PA - Infant Leon Katz murdered, twin injured, allegedly by babysitter, Pittsburgh - June 24, 2024 #2

[submarine7]

I've been watching for movement in this case but it's been slow. I was shocked when I literally stumbled on an odd man out article detailing her confession. No other news outlets were reporting on it and I wasn't certain it was legitimate, but we now know it is. Just her to share my thoughts on this case. JMO

I won't speculate on what she may have done to Ari, but I have no doubt she inflicted injury to his genital/groin region. Whether or not that injury was planned to provide ample time to murder Leon, I don't know. Everything about this woman is chilling and she was in a position to seek out help. I really wonder who else she's harmed. She's well aware she has impulse control issues and that her victim of choice are the vulnerable but she pretended instead.

By her own admission, she killed Leon, her close friend's six week old baby. Purposefully. An absolutely defenseless baby who wasn't even old or strong enough to fall from his chair as she described. Her description of what he suffered is one of the most horrific things I've ever read. Likewise hearing her thought process proves she was intellectually aware but could not stop herself. The betrayal to her close friends adds another layer of punishments. This family was building and she was destroying.

What I find so frightening is how well she's managed to conceal her self from the world. I've read comments and opinions from people who knew her and nobody has said she's sadistic or selfish, but they've lauded her with praise. It makes me wonder how well people knew her?

Her confession demonstrates a total lack of emotional maturity, empathy, or humanity. It's reasonable to assume NV planned her visit based on her needs and her friends were pressured into accommodating her as best the could. I'm shocked that a woman her age wouldn't understand the concept of "bad time" or realize her friends were busy trying to manage newborn twins and soak in the love as a family. Common sense also seems to be missing in her.

When you factor in her admission she was angry because they were too busy and she felt used when asked to help out with the twins, you get a very ugly image of a willfully childish woman. She gives me the creeps and she's as dangerous as any serial killer in my mind. From any perspective, I think it apparent NV is dangerous. It's alarming that she was on track to diagnose others.


The ruling on her confession is wonderful news. She may have been tired and uncomfortable during her interrogation but she was the architect of that reality. Until that point, I suspect her privileged upbringing and education placed her above reproach. Clearly, LE knew she she harmed the babies and I suspect that shocked and insulted her. She was trapped so she confessed but she also tried to set up a situation where she's also the victim. I hope her punished fits the crime and she spends her life in prison. She gives off psychopath vibes and I'm very curious to know details about her mental health history.


The link is unrelated to the case but it pertains to another San Diego area woman who habitually harmed babies. It's hard to believe these people exist.

Judge sends serial baby scratcher to timeout

The Southern California real estate agent who admitted to pinching and scratching babies to the point of bleeding in 2009 is sentenced to up to two years in prison.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[NorthernThinkerDownSouth]

@NorthernThinkerDownSouth

May I say that I ADORE members like you, who do not get offended when someone disagrees, and who then reply with such depth of thought.

It’s a good point about premature Jewish baby boys possibly having late circumcisions due to their frailty.

I confess I don’t know the answer offhand. We have had only girls in our family for 80 years until my grandson was born, and my daughter had him circumcised in the hospital instead of by a rabbi on the 8th day.

I respect everything you say, but in the end I believe NV’s confession to be the absolute truth. It would be too coincidental to have two newborns who were fine and then suddenly have one injured and one dead, once the parents are out. And at six weeks those babies do not yet have the capability of hoisting themselves anywhere with enough force to fall out of a baby seat.

JMO

That is such a kind thing to say, genuinely thank you. And what a lovely detail about your grandson! it actually helps answer the question in a roundabout way, because it suggests that even in jewish families today the hospital circumcision rather than the traditional bris on the eighth day isnt unheard of. So we still dont know for certain when Ari and Leon would have been circumcised, which I think just reinforces the broader point we need the actual medical detail before drawing firm conclusions about anything in this case.

And I really dotake your point about the coincidence argument . Two babies, parents leave, one injured one dead. I understand why that looks damning and I wont pretend it doesnt. That is genuinely the hardest part of the innocent hypothesis to get around. but accidents can still happen and lightening can still strike twice.

On the baby seat point youre probably right that a six week old cant hoist themselves out of anything. My theory was never that Leon climbed out, more that he was left unsecured in a bouncer and it tipped or he slipped sideways. Those things do happen, and at six weeks a baby doesnt have to do anything at all for a fall to occur just be placed somewhere unstable by someone who wasnt thinking clearly. But again, thats speculation and I hold it loosely.

Ive been following the shaken baby controversy for a long time and I think it genuinely matters here. The Louise Woodward case is the one that really opened my eyes to all of this and the parallels to Nicoles situation are hard to ignore for me. Young woman, alone with an infant, child dies, last person present is immediately assumed responsible, medical experts line up to say the injuries can only mean abuse. Sound familiar? What haunts me about Woodward is what happened afterwards. Dr Patrick Barnes was a key prosecution witness at her trial. Years later he said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he believed his involvement had helped produce a misdiagnosis, and that there had been a revolution in understanding of infant head injuries that changed everything he thought he knew at the time. He said there are medical conditions that can affect a babys brain and look exactly like what they used to attribute to shaken baby syndrome. That is a prosecution expert essentially saying the framework he used to convict someone was flawed.

And thats really my spidey sense with this case. The foundation of the prosecution against Nicole isnt eyewitness testimony, isnt forensic evidence in the traditional sense, its the opinion of a child abuse specialist operating within a framework thats been repeatedly shown to be vulnerable to tunnel vision and black box thinking, especially in the highly emotive context of a childs death. These experts arent bad people, I dont think that at all. But the literature is full of cases where the rush to identify abuse, combined with the assumption that the last adult present must be responsible, led to catastrophically wrong conclusions. Woodward. Brumfield. Adrian Thomas. The pattern is there.

On the confession — we'll have to agree to disagree and I genuinely respect that you read it as the truth. Personally I've come to a point where I generally only trust confessions when they are signed and negotiated in the presence of a lawyer. The cases ive followed over the years have just taught me that lesson over and over again. And the cruel irony is that its often innocent people who feel they dont need a lawyer because they havent done anything wrong so they talk, and talking is what destroys them. Nicole is a textbook example of that imo. NEVER EVER talk to the police without a lawyer present, especially if you are innocent.

Really do appreciate you engaging with this so thoughtfully. Its one reason i really like Websleuths!

Have a wonderful day

 

[momsof3]

@NorthernThinkerDownSouth

May I say that I ADORE members like you, who do not get offended when someone disagrees, and who then reply with such depth of thought.

It’s a good point about premature Jewish baby boys possibly having late circumcisions due to their frailty.

I confess I don’t know the answer offhand. We have had only girls in our family for 80 years until my grandson was born, and my daughter had him circumcised in the hospital instead of by a rabbi on the 8th day.

I respect everything you say, but in the end I believe NV’s confession to be the absolute truth. It would be too coincidental to have two newborns who were fine and then suddenly have one injured and one dead, once the parents are out. And at six weeks those babies do not yet have the capability of hoisting themselves anywhere with enough force to fall out of a baby seat.

JMO

I completely agree! I come here because I don’t want to exist in an echo chamber! And I love thoughtful discourse and thinking outside the box!

 

[Curious Me]

snipped section to reply ... On the confession — we'll have to agree to disagree and I genuinely respect that you read it as the truth. Personally I've come to a point where I generally only trust confessions when they are signed and negotiated in the presence of a lawyer. The cases ive followed over the years have just taught me that lesson over and over again. And the cruel irony is that its often innocent people who feel they dont need a lawyer because they havent done anything wrong so they talk, and talking is what destroys them. Nicole is a textbook example of that imo. NEVER EVER talk to the police without a lawyer present, especially if you are innocent.​

It sounds like you have followed quite a few cases involving babies, and cases where there's been doubtful confessions. I do appreciate your reminders that in some cases the doubtful confessions have been obtained under duress.

I want to keep an open mind because there are plenty of wrongful convictions. The thing is I have the hardest time figuring out how a person would confess to doing such outrageous acts they haven't even done. I admit I then took her confession as probably fact. Wow, NV confessed to even a history of abusing defenseless children. Would you or I make up and confess to cruel actions?

Well, just saw this 48 Hours Show, and I saw the defendant confess similar to NV's confession. I realize why you have doubts about confessions obtained without a lawyer present, obtaining by an exhausting interrogations to obtain a confession almost at all costs by LE.

Are you familiar with this particular case? She was so tired she confessed thinking she was going to be allowed to go home. So, yes, thank you. We do need to keep an open mind. Allowing her confession in, does make a big difference in trial.

“Unraveling the Case Against Melissa Calusinski”: 48 Hours Reports January 18 2025 - 48 Hours Tonight

This Saturday, 48 Hours revisits the case of Melissa Calusinski in the episode titled “Unraveling the Case Against Melissa Calusinski.” Airing at 10/9c on

48hourstonight.com

You can watch the full episode of "Unraveling the Case Against Melissa Calusinski" on youtube​

 

[Curious Me]

Are you familiar with this particular case?

@NorthernThinkerDownSouth, yes, you mentioned that case several times. Expressing appreciation to you for reminding us to stay open minded to other ways we must look at this case.

5. The most extreme statements came only at the end. This is almost exactly the pattern seen in cases like:

• Melissa Calusinski
• Brendan Dassey
• the Central Park 5

The early hours involve denials or confusion. The dramatic, self-incriminating material shows up after exhaustion, fear, and hopelessness take over. This is not my opinion — this is a documented pattern in forensic psychology.

That was hard for me to understand, the bogus confessions. You have supported your thoughts with examples. I now understand it is a reality that under pressure it is possible for some innocent people being interrogated to confess to bogus crimes. ​

People forget that about 20–25% of exonerations involve false confessions. And many of those confessions were as detailed and emotional as this one sounds. Human beings can be pushed into saying things that don’t reflect reality — it’s uncomfortable to accept, but it’s true

That's been the hardest part for me to understand. It seems impossible that someone would confess to details that didn't happen and admit to things that they never did. However, it's true that human beings do break, and cave in to say anything to make it stop. I can see that. Don't understand why NV confessed to all she did when she had an attorney available, and family that would stand by her.

How much of what she said was bogus, it doesn't explain why there's still very suspicious injuries and one death, that calls for Justice, needs to be explained. If her confession is left out there's still many questions and medical evidence to be looked at. The suspicions are still there-- NV came to town at such a wrong time to be a visitor. Did she really feel put upon for any little care she might have provided, certainly not as a nanny. Then, too, it was very soon after there was one twin needing to go to ER, and one twin deceased. ​

 

[Kemug]

IMO, even just her visiting so soon is a tad suspicious, not what a caring adult friend would normally do.

 

[NorthernThinkerDownSouth]

@NorthernThinkerDownSouth, yes, you mentioned that case several times. Expressing appreciation to you for reminding us to stay open minded to other ways we must look at this case.

That was hard for me to understand, the bogus confessions. You have supported your thoughts with examples. I now understand it is a reality that under pressure it is possible for some innocent people being interrogated to confess to bogus crimes.

That's been the hardest part for me to understand. It seems impossible that someone would confess to details that didn't happen and admit to things that they never did. However, it's true that human beings do break, and cave in to say anything to make it stop. I can see that. Don't understand why NV confessed to all she did when she had an attorney available, and family that would stand by her.

How much of what she said was bogus, it doesn't explain why there's still very suspicious injuries and one death, that calls for Justice, needs to be explained. If her confession is left out there's still many questions and medical evidence to be looked at. The suspicions are still there-- NV came to town at such a wrong time to be a visitor. Did she really feel put upon for any little care she might have provided, certainly not as a nanny. Then, too, it was very soon after there was one twin needing to go to ER, and one twin deceased. ​

Thank you for the reply and sorry for the delay. to answer all of it, Let me tell you where this whole journey started for me, because I think it explains why my spidey sense goes off the way it does on cases like Nicoles.

It started with Brooke Skylar Richardson. When I first came across that case I remember reading the details and feeling genuinely sick — a cheerleader who supposedly gave birth in secret and then burned her baby alive. The social media reaction was just vicious. Absolute certainty she was guilty, wall to wall hatred, nobody questioning the narrative even for a second. But something felt off to me from the start. my spidy sense said that the story as it was being presented wasnt right somehow. And then just before trial, when the gag order was lifted, the whole foundation of the case just collapsed. The medical examiners initial finding that the babys bones showed signs of burning was completely and fully withdrawn. She had simply been wrong. The baby, in all likelihood a stillbirth in the middle of the night, showed no evidence of burning whatsoever once properly re-examined. But armed with that initial misdiagnosis, detectives had interrogated Skylar for hours using Reid technique tactics and led her step by step to falsely confess to things that had simply never happened. At trial the detectives and the medical examiner were taken apart under cross examination. It wasnt even close. Swift acquittal on all the serious charges and she was convicted only on the corpse abuse count for burying the remains in the backyard. And I sat there thinking this young woman came within a hairs breadth of spending the rest of her life in prison, or worse, because of a misdiagnosis and a coerced confession. if that medical evidence hadnt been challenged properly, where does she end up? you can watch it here on 60 minutes:

I followed that case for nearly three years and it genuinely changed how I look at these situations. It showed me in real time how a misdiagnosis, combined with a naive frightened suspect and a coercive interrogation, can snowball into murder charges against someone who didnt do anything. And it showed me how once that initial narrative forms, however wrong it is, almost nobody questions it. The mob forms, the conclusion is reached, and everything after that just becomes about confirming what people already believe.

That case sent me deep into the rabbit hole of the whole shaken baby controversy and how genuinely contested the medical science around infant head injuries is. Which eventually led me to the Louise Woodward case i discussed earlier, the British nanny convicted in 1997 after the eight month old baby in her care died from a fractured skull and brain bleed. Originally charged with second degree murder, later reduced to involuntary manslaughter, her sentence cut to the 279 days she had already served. I watched a documentary about it and read everything I could get my hands on. What really stayed with me, and this is the bit that I think is directly relevant to Nicoles case, is what happened years after the Woodward trial. Dr Patrick Barnes, a paediatric radiologist at Stanford University, had been one of the key prosecution witnesses. In 2011 he said he would not give the same testimony today. Not a defence witness saying this, a prosecution expert. He described what he called a revolution in the understanding of head injuries, driven partly by advances in MRI technology, and said that doctors had started realising there were medical conditions that can affect a babys brain and look exactly like what they used to attribute to shaken baby syndrome or child abuse, things like infections and in utero strokes. you can see more here:

The Child Cases - Death Investigation in America

When a child dies under suspicious circumstances, abuse is often suspected. That's what happened in the case of six-month-old Isis Vas, whose death was deemed "a clear-cut and classic" case of child abuse, sending a man named Ernie Lopez to prison for 60 years. But now a Texas judge has moved to...

prod.frol.us

whats so dangerous is the relationship between evolving and deeply contested medical evidence on one hand, and the enormous emotional weight of a dead child on the other, is in my view a genuine recipe for injustice. A lot of doctors i think just can't look at such cases objectively and diagnose abuse without knowing all of the facts. Its not that child abuse doesnt happen, it does, and I want to be clear about that. Its that the diagnostic framework used to identify it in court has been shown repeatedly to be vulnerable to tunnel vision and black box thinking, particularly when the person making the diagnosis is operating in the incredibly charged atmosphere of a suspected child killing.

Skylar's case was a big lesson for me. you reference the Melissa Calusinski case and its such a similiar one. Confessed in exhaustive detail to slamming a toddler on the floor, thinking she was going home afterwards. she has a crap lawyer who doesn't sufficiently challenge the medical evidence or explain the nature of false confessions and she ends up convicted. she's going to spend most of her life in prison for a crime that i suspect did not happen, unless courts are more willing to relook at such cases.

i feel all what i am describing could apply to nicoles case. the babies could have underlying health issues not known to the child abuse doctor. a freak accident becomes a murder case. she needs really good legal representation at trial or she has got no chance. but lets see what happens.

On the point about Nicole having a lawyer available, I just want to gently push back on that slightly because its more complicated than it looks on the surface. According to the legal filings she did ask for a lawyer early in the detention. Within thirty seconds of making that request she was shackled and threatened with jail. She did eventually get a brief meeting with a lawyer, but then sat alone in that room for hours more before making her second statement, the one that contains the most damaging material. The defence argues she was never genuinely given meaningful access to proper legal advice before being manoeuvred into talking again. So technically yes, a lawyer was present at some point. But the full picture is a lot messier than that.

this case has questions that dont just disappear. One baby dead, one injured, Nicole the last adult present. Im not pretending those facts away. Im not saying shes definitely innocent. Im saying the road to a conviction shouldnt run through a coerced confession and a contested medical diagnosis alone, because weve seen too many times what happens when it does. Leon and Ari deserve justice. as does Nicole. And that means getting this right.

Thanks again!