Let's See How You Like It

Three years before he kills their daughter, Jared Huggins’ wife realizes he cannot be trusted.

Ellie was just a few weeks old when Jared orchestrated a campaign to turn our family against her mother. It worked so well that even after Ellie’s dead body was found, one of my cousins posted the following on social media:

“The slander against my uncle is crazy and the facts the cops are being cagey about what happen to my uncle and his daughter. Like what the news is doing is gathering bits and pieces from a mother who yes, lost a daughter, but slandering the father who isn’t here to stand up for himself so stop thinking you know the true story when its not your business. Believe me, the things I could say about the mother but I won’t slander a grieving mother.”

This was part of Jared’s pattern. Every time he brought a new woman around our family we all oooh’d and and ahhh’d about how amazing she was in contrast. He was able to maintain an aura of desirability towards the beginning before slowly but surely revealing his true colors as a manipulator and a liar. Oftentimes this included some sort of elaborate ruse as to why he suddenly was unable to provide for himself and had to rely solely on his partner financially. And when things didn’t work out, he ran her name into the mud with untrue accusations of cheating, incest, or worse.

When Jared started slandering Chrystal, it was a little different this time. He was painting himself as the victim, but had zero intentions of leaving her. This wasn’t him trying to control the narrative after a break up. He was trying to isolate her from anyone who might be able to label his behavior for what it was— abuse.

Chrystal never even saw it coming. And how could she?

The first round of calls went something like, “Look, I know you think my wife is a good person, but she’s not. Behind closed doors, she’s demented. She’s planning to call every figure in my life and tell lies about me abusing her. One of the things she’s trying to tell people is that I chased her around the bedroom, put my hands on her, then locked her out the house. Please please, if you care about me at all, block her. Don’t let her get to you. Don’t tell anyone I said this.”

You can hear three of these phone calls at the link below, though they took place a bit further down his unraveling.

He was so specific in some of the stories he claimed Chrystal would be coming to us with that it seemed more like he was just trying to get ahead of something that had actually happened. And if Chrystal was actually planning a widespread campaign to publicly slander Jared’s character, why would she tell him first?

She hadn’t actually called anyone. So we were to believe that he had been provided with advance notice of what was yet to come?

He was calling plenty of people and certainly hadn’t given her a heads up that he was going to do that.

Jared was the one on a smear campaign. He would go on to reach out to his mother, brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, teachers, classmates, his exes, siblings’ exes, church members, social media friends, and more all with the same narrative. He was messaging people he hadn’t spoken to in years, people who had never even met Chrystal, telling them that she was a bad person, a negligent mother, and that his child was not safe from her.

This was the foundation for him to later double back and ask for thousands and thousands of dollars in order to “protect Ellie” from Chrystal. Though he only saw Ellie a few hours a week, he told everyone that he was a single father, Ellie’s primary caregiver, and that Chrystal was an abusive mother who would harm the baby if allowed additional visitation. It was quite the projection.

I was immediately suspicious of Jared’s phone calls because I’d already been alarmed by his behavior when I visited him in person a couple weeks earlier. It had also been a few weeks since he tried to accuse Chrystal of physically attacking him, when I’d seen for myself that she was in no condition to execute his claims.

Email thread of Chrystal introducing me to her lawyers in Oct. 2021

It would have been one thing if he was just venting about his spouse. But the allegations Jared was making were extremely serious and there was a defenseless infant involved. While he wasn’t experiencing postpartum psychosis, I was able to think of several times a newborn died at the hands of a parent with psychosis. If that was what Jared was experiencing with his paranoia, Ellie was not safe. And if Jared was saying these things without actually believing them, that was scary for its own reasons.

People in my family were straight up blocking Chrystal without telling her. She was also abruptly removed from our family group chat. Chrystal hadn’t reached out to my larger family for help with Jared’s behavior, but he was making sure she would never be able to. Some people didn’t want to be involved in “drama.” Others thought it improper to intervene in the relationship of a married couple, though Jared had already dragged us into it. One person told me they hoped they were doing the right thing by removing themself from the situation entirely, and that hoped they didn’t see on the news the next day that Jared had done something to Chrystal.

My relationship with Chrystal had always been positive, but she wasn’t the person that Jared was making her out to be. As his niece, there was absolutely no way she would have ever reached out to me to talk about her relationship problems with my uncle. I was an adult, but there were still lines there that normally neither her or I would cross. Still I felt compelled to reach out, hoping that I could get to the bottom of what was happening and offer any help that she and Ellie might need.

That first call to Chrystal was so incredibly awkward. It was on August 29th or 30th, 2021 and completely out the blue. After some light small talk, I just dove right in and asked Chrystal how she was really doing. There was no outpour of personal details, so I was forced to explain what Jared had been up to.

Chrystal didn’t even believe me at first. Yes, Jared was acting an ass at home. He was not helping to take care of the baby, punishing Chrystal with the silent treatment for trivial things, and disappearing for days on end without telling her where he was or when he was coming back. When he got angry, he’d lock her out the bedroom or wake her up in the middle of the night. But she hadn’t made the threats he was accusing her of, nor had she witnessed any of the clandestine efforts to leave her that he was telling people about. And Chrystal may have noticed that she hadn’t heard back from any of Jared’s relatives in a while, but she had no suspicions that it was a permanent shift.

There are many reasons why people in unhealthy/abusive relationships keep quiet about what they’re experiencing. For one, they may have faith that their abusive partner will change for the better. They most likely also love their partner, even if that love is causing them pain. Another reason might be the very real fear of what their partner would do next if the secret is not kept. I asked during this conversation and Chrystal was adamant that he had not put his hands on her. But, even after he eventually did, it would take a while for her to actually admit it.

In assuming that Chrystal would publicize his behavior, Jared made a huge misstep. Her sense of normalcy had already been twisted into something unrecognizable. Abusive partners are calculated in chipping away at their victim’s sense of self. They will make you believe that you are to blame for their actions and that things would be better if only you tried harder in the relationship, if only you didn’t set them off. They’ll make you feel like a fear-filled life is all you deserve and all that the world has to offer you.

I didn’t have any concrete proof about Jared’s phone calls yet, but there was already had plenty of proof that something wasn’t right. Chrystal ended up showing me text messages that I will never ever forget, in which Jared lashed out in unbelievable ways. In one thread, he warned her that he planned to start a big fight before she went to work on Monday of the following week to “see how she liked it” followed by smiley emojis. Sometimes he would send her paragraphs of text accusing her of hiding his car keys or rooting for his downfall, vowing to get payback. He always littered these threats with passive aggressive smiley faces and thumbs up emojis, which was incredibly eerie. I was scared enough to read through them with my own therapist.

When Chrystal sent me the texts, she asked, “This isn’t normal?”

“Absolutely not!” I replied. “My partner has never scheduled an argument. If we have an issue, we just talk about it. Telling you four days in advance that he plans to start a fight before you go to work on Monday is psychological abuse. He has you living in fear for the next few days, and is purposefully causing conflict in order to sabotage your work performance. He doesn’t have to “see how you like it.” Nobody would like it. He’s showing you in advance that he plans to get pleasure from your pain.”

It was very unsettling seeing how frequently Jared gaslit Chrystal, even over basic geography. If he texted her around 10pm that he was leaving the library and on his way home, he may not have arrived back from that 30 minute drive by the time she woke up at 8am. When she asked where he had went last night, he’d pretend he did go home or act like that was just how long the drive was. Even though he was the one who had announced he was done studying for the night, he would then accuse Chrystal of being unsupportive of his education and interrupting his focus.

Another time, he got mad at Chrystal for not asking where he had been all night, as she had been asleep. He claimed that his car had broken down, he was forced to sleep in it, and she had put him in danger by not checking to see if he was okay or sending help.

Damned if she did, damned if she didn’t.

Chrystal supported that man ten billion times more than he ever deserved. She changed her entire life in accordance with his every whim. For him to go to grad school, she packed up their entire SoCal apartment by herself so that they were ready for the move, even though she was recovering from a C-section. He kept her from being able to make concrete plans for her future because even two days before moving day he hadn’t officially decided which state he would be going to school in. She had jobs pending in both. First he confirmed that they were moving to North Carolina, then a day later yanked it away and decided upon Northern California. He wasn’t a partner, he was ruling by decree.

By moving to Berkeley, Chrystal took a 75% pay cut but thought it was a small price to pay for his dreams. Chrystal also gave Jared a car and paid off $80,000 of his undergrad student loans so he could start fresh. She spent thousands of dollars on his career coaching and ADHD coaching and academic tutoring because he said he needed it. The man never had to pay a single bill in his marriage. He still had the nerve to say she was sabotaging his education out of jealousy. While Chrystal was wondering when he would come home, Jared was telling his mother that he needed to stay out all hours of the night to study because Chrystal wanted him to fail school and didn’t allow him to use the internet. He said he was too scared of Chrystal to sneak and use the home internet anyways. Meanwhile, she had set up an office area for him that remained unused.

I remember asking Chrystal if Jared might be drinking again and she had no idea what I meant by “again.” He had never told her about his past alcoholism, which seemed bizarre. At one point he was so proud of his sobriety, he had a (now privatized) YouTube channel about it. It wasn’t a secret or, I guess, it wasn’t from anyone else but her. There were many other secrets and lies in her understanding of who he was, but that one stood out the most. She kept asking, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” and there were two answers. First, no one could have imagined how much Jared had lied to her about basic facts. Secondly, she may have felt ingratiated into our family, but it really wasn’t genuine.

I truly can’t see either of these Emojis the same way anymore.

My family has not always been close in the traditional sense. The religion we grew up in had a lot to do with that, as it prevented us from having the types of celebrations that bind family members closer to one another than to any church. There was also a strict adherence to religious shunning policies that fractured the believers and separated us from the secular. Deeper than that, our family featured untreated mental illness and rampant abuse. I have many fond memories of my family, but my love for them does not overshadow my acknowledgement of the sickness in our blood.

We weren’t the family that Jared hoped to sell Chrystal, so he focused heavily on cloaking us all with the air of presentability. Before we met her, we were prepped about various topics that were off limits. The degree to which he took it seemed condescending, as if he really thought we’d introduce ourselves and then bring up the darkest of topics if we weren’t warned otherwise. Other requests were just weird. My family never celebrated Christmas, but Jared was insistent that nobody let Chrystal find out that he had grown up Christmas-less. Jared was perfectly free to celebrate it now as an adult, so what difference did it make if he had experienced it growing up or not? Why hide that part of himself? But Christmas was important to Chrystal, so he had to make sure it looked like it was important to him too. The man had never celebrated Christmas in his life and we were forbidden from acknowledging this simple truth whatsoever. Same with birthdays.

I had innocently interpreted his nervousness as a sign that he had good intentions and wanted to make a good impression. But in unraveling his countless lies, it seems more like he was working hard to mold himself into whoever he needed to be to achieve his goals, at any cost.

Thanksgiving was the only holiday my family did celebrate, though its onset had been nontraditional. Fifteen years ago or so, one of Jared’s siblings was getting out of jail around the holiday time. My grandma had asked them what they wanted to eat for their first meal, and they chose a Thanksgiving dinner. Once we started, it became a tradition and we all gathered at my grandma’s house on that day yearly.

Jared did not want Chrystal to meet the brother whose request started the annual meal so, when Thanksgiving of 2017 came around, he asked my grandma to ban him from her home. She refused. Jared was incredibly upset about this and threatened to not attend at all. Ultimately a compromise was struck in which all the typical Thanksgiving attendees met up at another relative’s house, minus my grandma and other uncle. Jared brought Chrystal and we all ate around the elephant in the room. Later on, the rest of us went to my grandma’s house for the real Thanksgiving.

That was just one example of how my family was not what it seemed like to Chrystal. She was lulled into the belief that she could count on us and that we cared about her and her daughter. Time after time, she would be disappointed.

Chrystal was frazzled by my initial call, which contrasted so much of her perception of her marriage. Jared was a difficult person to be tethered to, but most of his complaints had no basis in reality. She had no idea what a warped version of events he was sharing with anyone who would listen. For example, when he had been admitted to business school, her mother had taken him shopping for some expensive suits. They spent the day together where he tried many pieces on, left with anything he liked, and was overcome with emotion thanking her for her kind gesture. Chrystal could barely believe it when I revealed that behind their back, Jared had been telling people that his mother-in-law was crazy and had thrown out all his clothes to replace them with what she thought he should wear because she was controlling and abusive.

It was all a lot of information to take in, and a lot of information to dole out.

Divorce is an overwhelming concept for anyone, let alone weeks after making a 300 mile move with a four month old baby. And the more established Chrystal got in her new home, the more difficult it would be to pack up everything once more and move across the country where her family lived. She had already gotten her medical license in California, was practicing as a physician, and, as bad as things were at home, at least she knew where she was going to lay her head each night. All of that would be up in the air if she left.

Jared was also acting so (seemingly) uncharacteristically that there was the hope that whatever was happening with him could be remedied. There would be no going back from a divorce, which Chrystal had never imagined might happen less than two years into her marriage. Additionally, there were social and religious considerations to grapple with. Chrystal did not take the vows she made before God lightly or the decision to sever them. Even though divorce was not a common outcome in her culture, Chrystal believed her family would be supportive of her decision to leave under these conditions. She wasn’t like Jared though. As Ellie’s father, she wanted to preserve his reputation amongst her family and there wouldn’t be a way to do that if she moved forward.

I was really grateful for the small group of women came together during this time to provide support, which included a couple from my family plus Chrystal’s friends across the country. Several of them had been divorced themselves or had stories to share about life on the other side of a toxic relationship. Some had recent interactions with Jared that mirrored my own. Others had had no contact with him but were still able to serve as additional sounding boards. There were many more calls between us all over those next few days as Chrystal reconciled with the reality that she could not trust the man she married. As she learned more information about various people in Jared’s life she’d willingly brought her baby around, she became resolute that something had to give.

The following is a brief clip speaking to a family friend about Chrystal’s decision to divorce:

Transcript:

Me: Are you able to recount kind of our initial interactions with Cobi and how— do you remember the part where she really really felt like a divorce was not an option? And kind of talking her through that?

Friend: Not an option?

Me: At first. At first.

Friend: No.

Me: You came in after that.

Friend: I came in at the point that— because I think she saw the horror on our faces when she said — she was close to divorce but this pushed her over the line. When she told us the story of when he snatched the baby from her and then started backing up towards the window, and we said that is a no go—

Me: The balcony.

Friend: The balcony. That that was a no go, you gotta go moment. Like she at that point was like, “you’re right.” Like I hate that this is coming to an end. I’m so embarrassed. This is like a different person. And I think that she truly, and especially because of her background as a doctor, I think she truly thought there was a possibility that he had like a brain tumor or some sort of mental thing.

Me: Something treatable that would bring him back to normal.

Friend: Exactly. And Chrystal at first was thinking about… Okay this isn’t the person that I know. And, it’s like no. This is the person you have seen flashes of but you don’t know him. You don’t know him that well.

And women have been getting bad advice for years on what a good man is and all the things that you should stay through. And I’m glad that we’re not our mothers and our grandmothers who stayed even though he gambled the house away. Who stayed even though he blackened your eye. Who stayed even though he touched your kid. And you kept the secrets.

And it was like no. Chrystal was not doing that. And I’m so proud of her for leaving. And honestly, that’s the reason why Ellie had as long of a life as she did. If she had stayed, Jared would have killed her, the nanny, and the baby in some big stunt. And he would have probably left a letter or done suicide by police or gone and did what he did in the city because he’s a coward, and he would not want to face the consequences.

---

There were a lot of variables in the air as Chrystal figured out how she wanted to move forward. Even though she was an extremely capable woman, Jared had spent the past few years turning her life upside down and draining her energy and finances. So on September 5, 2021, I joined a conference call with Chrystal, one of her close friends, and a local domestic violence organization. These types of organizations practice motivational interviewing, helping each client determine their own path forward. Rather than wrestling Jared for control of her decisions, they offered some options and validated her agency. Having a neutral third party to talk to was extremely useful.

I took as many notes as I could during the call so that Chrystal could go back and reflect on them. I wish I had gotten the counselor’s name, because I’d love to thank her for the insights she shared. Instead, I just have her quote, which sliced through the fog of trying to ascertain why Jared was behaving erratically and focused us all towards the future:

“When there is a big life change like getting married, moving in together, a pregnancy, etc, things with an abusive partner escalate. We can try to figure out why, why why, but it doesn’t really matter.

Chances are, he is not going to make any changes in his behavior. Now people CAN change and we believe that to be true. But for him to change, he needs to realize that his behavior is causing problems for the people he loves and he doesn’t want to be that way anymore. So most of the time people like him don’t end up changing because their way of thinking is distorted. In his mind, everything is your fault anyway. Since it is, he has no reason to change.

Instead of trying to figure out why he does what he does, you want to put that energy into healing yourself, trying to move on and taking care of your baby. A lot of times abusive partners aren't all that interested in the baby. But if you try to take the baby away, they will use it as a pawn to control you. Especially because the courts nowadays want to have the father involved. He can end up with a lot of say so and will probably fight for visitation.

Try to act as normal as you can. I don’t know how they know, but from doing this for so many years, I can tell you that a lot of times abusive partners catch wind of a plan to leave. Maybe it’s a change in your attitude, maybe you start to react differently without noticing it. They just seem to know somehow and we don’t want that.

You have to be really careful because if things are turned upside down in his world, if he feels like he is losing power and control over you, it tends to make him more dangerous.”

We couldn’t predict how Jared would react after losing control, so we talked through several possible contingencies. The following list was created to weigh the two main options of finding a new place to live locally or fleeing the state into the arms of Chrystal’s mom.

Bay Area:

Pros:

• May be in my favor custody wise to be in the same state, not sure yet

• I have a job here and it’s already started.

• All my physical things are here as well as the baby’s things.

• California Medical License

• Jared is here but I can take steps to prevent him from having my address

• Nanny coming in from Jamaica to help.

• Jared might change.

Cons:

• Jared is here and knows where I work. It’s a small area and he can still find me.

• I am isolated from my support system.

• Apartments go for $4,000 a month and I took a big pay cut.

• It would be easier to make a clean break in Texas.

• Nanny coming will make me feel more guilty about leaving.

• Jared might not change/may only change on his own accord and not because of me pushing for it.

• Jared is poisoning his California family against me and I can’t count on them.

Texas:

Pros:

• My mom is there, my brother is there. I have a support system.

• I know myself and I am capable of finding a new job/sorting out medical license.

• I can live with my mom in the meantime, don’t have to find place immediately.

• Rent overall is cheaper. Won’t have to worry as much about money.

• Space from Jared can help me regain my barometer for normalcy. I can leave the pot of slowly boiling water. Having this strength will help me coparent with appropriate boundaries.

Cons:

• I don’t know yet if legally I can leave immediately. Custody is a big deal.

• I feel that telling my mom is the nuclear option. Part of me hopes things will improve. Going to Texas feels very final and would be admitting in part that there is no hope.

• I’m not like Jared, I do not want to poison my family against him even if we do divorce.

• I don’t have a job or place to live lined up. Uncertainty is scary!

• I value my reputation as a physician and am worried that abruptly quitting the fellowship will hurt my career.

In concluding the call, we gathered some emergency resources in case things took a turn for the dangerous. Jared had a trip to Chicago coming up for some school program he was involved in. If needed, that could provide a good window to get away.

The domestic violence counselor had not been able to weigh in on how the courts might view Chrystal leaving the state, so the next step was to find legal representation. I had known a woman who took her kids away from a bad situation with their father in the dead of night. The father pursued her legally and the judge was not on her side. She ended up losing custody and was only able to see her kids on assorted weekends, even though she had been their primary caregiver until that point.

The morning after the call, I sent the following message to Chrystal:

If you noticed, there was a reason the domestic violence counselor didn’t immediately come in and say “Pack your shit, leave tonight, do this, do that.” She more so gave you the opportunity to work through what moves you would like to make while being supportive.

And it’s on purpose because the first approach doesn’t work. Like [Redacted] being well meaning but insistent, that doesn’t really work.

It is a huge life change you are embarking upon with a lot of ramificationsnot only based in the future, but like you mentioned to the therapist, your past as well.

You need to be fully committed to whatever it is you choose because ultimately it is your life. I’m glad you’ve been working through a lot of different options. Don’t feel like I’m going to judge you for the plan you’ve made!!

I am so proud of you for taking charge of your life. I agree that a physical separation is the best first move no matter how this all ends up. You need to be confident in your decision and if these six months of separation can help build your strength back up after being in the slowly simmering pot of water, I support it.

I would be very wary of the change Jared might present to you once you leave because it isn’t being initiated by him to go do soul searching. And he clearly doesn’t see what the problem is with his behavior. He can’t even admit he’s being passive aggressive. To him, it’s all about you and how you are causing nonexistent problems. You’re the one hopeful he will change. That’s not a personal goal for himself, and if it becomes one it will most likely be just because it may bring you back to him.

I still do not support couples counseling, for the reasons we’ve talked about, but as the divorce solidifies itself and it is time to figure out custody, it is a great idea to have a neutral third party there to help.

I know you love this man and I do not want to take your vows for granted. And I know you love your daughter so so so much. Just make sure you are working towards loving yourself and giving yourself the consideration and support you give to others. Keep working on that in therapy separate from Chrystal the wife or Chrystal the mother. Find out what makes you happy and what you need.

Please still talk to the lawyer to understand your rights with moving out of state. Just in case things escalate and you found yourself in an emergency situation. You don’t want to again have to wait until business hours of a lawyer to get that info. Put it in your back pocket. Also talk to them about custody and about spousal support. Even if that’s not your immediate move, it should help your anxiety to have a lawyer break it all down. Ask all the questions you can think of.

On average, it takes someone multiple, multiple tries to end an abusive relationship. Chrystal’s fortitude in providing her daughter with a healthy life was incredibly admirable and aided by a couple things working in her favor:

1. She was the breadwinner and didn’t rely on Jared financially whatsoever.

2. She had a supportive family she could stay with, if she could only get to Texas.

3. She was well educated and had a career that would be able to sustain her post-divorce.

In the end though, none of those mattered.

Chrystal never relied on Jared, but he never planned to rely on himself either. He would end up draining her bank account and maxing out her credit cards. The judge would order her to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars he maliciously charged to her name. He would try to stake a claim onto every single penny, even though the divorce lasted longer than the marriage. This, plus his mother’s advice to ‘take her for everything,’ would drag out the divorce.

Jared lied to everyone he came across in order to garner sympathy as a self-proclaimed single father. He had his mother paying his rent because he claimed he was unable to work while taking care of Ellie (for one fucking day a week). He was caught trying to fraudulently obtain welfare benefits as a household of two, though Ellie did not live with him. While he was still in school, he was able to move in parental housing though, again, Ellie did not live there. He fundraised on Ellie’s behalf and spent the money on who knows what. He never contributed to Ellie’s care financially, but definitely saw her as an income stream. This made it harder for him to let go.

Jared refused to give Chrystal permission to take Ellie to Texas under any circumstances. She was never allowed to even meet the majority of Chrystal’s family. The Bay area was not the home base for either parent, but Jared was willing to stay there forever just to prevent Chrystal from moving. Jared would go on to make heinous accusations about Chrystal’s entire family to the courts, trying to keep her from accessing her support system.

Jared also tried to destroy her career by dragging her job into the divorce. He tried to publicly embarrass Chrystal by sending subpoenas out to both places that she had and hadn’t worked at. Though she worked in pediatrics and championed for children daily, he would make false allegations about her to Child Protective Services again and again and again under fake names. That might have felt like a bridge too far for him though, as he would then call back to try and cancel the investigations.

Jared was an incredibly controlling man. He was exacting and he was cruel, but he was not the first of his kind to appear before the Santa Clara court system. Or any court system! Back in 2021, the domestic violence advocate called it:

You have to be really careful because if things are turned upside down in his world, if he feels like he is losing power and control over you, it tends to make him more dangerous.”

The loss of control is a threat to the ego and those with patterns of abusive behavior are known to lash out violently in response. Killing one’s one children to punish the other parent is a very real possibility, one that Chrystal feared of for years. There’s decades of literature to back this up, countless victims for us all to learn from. Jared disguised his true nature to most of the people in his life, but the courts saw the pages and pages of emails and texts he sent harassing Chrystal. They read his pages and pages of handwritten manifestos. They knew he was obsessed. They were the ones who had authorized two restraining orders against him.

Regardless of the lies Jared told his social circle about Chrystal, the courts had the evidence to come to the foreseeable conclusion that this child was in danger from him. A court appointed psychologist said as much! They took away the supervised visitation anyways.

On July 9, 2024, the Santa Clara county court sentenced Ellie to die. They told an unhinged man that his ex-wife would be able to give their daughter a beautiful life in another state, that his single dad persona would be disproven, and that he was no longer allowed to control either of them. He killed Ellie at the very next opportunity he could.

It may make some people feel better to believe that Jared was overcome with emotion at the thought of “losing his daughter” and snapped. I don’t have a big enough ego to think I can deflate delusion, but I will still label that as false. This was someone filled with ANGER, not anguish. He beat a baby to death and I can’t even say he did it with his bare hands. He did it with a steel toed boot and broke her neck, her spine, and her skull.

This wasn’t the last time that he was going to see his daughter either. It was just the first time since the final court ruling that she could move. Chrystal and Ellie weren’t moving for months. It’s been three months since he killed her and they wouldn’t have even left yet. The final custody agreement was also extremely generous. He had holidays, birthdays. Rather than his current one day a week and one weekend a month, he was going to have a full week with her every five weeks.

Ellie was not going to be taken away from Jared. He could have given her the chance to live out the rest of her life and been her father throughout it. He’d rather she die at three years old. That was his choice.