Cathy Lynn Henderson

1. Cathy Lynn Henderson Maria Lecce Pd. 3

2. Background • Education up to the 12 grade, didn't attend college • No criminal record • Born December 27, 1956 in Austin, Texas • Full time babysitter

3. Crime • Was 37 at the time crime was committed • Convicted of the abduction and murder of three month old Brandon Baugh. • Began babysitting Baugh and his two year old sister, Megan, three months prior to the crime • Henderson told police that Brandon died after she dropped him accidentally on his head. • Panicked and buried the boy and fled the Missouri where she was arrested.

4. Evidence • Using a map drawn by Henderson, authorities found Brandon’s body in a cardboard box in a shallow grave outside of Temple, TX • February 8, 1994. • Autopsy determined Brandon died of fractured skull.

5. Quote • “I think I was in shock, disbelief. I just didn’t know what I was doing. That baby was dead. I didn’t want to deal with that. There was too much sorrow. It hurt, it hurt,” she said, tearing up. “When I look back at it, it does kind of look like I was guilty, doesn’t it?”

6. Sentence • At first, sentenced by death penalty • After months on death row, was given a retrial and given a life sentence in prison instead • Reason being was due to the recent scientific evidence about the causes of head trauma similar to the ones Brandon suffered

7. Theory