REPORTER 1: Breaking news here at Ohio, high school student
and cheerleader arrested for murdering her newborn baby.
REPORTER 2: Investigators found her newborn baby's
remains behind the house.
REPORTER 3: Investigators trying to figure out if that child
was stillborn or born alive.
Nobody knows what's going on.
Our family is scared to death.
It just didn't make any sense.
Carlisle is a small town.
You're not used to seeing crime scene tape up around a house.
They're over there, digging up something in our backyard.
I don't know what's going to happen next.
It was just chaotic.
The detectives tell her there are things that we know
that you aren't telling us.
She's trying to get ahead of it
by making it look like an accident.
It was heartbreaking the way they
tried to portray her because it was so far from the truth.
It changes everything when they go
back into that interview room.
The evidence that we showed at the scene of the home
contradicted that.
I never meant to kill my baby.
She can't even kill a spider.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Small town, USA, it's a pretty tight knit community.
Carlisle is in the southwest corner of Ohio.
It's a town of subdivisions.
A lot of people that grow up in Carlisle don't leave.
The family unit is so strong, the worst thing you can do,
the most taboo thing you can do is sell out family.
I'm Kim Richardson.
I'm Skylar's mother.
Scott Richardson, her father.
The Richardsons are awesome.
They're sweet, welcoming.
I have known Kim Richardson my whole life.
Her kids are beautiful kids.
Skylar Richardson is a popular young woman
at Carlisle High School.
She's a cheerleader on the honor roll.
She works at the local YMCA with children.
She's a great student, National Junior Honor Society.
She started doing competitive cheer outside of the school.
That's what she really enjoyed.
And Skylar is as sweet as she could possibly be.
Very fun.
Non-confrontational, that's for sure.
Non-confrontational.
She's just--
The peacemaker.
Yeah, peacemaker.
By all appearances, she was happy-go-lucky.
Skylar Richardson had an eating disorder
since she was in junior high.
I noticed she was constantly looking
at herself in the mirror, or she was counting
every calorie that she ate.
I didn't know to that extent, but the day that she said
she couldn't get a pack of gum because it
had five calories per piece, that really hit home.
We had taken her to several different places.
We tried several different things.
It was extremely frustrating.
KIM RICHARDSON: She did not develop
at all mentally or physically.
She stayed frozen in that 12-year-old body.
Skylar Richardson is dating a young man named Trey Johnson.
They have a relationship, which lasts about a month.
During this month, they had unprotected sex.
Skylar breaks up with him.
She blocks him from social media,
and they go their separate ways.
And they never spoke again after that.
I don't know what transpired between them,
but she was just done.
In her senior year, she starts dating a boy named Brandon.
These are two high school kids in this small town.
And they decide that they are just made for each other.
They are going to spend the rest of their lives together.
KIM RICHARDSON: She was very taken with him.
He was a great kid.
They spent a lot of time together, like every day.
Her family thinks, wow, finally, Skylar is happy.
Every year for homecoming and for prom,
we always go out to a little shop in Columbus.
They have a great selection of dresses.
She knew she wanted red.
She hadn't had a red one before.
It had a lace corset in the back.
She loved it.
ANGENETTE LEVY: She looks beautiful in it
and picks up that dress in February.
And prom's in May.
She started talking to Brandon in January of her senior year.
And then in the spring, I noticed that they
were getting very close.
And that's when I had encouraged her to get on the pill.
That's when I made her appointment
for her to go to the doctor.
Skylar walks into the doctor's office without her mother.
She says that she thinks it's possible she might be pregnant,
but she wants birth control pills.
So they do a pregnancy test.
And the doctor tells her she's pregnant.
And that was news Skylar did not want to hear.
ANGENETTE LEVY: Dr. Andrew takes her into an ultrasound room.
He does the testing and says you're going to deliver
a baby in a short time.
He believed she was around 32 weeks along.
She tells the doctor, you can't tell anyone I'm pregnant.
No one can know this.
I can't have this baby.
When she came out, I could tell that she had been crying.
But I wouldn't say that she was horribly shaking or upset.
I could just tell that she had been crying.
She kept everything a secret.
She always has.
Prom night in Carlisle is a big deal.
People love to dress up.
You'll see kids in tuxes, and they'll mix it up a little bit
maybe with some boots or jeans or whatever.
A lot of pretty dresses, you know, and gowns.
KIM RICHARDSON: Skylar was very excited about prom
to be going with Brandon, the first time she had had someone
that she really cared about to go to prom with.
In the weeks leading up to prom,
her mom is concerned about how she's going
to look in her prom dress.
I always get stressed out because if her hair's not
right--
with girls, they've got hair, nails,
make up, the whole thing.
She wasn't exactly happy with herself, but she never is.
There are text messages back and forth.
You know, we're getting down to the wire,
and, you know, you really need to watch what you're eating
and work out so you can fit into the dress.
I knew she was fluctuating, but I
didn't think anything of it.
I just thought that she had gained weight.
And I would encourage her.
I would say, hey, you know you can drop the weight.
Whenever she wanted to fit into something,
she could drop weight like nobody's business.
ANGENETTE LEVY: She's stunning in this red dress,
getting ready to have a really great night.
Mother nature had other plans.
KARIN JOHNSON: It was supposed to be the perfect night,
but she's having major cramping.
And she's even mentioned it to Brandon that she has the worst
cramps she's ever had.
ANGENETTE LEVY: Skylar is in a lot of pain at prom
because she's in labor and still just plows through
and goes forward with it.
KARIN JOHNSON: She goes back to the doctor,
who asks her, where's the baby?
Last time you were here, you were pregnant.
It was very, very hard, knowing that she
had her own private funeral.
I still believe to this day that Skylar's baby
was never going to be allowed to be alive.