised to take Bianca there for her birthday, so they were all going to go there that evening after the friend got off from work, and then she would bring her home to Kathleen’s house, where Bianca had been living for the past few months. She was living there because Candice was dealing with her personal problems and trying to get her life back on track.

Now, at 4:00 p.m., however, Candice informed her mother that she should come pick up Bianca for gymnastics, and the reason why there was this slight change of mind is because Bianca displayed an awful attitude during homework and she did not see fit to reward her with a trip to Dave & Buster’s. 15 minutes later though, after this initial message, she wrote to her mother, “Never mind, I’m actually going to go with Stacy, the friend, and will be home around 8:30 p.m.” So, as you can see, we’re going to go out, we’re not going out, or never mind, we are going out to Dave & Buster’s.

Now, at Dave & Buster’s later that evening, Candice texted her mother and said, “Wait a minute, we’ll be there closer to 9:00,” and then later she texted her mother saying, “Bianca is passed out, I’m going to keep her here with me tonight, I’m off tomorrow. Stacy also got her a new outfit and I want to show her.” Her mother then asked her, “Well, why are you off from work? That’s a bit strange.” Candice replied, “It’s a floating holiday, it’s okay, I will look after her, don’t you worry.” What’s interesting is that most of these messages had been deleted from Candice’s phone.

Now, in the aftermath, Stacy—the friend who had lived with Candice for a short time in 2010—testified, however, that she had no plans to take Candice and Bianca to Dave & Buster’s. Well, that’s a bit strange! In fact, Stacy and Candice exchanged multiple text messages in which Candice promised she would treat her child better, and they also spoke about how Candice owed Stacy money. So, at 2:00 p.m., Candice stated that she and Stacy would meet later because Bianca had gymnastics and she had an appointment with a shrink. So at 6:00 p.m., Candice sent a text to Stacy saying, “Don’t worry, I’m going to come over,” but then by the time 10:00 p.m. came along later that evening, she never did, and these text messages between Stacy and Bianca were also deleted. So at this initial stage of the situation, she tells her mother Kathleen, “Don’t worry, we’re going to go out, you stay at home, I’m going to go with Stacy,” and she’s telling Stacy, “Don’t worry, I’m going to come over to you,” but she never did.

Now, at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, Candice texted her mother saying that they just woke up and that she would pick Bianca up at school and bring her home by 6:00 p.m. Kathleen then asked to have Bianca call her; however, several hours later, there was no response, to which eventually Candice called her mother and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll drop her off at 6:00,” and her mother Kathleen said, “Okay, that’s fine.” But then later she said, “No, no, no, I’ll drop her off by 7:00.” So Kathleen, being worried and knowing her daughter, called the school and realized Bianca was not in school. So Candice called her mother and said, “Well, we spent the day together at the museum, but hey, we’re on our way back now.” And of course, this is quite strange, as it’s quite rare that a parent will take their child to a museum on a school day.

So police reviewed the surveillance camera footage of the museum on that day. They also reviewed surveillance camera footage at Dave & Buster’s. Both cameras showed no signs of Candice or Bianca. A bit weird, isn’t it? What is this cat-and-mouse game that she is playing? So Kathleen, expecting Bianca at 7:00 p.m., calls Candice, and she says, “Okay, where are you? We’re going to go on a trip, I have things to do, where are you? What are you doing?” Candice hung up and stopped responding to her mother.

So Kathleen had enough. She got Bianca’s stepfather, Brian; they met up with Casey Lamarka, who is Candice’s sister; and they went to Candice’s house at around 9:00 p.m. There, they discovered Bianca in her mother’s darkened bedroom, completely covered by a top sheet. After they pulled it down, Brian the stepfather saw Bianca lying on her back with her right arm extended upward and her left arm resting across her lower abdomen at the waist. He felt that her body was rigid and cold. Her t-shirt was pulled up to her chest, one foot was barefoot, and the other was half covered by a sock that appeared to have been pulled down. The bedding was in disarray, with the bottom fitted sheet pulled up, revealing the mattress. Pillows were askew on the bed, and one pillow was on the floor on the left side of the bed along with the child’s backpack and sneakers. The other sock was on the right-side floor next to the bed below the body.

Kathleen and the others gained entry into the locked and darkened house with the aid of a crowbar. They observed Bianca’s coat on the downstairs banister and saw that the house had been stripped of cabinets, appliances, and fixtures. There was also feces and vomit at various locations, and Candice’s two dogs were upstairs yapping. The bedroom doors were all closed, and very few lights were turned on. Candice was not in the house, but was later found by police in the backyard. She was in a shed, dressed in a winter coat, pants, and sneakers. She was covered in blankets and carpet remnants under some shelves, perched against them.

Police also found a large bottle of ibuprofen and a container of Arizona Iced Tea. There was vomit on the floor, and several other bottles of pills were also found in the house. Now, while Candice initially appeared to be moaning and unresponsive, her eyes were twitching beneath her closed lids in response to light, and her arms exhibited control. This led the EMT, Don Snyder, to conclude that she was faking unconsciousness. Now, in the ambulance, she was responsive to questions about her situation; specifically, when asked what pills she had taken, she rattled off a long menu of medications, including ibuprofen, Selecta, metformin, Benadryl, Claritin, and Tylenol. The officer, Don, described her as being in decent condition, and her trip to the hospital was deemed by the EMT to be a non-emergency.

Given the irregularities surrounding Bianca’s death, Candice was not arrested following her hospitalization. Instead, she was admitted for psychiatric treatment at the Erie County Medical Center and released after a couple of months. Now, in May of 2013, however, Candice was charged with the murder of Bianca—3 years later, mind you—and she proceeded to a non-jury trial in June 2014. It was undisputed at trial that Bianca died at her mother’s home in the exclusive company of her mother. Between December 2010 and her arrest in May 2013, Candice consistently denied knowledge of how Bianca died, and testimony offered at trial showed she had given a number of different accounts to police, boyfriends, and family members.

For instance, Officer Mark Don of the Amherst Police Department accompanied Candice in the ambulance to the hospital from her home on the evening of Bianca’s death. Now, at the hospital, Officer Don had a conversation with Candice to gather information to complete his initial police report. In addition to such information as her name, date of birth, and phone number, he asked Candice if she had any other family members, and Candice mentioned Bianca. When the police officer asked her, “Okay, Candice, well, where is Bianca?” Candice told him that her mother had picked Bianca up at 5:00 p.m. to go to gymnastics and that by then Bianca was at her parents’ home. When the police officer asked what she remembered of the night, she responded that she remembers taking pills and lying down.

Officer Don was relieved at the hospital by Detective Solak. Detective Solak learned from Candice that she started taking pills 24 hours before her hospitalization. And remember I mentioned Disney World earlier? Well, that had something to do with it—I’m coming on to it, give me two minutes, I’ll keep going with more of the story. Candice also told Detective Solak that Bianca was with Candice’s mother. Then you had Richard Walter, a detective lieutenant; he went to the hospital to notify Candice that Bianca was deceased and to execute a search warrant of the house. When Detective Walter informed her that Bianca was dead, she showed no emotion. Candice didn’t show any physical response or outward physical response whatsoever.

Further, while undergoing psychiatric treatment at the hospital, Candice became involved with a man named Avery Ray. She moved in with Ray upon her release from treatment. Ray testified that he didn’t talk about Bianca’s death with Candice too much because he was trying to keep things positive, but Candice did tell him that the last thing she remembers is putting Bianca to bed, and she woke up overdosing on pills—that is as far as she could remember. Ray’s brother, on the other hand, testified that one evening Candice was driving him to his girlfriend’s home and out of nowhere she just blurted out, “I didn’t mean to hurt Bianca.”

Furthermore, several months later, Candice met Jonathan Arena and moved in with him. After a couple of weeks, Candice told Arena that she was very depressed and that she took a lot of pills, laid down in bed with Bianca, and the next thing she remembers is waking up and Bianca being dead. Candice also gave vague accounts of Bianca’s death to three of her friends. One of them was Stacy Reeves, who met Candice in 2000. They both worked together and continued to be friends up until the time of Bianca’s death. Stacy did not reach out to Candice after Bianca’s death, but received a Facebook message in 2011 in which Candice said, “I was so messed up when we last hung out and talked. I hated myself after I found Bianca had passed in her sleep.”

Candice also provided an account to her friend from high school, Jim Banas, who testified that Candice told him she and Bianca were alone at home, they laid down to take a nap, she got up a little while later to go into the kitchen to make dinner, and a little while later she went in to check on Bianca because she usually doesn’t nap that long, and she found her cold in bed, then went out to the shed and took a bunch of pills. It’s all a bit confusing, isn’t it? Another of Candice’s high school friends, Tori Henley, testified that Candice told her she remembers telling Bianca that they were going to take a nap, but she does not remember anything else because she took like all the medication that was in her house.

Lastly, Candice gave ambiguous accounts of Bianca’s death to her family as well, in particular her sister, Casey Lamarka. Casey testified that in a series of text messages and emails after Candice left the hospital, she consistently wrote that she doesn’t remember anything from that night. But then in March 2011, Casey received an email in which Candice wrote, “I also need you to know that I do live with tremendous guilt over what happened to Bianca, and I’ll take responsibility. My lawyer is already aware that I want to surrender. If charges are filed, I will never be able to give anyone the answers as to what happened, as my frame of mind was so emotionally disturbed and erratic with all the pills I took. I truthfully do not remember.”

Now, given the absence of any witnesses, right, and the ambiguity and variation in Candice’s statements to everyone, the key issue at trial was whether the medical opinion evidence showed that Bianca died naturally of cardiac arrest or whether she died of asphyxiation at the hands of another. The first medical expert to testify was Dr. Diane Vertes, the chief medical examiner of Erie County, who performed the autopsy on Bianca. Dr. Vertes said that Bianca did not die of any heart-related issues or any other natural causes, but that the mechanism of her death was asphyxia. Nevertheless, in her initial report issued in March 2011, Dr. Vertes listed the cause of death as undetermined because she could not be clear whether Bianca’s suffocation was a homicide or whether it was the result of an accidental overlay.

Now, after reviewing all of the medical evidence and related scientific literature and seeking a second opinion from a fellow medical examiner, Dr. Vertes came to the conclusion that Bianca died of asphyxia and that the manner of death was homicide. Now, in the trial, the prosecution called Dr. Kim Collins, a well-regarded forensic pathologist from South Carolina. Dr. Collins’s particular interest is pediatric forensic pathology, and at one point in her career, she was a director of laboratory for congenital heart disease in children. Now, in order to formulate her opinion on Bianca’s death, Dr. Collins reviewed her entire medical history. Having done so, she concluded that her health prior to her death was completely fine. She said that Bianca was a healthy 8-year-old girl and had no congenital abnormalities or any acquired disease that would have impeded her in school or in her daily activities. Accordingly, and based on her examination of the autopsy and the autopsy glass slides, Dr. Collins believed within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Bianca did not die of natural causes, but by asphyxiation at the hands of another person.

Now, for the defense, they called a medical expert, Dr. Jonathan Arden. He was a forensic pathologist. He disagreed with the opinion that Bianca died of asphyxiation and listed several positive indicators that he believed were missing from the evidence, including extensive soft tissue injuries, as the body did not show any injuries indicative of a serious struggle. He said that Bianca experienced a sudden cardiac death due to her dilated cardiomyopathy. On cross-examination, the prosecution highlighted testimony from Dr. Arden that he had formed his opinion based on a mistaken understanding that Bianca had been found face down on the bed rather than on her back.

However, given all the evidence submitted at trial, 35-year-old Candice received the maximum sentence in the death of her daughter: she received 25 years to life. The judge found her guilty of intentionally suffocating her daughter. Candice was tearful and sobbing. She delivered a statement in the courtroom; she told the courtroom that being a mother was the best part of her life—now, wasn’t she just stop lying? She said, “I miss her so much”—no you don’t, stop lying! She said she wished she could call back—no you don’t, stop lying! She did say, “I do accept responsibility fully for the things that I did do,” and then she continued to ramble in some weird statement and crying. However, she did blame everyone else for the mistakes she made.

The District Attorney, Frank, said it’s a tough but deserved sentence and attacked her statement, saying, “You did this. You are a pathological liar, and you’ll say anything to save yourself. You are one screwed-up human being. Anybody who suffocates a child or takes their own child’s life is a breed of criminal that thankfully we don’t see often.”

So the question you have is: why did all this happen? Okay, here’s what actually happened: Candice suffocated her daughter in a jealous rage. This is because Bianca spent Thanksgiving with Candice’s estranged husband and his girlfriend, and did not spend it with her. Candice herself was going through a divorce and financial problems. Candice did say that she had a fight with her husband and started taking pills on November 29, 2010, after spending the afternoon with her daughter. To further indicate what kind of liar she was, in 2010 she filed her income tax return fraudulently claiming three children. One of those children was Bianca, but then she also claimed two more boys, but those boys were the children of another mother.

So then you think to yourself, right? All these pills, all these text messages, all these lies—gymnastics, no gymnastics; Dave & Buster’s, no Dave & Buster’s; Stacy, not Stacy, right? She lied to everyone. Why? Because she was upset her daughter spent a holiday with her father. Bro, what a stupid comment—tell me what you think.