Mom Lets Her New Crystal Meth Using “Boo For Life” Beat Her Child to Death

Mom Lets Her New Crystal Meth Using “Boo For Life” Beat Her Child to Death

Gracie Vernell Bus was born in Iowa on February 18, 2011, to mother Christy Amber Bus. Her brother, Isaiah, was about seven years old when she was born. She had chubby cheeks, brown eyes, and long brown hair. According to neighbors, Gracie was a sweet, adorable, and funny little girl who loved playing on the swings. Her relatives didn’t speak publicly about her, but pictures her mother posted to social media allow glimpses of her life. In one of the earliest photos, Gracie was still a baby and wore a pink dress embroidered with butterflies. Her cheeks and face were red, but it looked like she was smiling at the camera.

As she grew, her hair darkened and got long enough to pull into a ponytail, and her face was framed with straight brown bangs. Snapshots showed her having fun like little kids do: playing with a toy guitar, cuddling a dog, dressing up as a princess in a teal and pink outfit complete with a plastic tiara, and having a butterfly painted on her face. In pictures with her brother, they smiled at each other and looked happy. In one image, she posed with her Little Mermaid-themed cake on her third birthday. Traces of blue on her upper lip showed that she was sneaking a little frosting before the cake was cut.

Gracie’s dad has never been named, and he didn’t seem to be a part of her life, so Christy raised her as a single mom. She worked several jobs over the years—first at Burger King and Walmart, later at a daycare and a Dollar General, and then at a nursing home. In May of 2014, she announced she was in love with a new boyfriend on social media, but just a couple of months later, they had broken up. A month or so after that relationship, she started dating Chad Allen Little.

In September, Christy moved her little family to a two-story duplex in the Downing Court Apartment Complex in Waterloo. Outside, a large tree shaded the driveway, and there were grassy areas where the kids could play. Inside, a carpeted stairway led to the bedrooms on the second floor: eight stairs up to a little landing, a little turn, and then eight more stairs. Later that month, Christy’s relationship with her boyfriend, Chad Little, got more serious, so he moved into their home. Christy thought Chad was quite the prize. He was the kind of guy who liked to wear large, heavy rings and tried to look tough by throwing up gang signs, despite having no gang affiliations. He had a son, but he wasn’t active in his life. One would think that these would be red flags to Christy, but apparently, to her, it was not.

Chad was a regular user of crystal meth and had been arrested for theft, forgery, drugs, and associated probation violations involving those crimes. But on September 22nd, Christy proudly announced their engagement on social media and began referring to him as her husband. Chad started referring to the kids as his son and daughter. When people questioned their relationship, Christy called them haters. She posted an incoherent rant that read: “Okay, all this haters out there can back off, leave me alone. I am with Chad Little now, so he’s my boo for life. We are getting married, so whoever don’t like that, oh well.”

Though Christy seemed happy to have Chad there, her kids were not. Gracie was about three and a half years old when he moved in, and Isaiah was 11. He said Chad started hitting both him and his sister, but that Gracie got the worst of it. He said Chad beat her a lot. According to the boy, Chad was hitting and pushing her at least once a week. A woman named Jennifer Ackrian lived in the other half of the duplex and shared a wall with the family. She said Chad had a temper and that she regularly heard fighting, yelling, screaming, pounding, and banging after he moved in. She said his angry outbursts got more and more common. Starting on Christmas Day of 2014, she heard yelling when she woke up in the morning; he kept it up all that morning while she got ready to go visit family. He was yelling when she left and was still yelling when she got home that evening. By the end of December, she said, every day he was off the rails.

Chad often hit Gracie in the face, causing bruises, and Christy would cover them with makeup. Isaiah would bring her ice packs for her face after the beatings and try to comfort her; he said sometimes he would try to stop Chad from hitting her, but he was just a child, so he was no match for a grown man. Once, Chad even threatened to kill him. There is no evidence that Christy ever interfered to protect either of her children. She also let Chad watch them by himself when she wasn’t home. At one point, Gracie’s bedroom was moved downstairs. Isaiah asked why; Chad told him there were ghosts in the upstairs bedroom that would beat Gracie when she was sleeping. It is unclear whether the toddler’s bedroom was ever moved back upstairs.

In February of 2015, a week before Gracie’s fourth birthday, Christy posted online about how much she loved Chad, saying in her characteristic run-on style with no punctuation: “Feeling so lucky in my life just being with my sexy man the love of my life soon to be husband love you always forever.” Later that month, she told a doctor that she sometimes saw Gracie’s legs and arms shaking and she thought the toddler might be having seizures. The doctor told her to bring Gracie to the ER the next time she saw anything like that.

On March 11th, police showed up and escorted Chad off the Downing Court property. They told him he’d been banned by the landlord and was consequently trespassing by being there. He didn’t stay away for long, however. Two days later, Christy posted about spending time as a family, saying, “So nice out today me and kids and loving husband need to go have some fun outside in the sun.” Later that same day, she wrote, “Well I had a great day with kids and husband I love you guys good fresh air hell yeah LOL love my life.”

One of Chad’s friends, Frank Parin, was a frequent visitor, hanging out at the duplex two or three times a week. He said the kids were always there when he stopped by, and sometimes Chad would be in charge of watching them. He visited, and the two would smoke crystal meth together, but Frank always left within an hour or so because after smoking, Chad would become a little off-the-wall. He said that Chad would get extremely paranoid, yell, and act radically. Frank would leave, but the kids were stuck there and had to deal with Chad in this condition. During his visits, Frank said he thought he saw Gracie have seizures on a few occasions, but he was not sure. Once, her behavior was very noticeable to him; he said she was laying down at the time and actually ended up rolling off the couch. Christy should have taken Gracie to the ER when she had these seizures, but she never did. Around this time, Frank also remembered seeing Chad hit Gracie; he said Chad snatched the girl by her arm and slapped her in the torso area.

Despite the way he was treating her children, Christy was still telling the world that she was deeply in love and that the kids loved having him as a dad, too. On April 8th, she forwarded an image with a text that said, “Sometimes people with the worst pasts end up creating the best futures.” Above the image, she wrote, “That’s so true I found my loving husband couldn’t ask any better to have a great husband great dad to the kids love you babe Always Forever.” Four days later, on April 12th, the landlord noticed that Chad was on the property again and called the police. Chad was arrested for misdemeanor trespass. He pleaded guilty to the charge and paid $260 in fines and court costs. Despite his ban, he kept returning to the Downing Court duplex.

Late in April, a woman named Shay Cook was visiting her mother, who lived nearby, when she saw Chad and Gracie outside. Gracie was pedaling around on her bike and fell off, and this fall sent Chad into a rage. Shay said that he picked her up by her hair and screamed, “Get up!” He then picked the bike up with his other hand and proceeded to drag both the toddler and the bike into the house.

On May 29th, Frank and another friend stopped by the duplex around 10:00 p.m., as he usually did. Frank made sure to leave in about an hour, and the friend left with him around midnight. Another friend, Todd Hansen, stopped by to help Chad and Christy move a couch; that friend left a little while later and said both of the children were in their bedrooms when he left. When asked how Gracie seemed when he saw her, Todd said fine; she was just sitting there.

In the early morning hours of May 30th, Todd said Chad sent him several text messages, one of which was bizarre and disturbing. One of the messages said Chad was with his son and daughter. Another text arrived at 3:56 a.m.; it read, “Call ASAP out riding bikes going to kill somebody.”

At 8:45 a.m., Chad used Christy’s cell phone to call the Ask-a-Nurse Hotline at the Covenant Medical Center. He told the triage nurse, Susan Doyle, that his name was Adam Merrick. Susan said the caller sounded very nervous and upset. Chad told her that his daughter had bruises on her face and knees and he thought she had fallen down the stairs overnight. He said she was unresponsive, that her stomach was bloated and hard, and she might have had a seizure. When asked for the address, he told the nurse he didn’t know it. He said he had already called 911 and told the nurse the 911 dispatcher hadn’t helped him but instead told him to call back if it was really an emergency.

Concerned, Susan contacted 911 and explained the situation as she understood it. She said the caller had been told to call back if it was an actual emergency. The dispatcher said, “No, we would have never told somebody that if their child was unconscious.” Susan told them, “I just want to make sure they get the help they need.” Somehow, using the information Susan provided, dispatchers were able to send paramedics and police to the Downing Court duplex.

After placing the call to the nurse, Chad woke up Gracie’s brother screaming that she had a seizure and fell down the stairs. He told Isaiah they had to leave right away. On their way out, he saw his sister on the floor; her eyes were rolled back and her teeth were clenched tight. He heard Chad tell Christy to call 911, but they left before he could see if she made the call. She did not; neither she nor Chad ever called 911 that morning. Chad and the boy jumped a fence in the backyard that separated the duplexes from the neighboring trailer park. They stopped at one of the trailers, and Chad asked the woman who lived there if he could use her phone to call an ambulance for his daughter. She didn’t think Chad was telling the truth and refused to let him in.

At 9:07 a.m., paramedics arrived and found Christy waiting outside. Isaiah and Chad hid behind the fence and watched them enter the duplex. Once they were inside, Chad and Isaiah walked a short distance to the Miracle Car Wash, where they could be seen on surveillance footage. Chad’s two large rings can be seen in the recordings. The woman who worked there also noticed them; he asked to use the phone and was overheard telling someone that his daughter had fallen down the stairs and was on her way to the hospital. He also said that she might be dying. At another point, he was heard asking someone if “they took her.”

Meanwhile, paramedic Kyle Fuller was back at the duplex with Christy. She led him to an upstairs bedroom where Gracie was unconscious, pale, covered in bruises, and breathing irregularly. Officers on the scene said Christy seemed nonchalant about her daughter’s injuries, as if she didn’t care at all. At first, Christy said Gracie suffered a seizure and fell down the stairs the night before. Then she changed her story and said Gracie had gotten up a couple of hours earlier to get a drink of water and that was when she fell down the stairs. She also told paramedic Fuller that Gracie had a history of seizures and that it was typical for her to be unresponsive or sleepy after she suffered one.

But her explanations didn’t make any sense. Usually, someone who fell down the stairs would have injuries on just one side of the body, but the paramedic noted Gracie had injuries all over her body. He said the position she was in suggested a severe brain injury. When he assessed her, the top of her head felt soft and movable, indicating that she had a skull fracture.

Gracie was rushed to the Covenant Medical Center, where she was examined by Dr. James P. Dr. P noticed bruising in both her temples, but the bruise on her left temple looked relatively recent and more distinct. She also had many other bruises all over, and they were in different stages of healing. He tested her reaction to pain stimuli and diagnosed her with a traumatic brain injury, a skull fracture, and bleeding in the brain. He was quite certain that something terrible had happened to her. He said, “In my opinion, Gracie’s injuries weren’t consistent with a fall down the stairs. In my 35-plus years of being a paramedic and a physician, I have seen multiple children fall downstairs and I’ve seen multiple children who have been abused, and these injuries are more consistent with those that have been abused than those who have fallen downstairs.”

Gracie’s injuries were so extensive that he transferred her to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where she was placed on life support. Her doctors also notified the Iowa Department of Human Services, and Christy lost custody of both of her kids. Isaiah was placed with a relative and wasn’t allowed back inside the duplex because of the investigation. A fundraiser was started to raise money for Gracie’s medical bills, clothes, and other items Isaiah needed right away. Gracie’s extended family wasn’t told much, except that police suspected her injuries were intentional. She remained unresponsive, and her aunt said doctors didn’t think the little girl would recover. She told reporters, “The prognosis is grim and we are faced with a difficult decision as to when to let her go be with God. Her organs will be donated to precious children in need of the gift of life.” Three days after she arrived at the ICU, Gracie was taken off life support and passed away.

Officer John Gugen conducted a videotaped interview with Chad on May 30th. The camera started recording a few minutes before the officer entered the room. At first, Chad denied everything; he said he hadn’t been to the duplex for the last week and said that he never had disciplined Gracie. He said he had no idea what had happened to the girl but said she had been falling down the stairs a lot. Later, he said he had been out riding bikes with Isaiah but instead of going to the duplex, he stayed at a mobile home nearby. Then he said he was at the house, but only that evening from around 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., and he didn’t spend the night. He stopped by early the next morning but left before 8:30 a.m., meaning he denied being there when the call to the nurse was placed.

Eventually, he admitted he sometimes spanked Gracie. He had heard from Christy that she had a seizure that night. He also admitted that on one occasion, when he was arguing with Christy, he tried to throw something at her, and it hit Gracie instead. When Officer Gugen rewatched the video to write his report, he noticed an additional detail that happened before he entered the room: Chad removed a heavy ring from his right hand and moved it over to his left hand. He also removed a second large ring and put it in his pocket. This, along with his ever-changing stories, made officers suspect that he was trying to hide the truth.

Police tracked down Adam Merrick. He was actually a real person who knew Chad from elementary school; they were able to verify that he was not even in Waterloo the night Gracie had been hurt, and he certainly didn’t make the phone call to the nurse hotline. Investigators from the crime lab executed a search warrant at the duplex. They found at least two suspicious-looking holes in the drywall. They also found spots of blood in several areas of the house: blood was found on a small mattress propped up against the wall in the kitchen, on a silver spoon, and on a white washcloth in the laundry room. They found spots of blood on a yellow pillowcase decorated with butterflies, on a blue-striped comforter, and on several towels. They also found blood on clothes that belonged to Christy and Isaiah.

In Gracie’s bedroom, they found a larger quantity of blood; one spot had soaked through the carpet and stained the padding below. They didn’t find any blood on either short staircase, even though the carpet would have easily shown any trace of it. In addition to the blood evidence, officers also found and collected a glass pipe used for smoking crystal meth and an undated, handwritten note from Christy’s bedroom. The note read, “Hey you, I’m very sorry for snapping on Gracie. I lost my temper, no joke. I leave the room for 10 seconds to shower and come out to her playing. I won’t do that again. I’mma leave for a little bit, clear my mind. Love, Chad Little.” Though they couldn’t prove when the note was written, it was a clear sign of trouble.

Police didn’t yet have enough evidence to arrest the couple, so they kept the investigation open. Meanwhile, Chad moved back home with his mother and sister, and then Christy moved in, too. During the next 18 months, she posted selfies, lovey-dovey pictures with Chad, and old pictures of the kids on Facebook. Though she sometimes seemed to miss Gracie, more often her posts seemed delusional at best. Now, it should be noted that Christy has two Facebooks: one before Gracie died and then she made a whole new one after Gracie died.

On December 12th, 2015, Chad and an accomplice were seen running from a home in Waterloo. Chad was wearing a leather coat that he had stolen from the residence; he also had stolen a charging pad, cash, and tools from a truck parked outside. Police found and arrested him in his mother’s house. During the arrest, they found weed, Klonopin, and Alprazolam in his possession. He was charged with possession, second-degree burglary, and third-degree theft and held on a $40,000 bond. Two days later, on December 14th, Christy posted an image of a thin diamond band and commented, “Here’s my pretty ring from my loving husband Chad Little love you.” She said all of this while her loving husband was still locked up in jail. The next day, she wrote in all caps, “I REALLY WISH THINGS GET BETTER IN LIFE LIVE LAUGH IN LOVE AND ALWAYS SMILE EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE DOWN AT THIS POINT IT GET BETTER HOPE AND PRAY EVERY DAY EVERY NIGHT TO TAKE ALL THE WRONGS AND MAKE IT BETTER IN LIFE TO CHANGE ALL THE WRONGS TO RIGHTS.” It’s unclear how hoping and praying could ever change Gracie’s senseless death and make a wrong a right, but Christy seemed to think it was possible.

On January 5th, 2016, she posted an old picture of Gracie with her brother and captioned it, “These two right here the love of my life love you guys miss you baby girl.” On February 14th, a few days before Gracie’s birthday, she posted an image with text that read, “Someday everything will make perfect sense so for now laugh at the confusion smile through the tears and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.” Christy should have stuck to posting these images, as her own writing is painful to read out loud. On April 13th, she posted two selfies along with a caption, “Me all smiles today feeling great today LOL.” At the end of May, near the anniversary of Gracie’s death, she posted several pictures of Gracie and Isaiah posing together and smiling.

By this time, she was pregnant again and had moved out of Chad’s house and in with her own parents in Holland, Iowa. Finally, in July, she admitted to police that Gracie never fell down the stairs. Christy was arrested on September 29th, 2016, and was charged with child endangerment causing death for doing nothing to stop Chad. Since she was pregnant, her attorney argued that she was not a flight risk and should be given a low bond or released altogether. The judge disagreed, citing reports that Christy seemed indifferent about her daughter’s death. He said her attitude and the possible 50-year sentence she could face if found guilty made her a flight risk. He set her bond at $75,000. Chad was arrested the next day and charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment. His bond was set for $1.1 million; unable to make it, he remained in jail.

A joint trial was scheduled for November of 2017, then rescheduled for October of 2018. It was delayed again because Christy had an undisclosed medical issue and also needed a new attorney. In the meantime, Chad moved to have his case severed from Christy’s. His motion succeeded, and after a few more motions, his trial was finally scheduled for May 1st, 2019, with Judge Joel Dalrymple presiding. That day, Chad limped into the courtroom, holding his stomach. His attorney told the judge that his client was suffering from flu-like symptoms. The judge adjourned for the day and ordered jail officials to keep Chad on bed rest overnight.

The trial began the next day, on May 2nd. During opening arguments, Chad’s attorney said the child endangerment charge was inappropriate because Chad was not a member of Gracie’s household. Chad claimed that he never lived at the duplex, that he never planned to marry Christy, and never referred to the kids as his son and daughter. The attorney also argued that no one was to blame for Gracie’s death because she just accidentally fell down the stairs. Chad’s mother and sister testified in his defense, claiming he always lived with them and not at the duplex. However, they also admitted that they let Christy move in after Gracie’s death, which they found hard to explain without acknowledging the couple’s relationship. Prosecutor Brian Williams asked them if they let Christy move in to help keep her quiet and prevent her from telling the police what Chad did, but they said that wasn’t the reason.

Isaiah, now 15 years old at the time of the trial, testified about the child abuse he and Gracie experienced. He told the jury that Chad hit Gracie at least once a week, hard enough to make her cry. He said Chad had told him that Gracie had fallen down the stairs that day, but the teen never saw her fall. Medical Examiner Dr. Dennis Fichthorn performed Gracie’s autopsy. He testified that her cause of death was blunt force injuries of the head. He said her injuries were consistent with child abuse, but he concluded her manner of death was undetermined because he was unable to definitively rule out an accident.

During his testimony, Prosecutor Williams showed pictures of Gracie’s injuries. She had bruises on her face, chin, and deep scalp tissues along with fractured teeth. She had additional bruises on her arms, legs, chest, back, and on her flanks—that is, the sides of her belly between the ribs and hips. The bruises were all in various stages of healing, indicating they had occurred over weeks or even months. She had a subdural hematoma, soft tissue damage in her chest and neck, and bleeding in her mouth and in her eyes. He also testified that she had hippocampal sclerosis, which is a type of scar tissue or lesion in the brain that is often present with seizure disorders. He said, “It would not surprise me if Gracie indeed had a seizure disorder.” He pointed out that such a lesion could have been caused by repeated head trauma.

Dr. Richard Olsen, a pediatric optometrist, did an in-depth examination of the bleeding in Gracie’s eyes. In her retinas, he found dozens—maybe 30 to 100—layers of small hemorrhages along with macular folds. In an accidental injury, he would expect to see no more than two or maybe four layers at the most. He categorized these findings as very rare and said they both suggested severe child abuse trauma and were not consistent with just a simple fall down the stairs. The defense’s forensic pathologist, Dr. Amy Geckle, called Gracie’s injuries mostly “small little contusions” that were not uncommon for four-year-old girls. She said that these retinal hemorrhages did not definitively indicate trauma; she said she couldn’t rule out an accidental fall.

The most damning testimony came from Dr. Resham Oral, who examined Gracie while she was in intensive care at University of Iowa Hospital. In addition to examining Gracie shortly after her injuries, she was also the director of the child protection program at the hospital. She noted the severe external injuries as well as deep soft tissue injuries that Gracie suffered and said those were not commonly seen in accidental falls. In particular, she said it would be very rare to see a depressed skull fracture caused accidentally. It was much more likely the injuries occurred when her head was violently struck, causing forces to act upon her brain as well as multiple impact injuries to soft tissues. She said, “I have never seen a four-year-old, competent child injuring herself accidentally with the severity, this number, and the size of the injuries that are seen on all planes of her body.”

When asked if the numerous injuries could have been caused by an unwitnessed fall down the stairs, she replied, “No, all those injuries didn’t occur in one incident.” The doctor agreed that repeated beatings to the head could have led to Gracie’s seizure disorder. Although children could be born with epilepsy and other seizure disorders, it is not clear in this case whether she would have developed one if Chad had not repeatedly hit her in the head and temple over the course of roughly eight months. During her testimony, Dr. Oral pointed out the old brown and yellow bruises on the toddler’s right temple and compared them to the fresh injuries on her left temple. The fresher injuries were deep red and square-shaped. When asked if the square mark could have been made by Chad’s large ring—the one he slipped off and slid into his pocket—she said the ring did appear consistent with injury on Gracie’s temple. She also said that with timely medical intervention, Gracie could have survived. While Prosecutor Williams said the ring evidence wasn’t the “end-all-be-all” of the case, he said Chad’s evasive gesture was something jurors should consider when weighing the evidence.

In May, Chad was found guilty of first-degree murder and child endangerment; the two charges were rolled together. In June, he was sentenced to life in prison. At the sentencing hearing, Judge Dalrymple said he was certain that Chad had murdered the little girl. He spoke of the many injuries Gracie suffered, and especially the square bruise on her temple, saying, “Which I have no doubt, as the judge who sat through this trial, was inflicted by you with the use of a ring I saw on your hand in two different bits of evidence.” Chad never admitted that he hurt Gracie but did offer the following half-baked apology: “I’m sorry for the family; it didn’t just affect them, it affected the community, it affected my family and I hope that someday the truth will come out and the real person will get found with whatever they deserve. But I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart.”

During his hearing, he asked the judge to order the prison to continue administering Clonazepam for anxiety. He said that the last time he went to prison, they weaned him off his medication, causing him to get sick and putting him at risk for seizures. This request was denied. Gracie’s brother wrote an impact statement addressed to Chad; prosecutors read it on June 18th, 2019, at his sentencing hearing. In it, the teenager stood up to the man who hurt him and took Gracie’s life. It read: “You have no control over me or power over me anymore. I’ve taken back all the ways you tried to control me. You can’t use me anymore, you can’t scare me anymore, and you can’t hurt me anymore. I hate what you put me through. You did kill my sister, but somehow I found the courage in my heart to forgive you because it is the right thing to do, even if it hurts me a lot.”

Chad filed an appeal on April 14th, 2021, but it was not successful, and the court affirmed the conviction. He was sent to the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, Iowa. Since he was given a life sentence, he has no release date or parole hearing listed.

On August 9th, 2019, Christy pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges of child abuse resulting in severe injury, neglecting a dependent person, and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutor Williams considered a number of factors when negotiating the plea bargain. He said, “We believe that this is a reasonable resolution with a strong consideration of avoiding her biological son from the requirement that he testify, her lack of criminal history, the prospect of now the family putting this behind them after what is just over 4 years.” She was sentenced to 10 years for the child abuse, 10 years for neglect, and 5 years for manslaughter. She also agreed to pay $150,000 in restitution to her daughter’s estate. She was sentenced to a total of 25 years, and none of that time was to be served concurrently.

Judge Dalrymple had harsh words for her, saying that when he heard what Chad had done to Gracie, he thought, “Where was the mom? What was going on? To say that your behavior and lack of action was egregious is an understatement, and I think the consecutive sentences are appropriate.” Christy was sent to the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, Iowa. She was not released at her last parole hearing on July 5th, 2023. Her tentative release date is set for February 9th, 2028, if she is not paroled sooner. Despite the judge’s intentions, it seems she will serve less than 10 years behind bars for her part in her daughter’s death.

Despite searching, we could not find any information about Christy’s pregnancy while in jail. If she did carry the baby to term, at least we know she doesn’t have custody of it, since she’s still incarcerated. The money raised for Gracie’s medical bills was used for her funeral. Her family held a small, private ceremony, and she was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Waterloo. Her grave is decorated with the image of a teddy bear on a swing under the phrase, “Playing in God’s Garden.” At the bottom of the plaque, it simply reads, “Daughter of Christy, sister of Isaiah.”