UT -- Ruby Murray, 18 months old, parents Mitchell and Carrie Murray arrested for murder and child abuse, March 19, 2025/Related to Chad Daybell

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You're right. This is next level abuse. Punishing her apparently for being alive.

JMO

Thank y'all!

@Megnut Right? I feel like there may be some parallels with the Shanda Vanderark case.

Law enforcement are mandatory reporters so finding Ruby would automatically trigger a call to Utah's DCSF/CPS and as concerning to LE as finding an 18 month old beautiful little girl deceased would be there's another child in the home.

Yet we all know that calling in CPS is real dicey if you expect them to be there protecting child/ren from harm.

imo


Not getting to positive on the parents

Unpopular perspective here, but having worked in child welfare in another state, investigators are often tied by lack of parent cooperation and family court decisions. We likely won't know more about LM unless family members come out.

I do have a suspicion (based on the well child visits) that DCFS may have been involved with the Murrays at one point for failure to thrive when Ruby was between 12 months and 15 months. That being said, I think Utah DCFS should release a CAPTA statement concerning Ruby, but I'm not sure how things work up there. It sounds like the full autopsy report with the finding that Ruby died of dehydration/undernutrition was released just prior to the parents being taken into custody, so we might see that statement soon.

 

[Izzylizzy]

Thank y'all!

@Megnut Right? I feel like there may be some parallels with the Shanda Vanderark case.



Unpopular perspective here, but having worked in child welfare in another state, investigators are often tied by lack of parent cooperation and family court decisions. We likely won't know more about LM unless family members come out.

I do have a suspicion (based on the well child visits) that DCFS may have been involved with the Murrays at one point for failure to thrive when Ruby was between 12 months and 15 months. That being said, I think Utah DCFS should release a CAPTA statement concerning Ruby, but I'm not sure how things work up there. It sounds like the full autopsy report with the finding that Ruby died of dehydration/undernutrition was released just prior to the parents being taken into custody, so we might see that statement soon.

I've seen CPS statements that said due to confidentiality etc. we have no comment. (paraphrasing)
We may have to wait until pre-trial motions for CPS to be brought up.
There is also the possibility that for all sorts of reasons a social worker is or becomes intimidated by the parent(s) they're interviewing/investigating to the detriment of the child/ren they are assigned to protect.

IIRC: From other cases where severe abuse or death of a child/ren took place, for instance the torturous death of Kahleb Collins and his sister Ryleigh's death in a car accident some information was released but not by LE that there had been CPS involvement with the family and that the now jailed grandfather who had been given guardianship by the courts after the local pastor had guardianship.
No details of the alleged abuse by the parents/grandfather were made public and the records remained sealed to protect the children's privacy.

The last I read was that the deceased children KC & RC's grandfather Bailey petitioned the court to have the CPS records unsealed, I gather he thinks there's info contained on the parents that would somehow prove his innocence.

I can't fathom that for almost 9 months when a toddler dies under suspicious circumstances and another minor child resides in the home that CM & MM could have been given free range once again with a child and without any oversight.

Next comes CPS investigating whomever is trying to get legal guardianship for LM.


I could see Ruby's doctor calling CPS if Ruby hadn't put on a bit of weight after she was diagnosed as being underweight and undernourished and we don't know if that was her last medical check-up before March 19, 2025.
It was weight that she lost by the time she died.

IMO

 

[Queen of the Winter Night]

I wish we could throw stale waffles at them.

 

[knitting]

I think it was an addiction too, to screens, basically. I'm thinking of the dad in AZ who gamed on the computer, iirc, while his daughter died in the car parked outside and the dad (also in AZ?) who was watching a sports event while his son drowned in the backyard pool.

I know it's not just a dad thing, but part of me wonders if some men downplay how much time, effort, and "presence" need to go into taking care of babies. "Crib time" alone in a room is not a thing.

I also know the mom in this situation had to have known what was going on, so I'm not excusing either of them for the way little Ruby was treated.

jmopinion

One thing that has been bothering me is the mom's timeline. Nurses that work day shift at the hospital CM works at work 5-5:30 PM typically. So she would be home sometime in the evening after working. She said she worked on 3/17 and 3/18. The last time she saw Ruby alive was reported by her to be about 3 AM on 3/17. If true, that means CM didn't check on her after work on 3/17, before work on 3/18, or after work on 3/18. I assume she didn't work on 3/19, because she found Ruby dead sometime that morning. You just go about your life for over 48 hours and don't even peek at your daughter at any point? Including on the baby monitor.

Cache County couple arrested for investigation of murder in neglect case of toddler

A Utah couple has been arrested for allegedly neglecting their 18-month-old daughter who police say died from malnutrition and dehydration.

www.ksl.com