5-year-old girl born on plane dies from shocking abuse, found in dirty bed

US News

By Patrick Reilly

A Canadian girl who made international headlines when she was born on a flight to Japan in 2015 was found dead in 2020 after months of shocking neglect and abuse, according to newly released court documents.

The lifeless body of Chloe Guan-Branch was found in her soiled bed in Ottawa on May 15, 2020, just after her fifth birthday.

Authorities said she suffered intense pain for days from an abdominal injury and that her mother refused to take her to the hospital because Chloe was already covered in bruises.

Her attacker, her mother’s ex-boyfriend, Justin Cassie-Berube, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death, failure to provide basic necessities, and assault causing bodily harm. bodily harm and assault, according to the CBC.

The disturbing details of the case were kept under a publication ban until last week, after CBC and The Ottawa Citizen successfully fought the ban in court.

Chloe was born on Mother’s Day in 2015, while on a flight from Calgary to Japan. This unique birth made global news, with stories featuring his mother Ada Guan and his biological father, Wes Branch.

Guan told reporters at the time that she had no idea 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 the couple’s arguments. Guan and Branch broke up shortly after and went their separate ways.

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, Cassie-Berbue.

Cassie-Berbue was manipulative and abusive, according to court documents, and would threaten suicide if she ever left.

In August 2019, a neighbor first noticed bruising on Chloe’s arms. Then, around Christmas, the same neighbor remembered seeing the child with a “bruised and battered” face, she testified.

A November 2019 text message recovered by police shows Guan telling Cassie-Berbue not to hurt Chloe’s face.

“I don’t want to see his face all bruised and fucked up anymore,” she wrote. “I don’t want to go out and have to cover his face just because there are marks on it. It’s suspicious.”

Guan testified that Cassie-Berbue “grabbed (Chloe) and threw her, spanked her, put soap in her mouth, slammed her lips and face, threw her on the bed , squeezed her ankles, grabbed her forearm, pulled her forward and hit her. on the head with a wooden spoon” during their 15-month relationship.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chloe was even more isolated and “basically alone” at home with Guan and Cassie-Berbue, where the abuse became worse.

Chloe suffered a ruptured bladder on May 9, 2020, a day before her fifth birthday.

Cassie-Berbue called police on May 15 after finding Chloe not breathing in her bed after days of excruciating pain.

A medical examiner confirmed she died from blunt force trauma to the bladder.

She had a hard stomach, vomited, was unable to keep food down, and soiled herself before she died. Guan testified that Chloe became so ill 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 – which is why Guan and Cassie Berbue never took her for treatment, even though she needed “critical” medical attention.

Chloe also had several obvious bruises on her face and throughout her body that “did not come from a simple fall,” multiple healed rib fractures and possible cigarette burns near the waist, the medical examiner testified.

A number of the cuts and bruises dated from a time when she was already suffering from a ruptured bladder.

The cause of his death was determined to be acute uremia – a condition that causes severe pain and causes nausea and vomiting when waste enters the bloodstream.

Cassie-Berbue admitted to violently beating the girl, but said he did not hit her in the abdomen. Investigators could not determine whether the breakup was due to punches or a fall, as he told police.

In the two months before his death, Cassie-Berbue said he often drank to the point of passing out.

At his March 1 sentencing, a judge said Cassie-Bérubé was “not credible when he tried to minimize his role” in Chloé’s death.

He “repeatedly contradicted himself, admitted to lying on occasion and at times grossly embellished parts of his story,” the judge said.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 24.