Alicia McLaughlin appeared before a Franklin County Common Pleas judge on Monday, charged with murder and child endangerment in the 2019 death of 9-month-old Ridley Cecil-Wienke.
The incident occurred in April 2019 while McLaughlin was babysitting Ridley and claimed the baby fell from a high chair. However, investigators found that Ridley’s injuries did not match her statement.
Lauren Gorman, Ridley’s mother, addressed her anguish in court, saying, “The death of our child has shattered our world in ways we struggle to put onto paper, but we will try.”
For years, the case went uncharged until a recent examination of Ridley’s autopsy prompted the Franklin County coroner to designate his death as homicide. This conclusion resulted in a grand jury indictment last week.
Gorman expressed the family’s enduring agony, saying, “Every day since his passing has been filled with unimaginable pain, grief, and disbelief.”
With McLaughlin now facing serious allegations, the judge imposed a bond of $2 million. “Our son will never get the chance to grow up, to learn to walk, to speak his first words, or to experience the life he deserved,” Gorman told me.
The family expressed happiness that McLaughlin was taken off the streets and hopes she feels the anguish she has caused them over the last six years.
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