YORK COUNTY, Va. — 13News Now spoke with Tennille Shields who said she often took care of 11-month-old Myrical Wicker when the child's 17-year-old mother could not.
Shields said this week she was moving out of her York County house Monday and when the mother asked her if she could watch Myrical, she said she couldn't because she wouldn't have been able to watch the baby closely while she moved out of her home.
She said that's when the mother asked 40-year-old Kristen Graham to watch her Monday into Tuesday.
York County investigators said Graham spent the night with a friend, who Shields explained was not her, and returned home around 8:30 Tuesday morning on Seaford Road with Myrical and a dog in the back seat.
They said Graham reportedly closed the car windows, left the child and dog in the car, and fell asleep for several hours in her home, only to come back out to find Myrical and the dog dead in the back seat from heat exposure.
Investigators said Graham brought the child and dog inside the house. That's where they said an 80-year-old man, who was living at the same home in a different part of the house, placed Myrical in a black plastic trash bag and brought her to Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News where he told doctors what happened and they called authorities.
Shields, who learned about what happened Tuesday night, said she is now trying to make sense of what happened.
"I would have never, ever thought Kristen would have ever harm this baby. That's why there's got to be more to the story. I'm just sickened by the idea of the plastic bag. If it were me there, I would have rushed her to the emergency room immediately with her in my lap while I tried to revive her," Shields said. "This situation, it's devastating because....it should have never happened. It really should have never happened."
Tennille Shields says she treated 11-month-old Myrical like her own child, saying, "She calls her mom 'Ma' and she calls me 'Mama.'"
Shields called the mother of Myrical a "good mom" who was learning how to be a better parent. She said, no matter the reason behind this tragedy, this baby did not deserve this fate.
"That child was loved by so many people. She would light up a room every time she walked in or crawled in," Shields said.
Graham faces charges of child abuse and animal cruelty. However, York-Poquoson Sheriff Ron Montgomery said depending on the autopsy results, Graham could face homicide charges.
Graham remains in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail without bond.