Training vital in prosecuting child abuse

Stacy Parker lost a daughter and a husband to shaken baby syndrome.

Twenty-month-old Jordyn had just learned to say mommy and daddy. Her blond hair was growing longer. She loved to have it brushed and pulled into a ponytail.

Jordyn died at the hands of Parker's cousin and baby sitter, Raynette Olsen.

The little girl's death devastated David Parker, who doted on her, though he wasn't her biological father. He planned to adopt her.

"When she died," Stacy Parker said, "he pretty much died then."

Six months after Jordyn left this world in her mother's arms at Primary Children's Medical Center, David Parker slit his arm and bled to death. He left a note saying Jordyn was alone in heaven, and he was going there to take care of her.

Stacy Parker, 32, said she's doing OK now. "It's been two years. It's been tough."

She trusted her cousin with her three children. She took her two boys and girl to Olsen's house every day on her way to work at Wal-Mart.

On Sept. 26, 2002, she dropped them off so she could spend the day working with her parents at their new house. It was there she learned that Jordyn had gone to the hospital unconscious.

Olsen had placed a 911 call, saying there was a medical problem. The police met Parker at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center. She sensed from their demeanor that they didn't think the injury was accidental.

Parker briefly saw Olsen, who said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Jordyn suffered massive head trauma and retinal bleeding due to shaking. She died the next day without regaining consciousness.

Olsen was charged with first-degree murder. The trial would have started last week in Farmington. But with Stacy Parker's blessing, Davis County prosecutors arranged a plea bargain. Olsen pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree felony child abuse homicide.

"After 2 1/2 years, I just wanted to get it over with," said Parker, who gave away all of Jordyn's toys and clothes because she couldn't bear to keep them. She has a few items of remembrance in a small cedar chest.

Olsen, 31, will be sentenced March 1. She can serve no longer than five years in prison. Parker said the plea won't bring justice. "But that's what I felt was the right thing to do right now."

Parker never wants to see her cousin again.