A Canadian girl who gained international attention in 2015 when she was born on a flight to Japan was found dead in 2020 after shocking months of neglect and abuse. , revealed in newly disclosed court documents.
Chloe Guan Branch’s body was found in a dirty bed in Ottawa on May 15, 2020, just after her fifth birthday.
Authorities said Chloe had been in severe pain for several days from her abdominal injuries and her mother refused to take her to the hospital because she was already covered in bruises.
Her abuser, her mother’s ex-boyfriend, Justin Cathy Berube, was convicted of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, failure to provide the necessities of life, and assault and battery causing bodily harm. According to CBC.
The disturbing details of the incident were under a publication ban until last week after the CBC report. ottawa citizen The ban was successfully challenged in court.
Chloe was born on Mother’s Day 2015 on a flight from Calgary to Japan. This unique birth made global news and featured her mother, Ada Guan, and her biological father, Wes Branch.
Guan told reporters at the time that she did not know she was pregnant.
A few months after her birth, Chloe was taken from her parents and placed in the care of the Children’s Aid Society due to concerns about marital disputes. Guan and Blanche soon separated and became estranged.
Chloe was returned to her mother when she was three years old, and in February 2019, Guan and her daughter moved to Ottawa to live with her new boyfriend, Kathy Barbeau.
According to court documents, Kathy Bellevue was manipulative and abusive and had threatened to commit suicide if she left.
In August 2019, a neighbor first noticed bruises on Chloe’s arm. Then, around Christmas, she recalled seeing a child in the same neighborhood with a “bruised and battered” face, she testified.
Text messages from November 2019 recovered by police show Guan telling Cassie-Barbeau not to hurt Chloe’s face.
“I don’t want to see her face covered in scars any more,” she wrote. “I don’t want her to go out and have to hide her face just because she has marks. I doubt it.”
Guan said Kathy Bellevue said, [Chloe] Then he throws her off, spanks her, puts soap in her mouth, slaps her on the lips and face, throws her on the bed, ties her ankles together, grabs her forearms, pulls her forward, and hits her over the head with a wooden spoon. I did. ” throughout their 15-month relationship.
The abuse worsened during the coronavirus pandemic, when Chloe became even more isolated and “virtually alone” at home with Guan and Kathy-Barbeau.
Chloe suffered a ruptured bladder on May 9, 2020, the day before her fifth birthday.
Kathy Barbeau called the police on May 15 after finding Chloe not breathing in her bed after suffering for days.
A forensic pathologist confirmed that she died from blunt force trauma to the bladder.
She had a hard stomach, vomited, couldn’t keep food down and soiled herself before she died. Ms Guan testified that Chloe became so unwell in her final days that she had to be carried to the bathroom.
Authorities noted that she had a “shocking” number of bruises and injuries. That’s why Guan and Kathy Barbeau didn’t take her to treatment, even though she needed “urgent” treatment.
A forensic pathologist also testified that Chloe had several apparent bruises on her face and body that were “not the result of a simple fall,” as well as multiple healed rib fractures and possible cigarette burns near her lower back.
Many of the cuts and bruises were from when she had already suffered a ruptured bladder.
Her cause of death was determined to be acute uremia, a condition in which waste products enter the bloodstream, causing severe pain, nausea and vomiting.
Kathy Bellevue admitted to hitting the girl severely, but said she did not punch her in the stomach. Investigators could not determine whether the rupture was caused by a fist or, as the suspect told police, a fall.
Kathy Barbeau said that in the two months before her death, she often drank to the point of blacking out.
At sentencing on March 1, the judge said it was “incredible that Kathy Berube tried to downplay her role” in Chloe’s death.
The judge said he “admitted that he had contradicted himself numerous times, lied on occasion, and at times heavily embellished parts of his story.”
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 24.
