The Babysitter's Dark Secret: Unraveling the Shocking Crimes of Christine Falling

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[00:01:39] police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised.

[00:01:45] All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty in all opinions are my own.

[00:02:10] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young and this is serialnapper, the true crime podcast for

[00:02:15] naps. I'm back with another true crime story too, lawyer to sleep or perhaps to give you nightmares.

[00:02:22] As if being a parent isn't hard enough, many of us have had to leave our precious children in

[00:02:28] care of a stranger at one point or another. It takes a great deal of trust and pure luck that

[00:02:35] everything will be okay because how much can you really know about a person and what they're like

[00:02:40] when watchful adults are not around. The crimes committed by Christine Folling, known as the

[00:02:46] babysitter from hell, are a important reminder that parents need to be vigilant when selecting a

[00:02:52] caregiver for their children who are some of the most vulnerable in our society. In her

[00:02:57] early years, she began torturing small animals like cats. Then as a teenager, she moved on to

[00:03:04] hurting neighborhood children. From 1980 to 1982 just a two-year span, it's believed that she attempted

[00:03:12] to murder three infants and she killed as many as five babies and an elderly man. She didn't

[00:03:19] even try to hide her crimes. Later telling investigators that she heard voices that told her to

[00:03:24] help them. And she should have been caught long before she was ever arrested. However somehow,

[00:03:31] the back-to-back deaths of all of these children in her care, they seemingly went under police radar,

[00:03:37] or they were lost amidst a pile of paperwork allowing her to continue to kill.

[00:03:43] So dim the lights put your phone down and listen to the story of Christine Folling, a twisted

[00:03:49] young woman who would confess to police on tape, quote,

[00:03:53] I just choked him. No apparent reason. So let's jump right in.

[00:03:59] As we often see with people who go on to commit these kinds of brutal crimes, Christine Folling

[00:04:05] came from difficult beginnings. She was the product of an abusive toxic relationship and

[00:04:10] I'm using that word relationship loosely here because her mother Anne was actually a child

[00:04:16] bride, married off to a man four times her age who was violent with his wife and his children.

[00:04:24] Christine was born on March 12, 1962 in Perry, Florida, to her teenage mother Anne.

[00:04:30] Anne was just 16 years old and married to a much older man, 65-year-old Thomas.

[00:04:38] Before she was Christine Folling, she was actually born Christine Le Verne Slatter, an absolutely

[00:04:44] fitting last name. It's always kind of interesting when someone's name fits their personality.

[00:04:51] Christine was their second daughter, she grew up with an older sister and then would later have

[00:04:56] two younger brothers named Michael and Earl. Their father believed that Michael was likely

[00:05:02] fathered by some other man, so he only ever claimed Earl as his own blood.

[00:05:08] It said that their mother Anne would disappear for great lengths of time,

[00:05:12] probably to get away from her abusive pedophile of a husband, and then she would return home

[00:05:18] pregnant. Eventually Anne left one day and she just never returned.

[00:05:24] Christine was said to be very sickly. She was epileptic, prone to having seizures,

[00:05:29] she suffered from weight issues and she was severely developmentally delayed.

[00:05:35] There was also a lot of violence and abuse in the home, pure neglect, which made Christine's

[00:05:41] health issues even worse. She didn't get the care or attention that she truly needed

[00:05:47] that could have helped prevent the tragic events that would happen many years later.

[00:05:52] The Slatter family lived in extreme poverty. Thomas worked as a woodsman while Anne,

[00:05:58] when she was around, was a homemaker but they couldn't afford all of their children's medical needs.

[00:06:04] So when Christine was a young child, she and her older sister were given up for adoption.

[00:06:10] Their little brothers, Michael and Earl were kept while because they were boys who could

[00:06:15] work hard with their father and earn money. Both girls were adopted by the falling family,

[00:06:21] Jesse and Carol, which is where the name Christine Falling was given.

[00:06:26] Though Jesse and Carol claimed to be godly people who attended church every Sunday,

[00:06:31] things were not any better in the falling home. It's alleged that their stepfather,

[00:06:37] Jesse Falling, began to sexually abuse the two young girls, something that both Jesse and Carol

[00:06:43] would deny. It's no wonder why Christine began to display violent behaviors. I can feel for

[00:06:50] Christine as a child. She never really stood a chance. She was born severely mentally delayed,

[00:06:56] and she was both physically and mentally abused from a very young age. So isn't anyone or why?

[00:07:02] If violence was constantly inflicted upon her that she would learn to do the same,

[00:07:08] she was angry and displayed that anger in having fits of absolute rage.

[00:07:14] She didn't have the capacity to verbalize it so it showed through in her actions.

[00:07:20] Apparently it became too much for their adoptive parents to handle, and the girls were placed in a

[00:07:26] group home called The Great Oaks Village in Orlando, Florida. Christine was just nine years old at

[00:07:32] and this was the third home that she had been placed in. While it did get her away from her

[00:07:37] creep of a stepfather, her propensity to resort to violence didn't stop. It actually got worse.

[00:07:44] She began torturing small animals, particularly cats, which we now know is a telltale sign

[00:07:51] that a person has a psychopathic personality disorder. Christine began torturing and killing cats

[00:07:57] by strangling them or dropping them off of high ledges to see if they truly had nine lives

[00:08:03] despair. Of course, they didn't, and many of the cats died, but this didn't stop Christine

[00:08:09] from continuing her little experiments. The caregivers who worked at the group home didn't know

[00:08:15] how to handle her. They would describe Christine as a child who constantly lied, stole and broke

[00:08:22] all of the rules, all in the hopes of gaining attention, which again makes me feel awful for

[00:08:29] the child Christine. She would eventually grow up to be an adult and she is responsible for her own

[00:08:35] actions. Allegedly, she was bullied by the other children in the group home, mostly over her looks

[00:08:41] and for being mentally delayed. Her comprehension never improved beyond a sixth grade level,

[00:08:48] and she dropped out of school altogether when in the seventh grade. She was forever an angry child,

[00:08:55] while the other girls her age began to get into fashion, makeup, and boys. She truly had nowhere

[00:09:02] or no one to turn to, so when she was 12 years old, she simply up and left the group home

[00:09:08] and went to find her birth mother Anne, who was now living in Blountstown, Florida. Her mother wasn't

[00:09:14] a great role model, and when Christine was just 14 years old, she was pressured into marrying a much

[00:09:20] older man who was just over 20 years old. I've actually read in some reports that this was her

[00:09:26] own stepbrother. Anne probably wanted to get her out of the house, not be financially responsible

[00:09:32] for her anymore, and to just wash her hands of her daughter. Anne had been a child borrowed herself,

[00:09:38] so of course she didn't see anything wrong with it. Christine's marriage lasted only six weeks.

[00:09:43] It was doomed from the very beginning to fail, especially with Christine being a literal

[00:09:49] child who often had violent outbursts. Once her marriage collapsed, her attention-seeking behavior

[00:09:56] resumed, with her visiting the hospital endlessly, claiming that she had various medical emergencies

[00:10:03] that she needed attending to. In the span of about two years, she would end up at the hospital

[00:10:09] more than 50 times, with ailments like abnormal menstrual bleeding and hallucinations. The doctors never

[00:10:17] really knew what to do with her or had a treat her, so they would often just send her home without

[00:10:22] any kind of treatment. Now that she was back living at home with her birth mother again,

[00:10:27] she was told that she needed to get a job and help to pay the bills. With a lack of skills, education,

[00:10:34] and the comprehension of a sixth grader, finding a job proved to be difficult. This is when

[00:10:42] she decided that she babysit children in her neighborhood. Though she suffered from a lot of

[00:10:47] internal turmoil, Christine was capable of keeping it together enough to appear as a kind and

[00:10:53] caring young lady who parents seemed trust. She came off as this person who absolutely loved

[00:11:00] children. This would be a big mistake. It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors.

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[00:12:59] Now back to our story. The date was February 22nd, 1980. 17 year old Christine falling

[00:13:07] was hired by the parents of two year old Cassidy Johnson who's nickname was Muffin, which is

[00:13:13] sweetest thing I've ever heard. She was hired to watch the little girl while both parents worked.

[00:13:20] At first, everything appeared to seem fine when the parents arrived home the little girl

[00:13:25] appeared to be sleeping so they paid Christine and she left. However just a few days later it became evident

[00:13:32] that something was horribly wrong with the little girl. She was incredibly sick,

[00:13:37] lathergic and limp so her parents rushed her to see the local doctor. The doctor identified

[00:13:44] bruising on her scalp and it was believed to be a case of encephalitis inflammation of

[00:13:49] the brain from a traumatic head injury. Just three days later the little girl would die from

[00:13:54] her injuries around the same time that another child in Christine's care, three-year-old Kyle

[00:14:00] Somerlin, was rushed to the hospital with meningitis. Luckily he survived.

[00:14:05] Because of the suspicious circumstances surrounding this healthy child's death,

[00:14:10] an autopsy was performed on Cassidy which concluded that she had died from blunt force trauma

[00:14:15] to her skull. Her parents couldn't recall seeing her fall or hit her head on anything but they

[00:14:21] did let the police know that Christine had babysat for them just a few days prior,

[00:14:26] maybe something had happened at that point. When investigators interviewed Christine,

[00:14:31] she said that she briefly left little Cassidy alone in her room and when she returned,

[00:14:36] she found the child unconscious on the floor. So she must have fallen out of her crib.

[00:14:43] It was labeled a tragic accident, especially according to Christine.

[00:14:47] And though there was a suspicion that it could have been foul play,

[00:14:51] without any evidence to prove otherwise the case was considered closed.

[00:14:56] Christine decided to move to Lakeland, Florida for a fresh start, where she once again began

[00:15:02] offering her babysitting service to parents in her new neighborhood.

[00:15:06] At the beginning of 1981, she babysat two brothers who suddenly began to convuls and were rushed

[00:15:13] to the hospital right away where thankfully they recovered. But not every family, Christine

[00:15:20] babysat four was so lucky. One of the children she looked after was a four-year-old little boy

[00:15:26] named Jeffrey Davis. According to Christine, he was taking a map and once she went to wake him up,

[00:15:33] he just would not gain consciousness. The little boy had stopped breathing in his sleep.

[00:15:40] Christine said he was already deceased when she walked into his bedroom.

[00:15:44] Because this is the sudden death of a child, an autopsy was once again ordered.

[00:15:50] This time, the medical report stated that while Jeffrey had suffered from a chronic heart

[00:15:55] inflammation condition, this alone didn't kill him. No other possible cause of death was found,

[00:16:02] so it was believed that this condition contributed to his death, but it may have been a case of

[00:16:07] sids. No one suspected Christine of doing anything wrong. In fact, Jeffrey's family felt

[00:16:14] awful for her that she had experienced something so traumatic while caring for their child.

[00:16:20] The trust was still there, so while Jeffrey's family attended his funeral three days later,

[00:16:27] Christine was asked to care for his baby cousin. Two-year-old Joseph Spring.

[00:16:32] And this is where in my opinion, the alarms should have been sounded. The red flags should have

[00:16:38] been raised because it was glaringly obvious that something sinister was at play.

[00:16:43] Just like with Jeffrey's tragic death, little Joseph went down for an app and he didn't wake up.

[00:16:49] Can you imagine the extreme pain in suffering these two little boys' family must have experienced?

[00:16:55] Losing two small children, subtling, within days of each other.

[00:17:01] This time, it was believed that Joseph may have died from a viral infection,

[00:17:06] because Joseph and Jeffrey were cousins around the same age who had spent a lot of time together,

[00:17:12] it was thought that this infection likely contributed to Jeffrey's death as well.

[00:17:16] That the two boys had both died from this mystery virus. Meaning, there was no further

[00:17:22] investigation into their deaths required. After this most recent tragedy, Christine decided to move

[00:17:29] back to her mother's hometown, another fresh start, or perhaps just a new modest operandi.

[00:17:37] She gave baby sitting a break and she found a new job working as a housekeeper for an elderly man.

[00:17:43] 77-year-old Wilburne Swindle. Christine must be the unluckyest woman alive,

[00:17:50] because while working her very first shift, Wilburne suddenly died in his kitchen.

[00:17:56] His death wasn't looked at as closely because he was an elderly man who also suffered from cancer,

[00:18:03] and it was ruled that he had likely died from a heart attack.

[00:18:07] Did no one in Christine's life at this point realize that she had been present at so many

[00:18:13] sudden deaths? Even if the police weren't tracking it because they didn't keep proper record

[00:18:18] keeping or follow her to different towns, I'm not sure why it didn't raise the eyebrows of those

[00:18:24] who actually knew her as a person, including her step-sister. Shortly after Wilburne's death,

[00:18:31] Christine was running some errands with her step-sister and infant niece, Jennifer Daniels.

[00:18:38] Earlier in the day, Jennifer had an appointment with the doctor to receive her vaccinations.

[00:18:44] Then they all had to make a quick stop at the grocery store. Christine offered to wait in the

[00:18:49] car with the sleeping baby while her step-sister ran into grab what they needed.

[00:18:54] When the step-sister returned, she found Christine in a panic.

[00:19:00] The 18-month-old otherwise healthy baby girl was in breathing. It was believed that she had

[00:19:07] died in her sleep. Again, maybe a case of sids or perhaps related to the immunization that

[00:19:13] she had just received that morning. Case closed. According to the Cleveland Clinic,

[00:19:19] quote, about 2,500 babies in the U.S. die every year due to sins. So to think that at least two

[00:19:26] unrelated babies in the last few years would die from this cause in the presence of this young

[00:19:31] woman, it's highly unlikely. Yet this pattern was not immediately picked up by really anyone.

[00:19:40] It wasn't until a year later that someone would take notice that something very terrible was happening.

[00:19:46] When a now 19-year-old Christine falling was carrying for a 10-week-old baby named Travis Coleman.

[00:19:52] She was watching the baby in a trailer that she shared with her boyfriend. When again,

[00:19:58] Christine would say that the baby suddenly stopped breathing in his sleep. Before he passed,

[00:20:04] the baby had displayed symptoms of having a case of pneumonia. So initially it was thought that

[00:20:10] he may have passed away from his illness. People in the community and the local media were beginning

[00:20:16] to notice that young children were dying at a very alarming rate in the presence of Christine falling.

[00:20:24] She would give an interview from her trailer to a reporter denying any involvement, saying quote,

[00:20:30] just because I'm not having an easy life, maybe it will straighten up one day. I don't see how

[00:20:36] that's ever going to happen. Then she voluntarily checked herself into the psychiatric unit

[00:20:42] after telling doctors that she was suicidal. She was released a week later, just in time for

[00:20:49] investigators to have a word with her. Travis was the fifth child and only two years

[00:20:55] to suddenly die while in Christine's care. The police pushed for his parents to agree to an autopsy,

[00:21:02] which thankfully they did, and this is when it was learned that Travis had signs of being

[00:21:07] suffocated to death. Christine was brought into the station for questioning, and this is when she

[00:21:14] finally confessed. She would admit to murdering three of the children who had mysteriously

[00:21:20] died on her watch, saying she was hearing voices telling her to suffocate the children with a blanket.

[00:21:26] So that is exactly what she did in order to silence the voices. It was like a game because I got

[00:21:32] to tell them if they'd done enough, they came to figure it out for the self and why should I tell

[00:21:42] them? I mean their doctors. You know that was like a game when me I was getting away with it.

[00:21:46] Upon learning that she would be facing a death sentence if her case went to court and she was

[00:21:51] convicted, instead she agreed to plead guilty to the murder of all five children in exchange

[00:21:57] for a life sentence. She gave a full-taped confession detailing all of the awful things that she had

[00:22:05] done, describing how she had killed her most recent victim Travis. She said quote,

[00:22:11] I just choked him. No apparent reason. I just picked him off his pallet and choked him to death

[00:22:17] and laid him back down. With her first victim, Cassidy, also known as Muffin, she recalled

[00:22:24] playing with the little girl before killing her. She said quote, she got kind of routier something.

[00:22:30] Anyway, a choker until she quit breathing. Adding, I killed them. That's about all I got to say.

[00:22:37] I don't know why. Which is about as cold as an answer as a getts but she does know why.

[00:22:44] Christine thrived on the attention she received when a baby she was caring for died. People knew

[00:22:50] how much she loved children or so she claimed and so she received a wave of support in sympathy

[00:22:57] each time one of them tragically passed away. Killing was the best way that she'd been

[00:23:03] not the best kind of fame. Okay, no writing, TVs, newscasters, broad, nationwide,

[00:23:13] public television, radio, newspapers. That's the best publication you can get.

[00:23:20] But with murders to go to the extent to murders to get those dreams is not the best.

[00:23:27] Leave me a live through it. All my life I wanted.

[00:23:36] Fam publicity. It then leads with movie star. And killing I guess was a way to attract

[00:23:45] that attention from other people. Okay, other people was drawing that attention that I wanted.

[00:23:51] Other movie stars, other cases of murder, presidents. Okay, I was in and them.

[00:24:00] Christine falling was convicted of murder and she was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences

[00:24:06] but she was spared from the death penalty. While she didn't immediately confess to killing

[00:24:12] elderly man Wilburne's window, she would eventually admit to it about three years into her life

[00:24:17] sentence saying that she had strangled him to death. It wasn't a heart attack. She likely would have

[00:24:24] gotten away with killing Wilburne if she hadn't spoken up because it had long been believed to be a

[00:24:30] after serving 25 years. She became eligible for parole in 2017. No one showed up to the hearing

[00:24:38] to support her and ultimately her application for parole was rejected. I've read that she has

[00:24:44] another hearing scheduled for this year but I couldn't find anything about it. I can find

[00:24:49] the date or any more information so maybe it got pushed after COVID or maybe it is yet to come.

[00:24:55] I'd be surprised if they decided to let her out and around children again. If her parole is in

[00:25:01] granted, she will die in prison because her release date isn't until the year 2254.

[00:25:08] Be careful who you trust your children with. Always check references and even then you got

[00:25:14] a stalorate. Let me tell you about a situation that happened with my own kids. While I was living

[00:25:19] in Japan, I had the opportunity to attend a special event and it just so happened to land on a day

[00:25:25] when my kids were home from school and my husband was working. So I hired a babysitter from a

[00:25:32] reputable caregiver site. The babysitters listed on this site they're all vetted with background

[00:25:38] checks and glowing reviews from other parents. The young lady I hired she had several years of

[00:25:45] experience working as an opair. I met with her, she seems lovely and I'm sure she is a nice girl but

[00:25:52] the absolute negligence displayed by her is something that I will never forget. My husband came

[00:25:59] back from work early and he found the babysitter in our apartment without my two kids who were

[00:26:06] maybe three and seven years old at the time. She was in my daughter's room looking through her

[00:26:12] and my husband was like, where are the kids? She said she had taken them down to go to the swimming

[00:26:18] pool which is an Olympic size swimming pool that we had on the property. And initially my daughter

[00:26:25] didn't want to swim but she had changed her mind so the babysitter went back to our apartment

[00:26:30] to get the bathing suit. She lacked my three and seven year old completely alone by this Olympic-sized

[00:26:38] swimming pool to go four buildings over and two floors up to get a bathing suit. My husband rushed

[00:26:45] down to the pool to get the kids and thank God they were okay but it could have been a tragic

[00:26:51] situation. They were standing by the pool by themselves. The babysitter was immediately fired by

[00:26:58] the company but it also really changed my perspective. You can't trust anyone to care for your

[00:27:04] kids the way that you do. Even someone who has references, a background check. Obviously it's

[00:27:10] unavoidable that there's going to be times when you have to leave your kids with someone else

[00:27:15] and you can only do so much to ensure that this person is a safe person. Christine falling

[00:27:21] the babysitter from how she was only able to keep doing what she did because she came with a friendly

[00:27:27] smile and she said that she loved kids. But at one point she had also loved cats and she had no

[00:27:35] issues with killing them either. That's it for me tonight. If you want to read out, you can find me

[00:27:42] on Facebook at serial number. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:27:49] I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube so go check it out. And if you're watching

[00:27:55] YouTube, I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. I'm over on X. Formally known as

[00:28:00] Twitter at serial underscore napper and I post things on TikTok. serial napper Nick and that's all one

[00:28:06] word. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye!