“…almost unrecognizable face…”
Viral: Popular Drink Nearly Kills Dad During Birth of Son, Leaves Hole in His Skull
Expectant mother Brianna would never forget the four words that brought her world crashing down. “Austin had an accident,” her mother-in-law said.
Emotions were high as Brianna drove two hours to the hospital, not knowing what was wrong with her husband. The couple’s baby was due in a matter of weeks, and the excited parents had been joyously anticipating becoming a family of three.
Facebook/Endres Photography
Now, Austin’s soul was hanging loosely between life and death. His brain had hemorrhaged, and at first, doctors were uncertain of the cause.
After a series of tests ruled out drug use, the doctors could finally provide Austin’s grieving family an explanation as to why the young man’s brain started to bleed. “This horrible event was due to his recent excessive energy drink consumption,” Brianna wrote in her full story, posted on Facebook, along with a photo series taken by Endres Photography.
Facebook/Endres Photography
Brianna explained that to combat extended work hours and daily commute, her husband had picked up the habit of drinking energy drinkt. Now, Austin faced an uncertain future, fraught with brain surgeries, strokes, and seizures.
Facebook/Endres Photography
“But while everyone was focused on the almost unrecognizable face hooked up to all sorts of machines and tubes, all I could see was his parents,” Brianna wrote. Her heart shattered as she watched the raw, painful grief on her in-law’s faces.
“I saw the light leave his mother’s eyes as she saw her motionless son laying in that hospital bed,” stated she. “I saw his father break down crying as he held onto his wife.”
Two weeks went by, and Austin had no signs of waking up. Her due date arrived, and Brianna had to give birth without her husband by her side.
Facebook/Endres Photography
Brianna wept bittersweet tears as she looked at the face of her newborn, who resembled his father. “But a beautiful miracle happened as I delivered our son — Austin woke up,” Brianna recalled.
Eight months later, Brianna finds herself taking care of both her husband and their baby boy. She admitted that her husband is a completely different man to the one she married — still, she falls more and more in love with him each and every day.
Facebook/Endres Photography
“Love is knowing you would sacrifice things that you didn’t even know you could sacrifice,” Brianna bravely shared. “Love is selfless.”
The father of the Georgia newborn found beaten to death in the woods on Sunday had been charged with murder in her death.
BREAKING NEWS: Georgia Father Accused of Beating 15-Day-Old Daughter to Death and Hiding Body in Cloth in Woods
On Wednesday, Christopher Michael McNabb, 27, of Covington, Georgia, was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery and concealing a death, stated Capt. Keith Crum of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office said.
McNabb was accused of killing his own 15-day-old daughter, Caliyah McNabb, before hiding her body in the woods near his family’s mobile home, said C
rum.
An autopsy determined that the infant died from blunt force trauma to the head, Newton Coroner Tommy Davis said on Tuesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“It’s heartrending that that small of a child — a baby only 15 days old — had been so injured that it died,” said Crum. “It’s hard to rationalize an irrational act.”
Caliyah McNabb
McNabb made his first appearance in court Thursday morning, where he was denied bond.
He refused a public defender, according to The Covington Times.
In the arrest warrants obtained, Newton County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jeff Alexander alleged that McNabb struck the infant with an “unknown object.”
The blow “did cause the victim’s skull to be seriously disfigured and damaged beyond repair,” the warrant alleged. “This act further caused the death of the victim.”
McNabb then tried to hide the body with a t-shirt, blanket and a draw-string bag in the woods not far from the residence where the murder took place, the warrants allege.
Suspect Allegedly Yelled: ‘I Didn’t Do It’
On Saturday morning, the infant’s mother, Courtney Bell, called 911 to report that Caliyah was missing, Crum said.
Bell said she fed the baby and changed her diaper and put her to bed at about 5 a.m., said Crum.
In the 911 call released by police, a frantic Bell told the operator that her 2-week-old was not in her sleeper when she woke up.
Chris McNabbNEWTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Sobbing, Bell explained that she had been up with the baby most of the night and had fallen asleep on the couch at 5 a.m.
Chris McNabb
When the operator asked her if she thinks someone took the baby, she says, “My 2-year-old said she’s gone. And I looked everywhere in the house — I don’t know another possibility.”
McNabb was outside looking for the baby, she said.
On Sunday night, McNabb was taken into police custody shortly after he allegedly fled on foot after learning the body of his infant daughter had been found, Crum previously said.
Before he was captured, witnesses allegedly saw him acting erratically at a convenience store. “He was yelling, ‘I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!’ ” Crum said.
When McNabb ran out of the store, police arrested him for an alleged unrelated probation violation out of Bartow County. He remained held at the Newtown County Jail.
After an extensive search on Saturday, volunteer searchers found the baby’s body wrapped up in “blue cloth” in a hole under a log, said Crum.
Store clerk Julie Hannah told Fox 5 Atlanta that she saw McNabb when he came into the store. “He was real wet and nasty like he had been running through the woods in the rain,” Hannah said. “He started hollering and talking about, ‘They are going to get me. They are going to get me. I’ve been running all day. I have been in the woods all day.’ ”
Hannah added, “He went on and on and on just rambling ‘I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t the baby’s mama. Y’all going to look crazy when you figure this out.’”
The clerk called 911 and McNabb was taken into custody without any incident.
The mother, Bell, was questioned and released, said Crum. We calls to Bell were not immediately returned.