FIRST REPORT – SHOCKING: Lakewood resident finds nurse apparently suffocating baby with pillow

A Lakewood resident tells TLS he’s lucky he was awake, or his baby could have been dead.

The resident tells TLS he was awake about 1:00 AM, when he heard crying coming from his newborn’s room.

“I heard the baby crying, and then almost like it turned off, it was a weird sound,” the father tells TLS.

The father then went and put his ear by the door where his -4week-old daughter was sleeping, and heard silence before hearing loud shrieking,”as if she was under the covers.”

“I barged into the room, and I see her standing over the baby with a pillow on her face,” the father said. “I literally shoved her off and said “what are you doing?”

The nurse tried to explain herself, “that it’s not what it looks like,” he said. He told her to leave the home immediately – and offered to drive to her to a bus station.

“My baby was shaking,” the father said. “She couldn’t come to herself.”

The father tells TLS he vetted this nurse, who was coming with experience.

In a strange twist, the father says he now wonders why the baby monitor had not been working properly – and believes she may have tampered with it.

“You would never think this would happen to you.”

This morning, the father called the agency who stated they will be investigating the incident.

This content, and any other content on TLS, may not be republished or reproduced without prior permission from TLS. Copying or reproducing our content is both against the law and against Halacha. To inquire about using our content, including videos or photos, email us at [email protected].

Stay up to date with our news alerts by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

**Click here to join over 20,000 receiving our Whatsapp Status updates!**

**Click here to join the official TLS WhatsApp Community!**

Got a news tip? Email us at [email protected], Text 415-857-2667, or WhatsApp 609-661-8668.

81 COMMENTS

  1. Why didn’t he call the police why didn’t he have her arrested je ahould file a police report and press charges so it will come up on her background check and noone should be her victim

  2. Just another reason why we should purge this cheap baby nurse industry. If you want someone to take care of your precious baby in the middle of the night, use a yiddishe lady, who has yiras shomayim. Not everything you pay for needs to be a metzia.

  3. Why are you protecting the agencies???? Their name should be listed. This is a life and death situation! Last year there were 2 instances where nurses broke babies’ bones and the agencies names were protected. With such wide range use of baby nurses this info has to be public. You can’t try protecting the livelihood of a few people and risk the lives of others.

  4. I do not believe the story. Not only were the police not called, allegedly sending a baby murderer back into the world, but he offered to drive her to the bus station? No one..no one…no one is that pathetically stupid.

  5. Every mother postpartum deserves a rest at kimpeturin home. THAT is the proper way to rest up, not hiring some baby nurse. It’s a necessity, not a luxury.

  6. Every new mother should be taking care of her newborn child if at all possible. It is such a shame that the poor baby who was in the mother for 9 months, and as soon as he is born, is taken away from everything familiar to him. If the mother needs help, it is better to get babysitting for the older kids, and help with meals, leaving the mother free to take care of the baby.

    • so youre saying that when a mom gives birth shes not allowed to have help dont know but I can only assume youre a man making this comment because only a man would say that

      • did you read my entire comment? I said that the mother should be taking care of the newborn, and she should get help for the older kids and meals and household chores. The only thing the mother should be doing is taking care and nursing the newborn. I don’t know why you think that I wrote that a mom who gives birth is “not allowed to have help!” And actually, I am a mother, and beezras Hashem, gave birth to more than ten kids! I was lucky enough to have help with meals and my older kids, but the newborn who only knew me for 9 months was not delegated to others. (Of course my husband, and help would help me with baby, but the main thing is for the mother to be able to nurse the baby having her other household chores taken care of by others until she gets her koichos back.. Best for mother, best for baby.)

  7. Offered to drive her to the bus? I would’ve knocked her unconscious before calling the police. There are ways to tell if a baby lost oxygen (eye petechiae) if the cops saw the baby right away. But now, that woman is gone to choke the next baby.

  8. We hired a live-in nurse with excellent references to take care of my aging mother-in-law, who lived with us. I found completely Satanic literature that belonged to her and saw subtle means of propagandizing my mother in law and my kids with this dangerous evil Caribbean nonsense. Needless to say, she was on a one way bus out of here before she could fold her clothes to put in her bags. She forgot one voo-doo book which I promptly barbecued.

  9. I agree 100% that ideally a baby should be taken care of by the mother. What happens when you have twins and it’s not physically possible to manage without help? How can we insure that help can be gotten in a safe manner?

    • Like everything in life there may be an exception to every rule in certain circumstance. This concept that it is automatic, however, to have nurses come over for extended periods is absurd and is a sign that the parents unfortunately never grew up to take responsibility for themselves and have remained the same brats that they were when they were four years old.

    • For our twins we had a strongly vetted registered nurse who was amazing. Do the research and don’t skimp out. Those kids are your most valuable “possessions”.

  10. Good morning all. I had a baby nurse a while back which was giving me weird vibes and so I got rid of her. As she was leaving my house, she was chanting satanic phrases and cursing under her breath. (Moderated) supplied this nurse. I would not be surprised if it was this same woman.

  11. This is disturbing to say the least! Why on Earth were the police not called? Shouldn’t TLS now report to the police since they have this information from this post? Finally, take care of your own children. Even twins/triplets etc. You can hire help to be there in the room with you & the babies, not at night to care for them alone. That is nonsense!

  12. Don’t be so quick to cancel out people for hiring nurses! You never know what the mother is going through! If the nurse is a frum person all the better but don’t just cancel every person that hired a nurse! I personally know someone that was on medication for depression when she had a baby and needed the extra help…

  13. Can you explain what you had to lose by calling the police? If it’s unsubstantiated then no harm will be done, if it is abuse you’re saving a life.

  14. I used an agency for nanny/housekeeper for about a year, went through 15/20 ladies. When I called the agency to report that a lady had stolen from me they told me to file a police report because we are just a referral agency and you hired the lady directly which was not stated at the time I started with the agency. The fact that they advertise they are licensed and insured is misleading since the ladies are not legal nor employed by them they do not hold any responsibility for any damage or harm they cause to you.

  15. Everyone responding on here is ridiculous! Knowing the family personally, they were not being selfish by hiring a nurse! When you have a large family, husband works etc it is not wrong to hire help! They did their research! It can happen to anyone of you! Police was not called because the nurse turned off the camera! Choose your words and comments wisely before commenting!!

    • I”m choosing my words…
      What does the fact of the nurse turning off the camera have to do with calling the police…??
      If you would’ve had a robbery and your cameras would’ve not been working, would you refrain from calling the police?
      Well this family nearly had a “robbery’, although it would’ve not been a loss of monetary value, it would have been of something you cannot replace!!!!
      Please if this ever happens, PLEASE CALL THE POLICE!!!!!!!

    • Of course if you have a large family you need help. Help with the older kids, with cooking meals, etc. not “help” where the poor newborn is left alone with a stranger when all he needs is his mother. If a baby nurse is in charge of the baby, so then the new mother is expected to care for her large family without help? That is a recipe for disaster. The new mother should be in charge of her newborn without worrying about the rest of the housework. That is what is best for the mother as well as the new baby. The rest of the family should be getting the help.

    • I’m choosing my words too……………..
      If someone is or was putting a pillow over your infant, trying to smother her….. to kill her. YOU CALL THE POLICE !
      You don’t offer her a ride to the bus station !! How did he even consider that an option ? According to him , this lady just tried to kill his child !! Why didn’t he call the police ? Why ?

  16. For all those wondering why he didn’t call the police.
    When a person is shocked by something and just wants that something to go away, they don’t think rationally. There might also be a feeling of guilt for feeling that you brought it onto yourself… It’s also in middle of the night and our brain is tired… you get the point.
    At such a situation you just want it to go away… after its away you start thinking, and i am assuming that’s why he contacted the agency, TLS and probably the authorities…
    my point is; don’t just write it off because you think he should have called the police first and tied her up to a chair while they are both waiting for police to arrive so she doesn’t run away…

    • He most definitely should of called the police FIRST. You do not offer someone a ride to the bus station that just tried to kill your child. You absolutely restrain her until the police arrive. She had a pillow over his child’s head !! Unbelievable !!!!!!

  17. When we hired our nurse to care for our children while my wife and i were both working i had them vetted via US congressional hearings and interrogated at a CIA black site. They determined that our babysitters were not even legal workers and they were swiftly deported back to their respective countries. #true story

  18. I got a nurse from a local agency as well. I found her praying by my daughter’s crib. She said she was talking to the spirits. Sent her straight out the door. Please guard your precious children.

  19. A lot of you need to stop and think before saying anything. Stop blaming and saying how you would do things or what should have been done. It doesn’t matter. What happened happened only bc hashem wanted it to happen. A
    Mother needs her rest in order to function properly during the day. There’s nothing wrong for hiring a nurse. She went through an agency and did her part. Hashem made the parent wake up in the middle of the night to save the baby. He wouldn’t let anything happen if it wasn’t suppose to happen. Stop questioning and say Baruch HaShem the baby is ok.

  20. Every house is entitled to help.
    If the nurse was vetted and had references and the police want called just makes me wonder what the real story is.

  21. He was going to give someone a ride after she attempted to murder his child? And just drop her off and not call the police? Something is very wrong with this picture.

  22. There is a local company in Lakewood that does background checks. You need to ask the agency to see the report before you hire. Many agencies hire help if they are desperate even if there are negative on the report.

  23. Your all over here saying hire yiddish, dont hire strangers meaning non yid, talking about carribean nonsense but, believe in evil nd have dubbuks.As my family is jewish we dont hate anyone else of any religion it is not right. I took care of my babies all being csections nd in pain. I slept with my children in my bed taking care of them. Why cant no other mother. Regardless of who or what religion they are. Just because there are bad apples in all people nd religions. Not all caring for your children are bad. This breaks my heart there was a sick person out there to harm a baby or any child of anyone. Hashem will not be happy. People need to be more compassionate towards others, not everyone has bad intentions.Glad the baby is doing okay nd didnt die at the hands of someone so horrible.

  24. If the husband honestly saw someone trying to suffocate his child, the police need to be called regardless of the evidence he may have to offer. A police investigation starts a trail. Starting a trail is A)a hook for referral agencies to stop referring this specific person to future parents, B) the first step to actually proving something!

  25. If you are going to contract out the care of your newborn to a ‘nurse’ do the due diligence yourself, including a CBC check and verification of their degree. Many of these women are called ‘nurses’ when they really don’t have the credentials. If that is too much work care for your children yourself.

  26. Well did he call hatzolah to make sure the baby is fine what happend prior to suffocation was she fustrated did she shake the baby then plop her on the bed…

  27. A “baby nurse” is not a real nurse. They are glorified babysitters with no standard formal training, certification, or license. TLS, do better with your “reporting”

  28. I am a licensed nurse in the community and I take offense to people saying you should only hire Jewish women to take care of your babies. This story is horrendous and this “nurse” or nanny or whatever she is should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But her being a bad person and a terrible nurse has nothing to do with other nurses, like myself, who give their all to their patients and love them like they are their own. I pride myself in how I go above and beyond for my patients and I don’t believe we “non-Jewish” nurses should be placed under an umbrella because of a bad apple. Bad people come in all colors, religions etc. Praying for the family and baby involved.

  29. — many people require a nurse for various medical reasons of any or mother. Sometimes for other reasons as well. It is not always a luxury.

    — how many frum qualified women do you know who work as baby nurses?! And through the night??

    — just because this incident happened doesn’t entitle you to bash someone’s parnassah and others’ needs. A couple of rotten apples doesn’t mean theyre all spoiled.

  30. @non-jewish nurse. You are right. And when one orthodox person does something negative, we shouldn’t all be placed under that same.umbrella. there are rotten apples everywhere.

  31. why are you shocked, wake up and take care of your own kids i take care of my newborns all by myself without a nurse, yes they cry and scream that it is sometimes hard for me to stay calm and then you all go and give your babies to the care of strangers it always bothered me it is a mothers job to raise her children, why do you trust to TOTAL STRANGERS, taking care of newborn is a very challenging job!!!

  32. You tell your kids not to talk to strangers. Why in heavens name would you leave a tiny infant with one? (A baby can’t even tell a story after the fact, making them a bigger scapegoat)

    I don’t care how sick you are. Your primary responsibility is to safeguard your children. Get your rest during the day when you can get “kosher” help. (There are halachic ramifications of having nurses/babysitters when you are asleep/not around as well. Ask your Rov)

  33. All you people judging parents for hiring a nurse should be ashamed. Do you have any idea of what their situation is, what kind of medical/emotional/financial pressures they may be under, or anything about them? Try a little something called “dan l’kaf zechus”.

  34. Just to clarify, this women was not malicious and the parents absolutely believe she had no intent to do any harm. It was a bad, terrible, judgment call…. They were and are still stunned such a nice and caring person could use such a tactic to muffle or stop crying. She had a stellar reputation with quite a few other frum families in the past. She had been working in their house for a while, were very happy, so calling the cops was not their initial reaction. And while she has worked for agencies in the past , she was not hired through an agency.

  35. How can a background check tell if someone will snap & lose it on a baby? We all know how exhausting it is to take care of our own newborns. Imagine taking care of one we don’t even care about?! I can totally see how a stranger might do something like this! New moms are warned of shaken baby syndrome in the hospital. (I know this baby was almost smothered but same difference) I am a mom of 6 who ALWAYS worked 2 jobs (one is part time that has late hours) & my husband works too. Yes, I’m tired but we figure it out. Less elaborate suppers, coffee, disposable dishes, baths every other night (gasp!),coffee, cleaning help, coffee, grocery delivery…my real job is taking care of the family Hashem gave me. Before I know it they’ll all be grown & I’ll pine for those sleepless nights. Wishing everyone the strength to be the best parents.

  36. As others have said, this story raises more questions than it answers.

    – Why didn’t the father even ask the ‘nurse’ to explain herself? (If “it wasn’t what it looked like”, then WHAT EXACTLY WAS going on?)

    – If the ‘nurse’ couldn’t explain herself, why wasn’t a report filed with the police?

    – Why didn’t the father have Hatzolah or somebody check on the baby’s health? (We all know how fragile babies are, and just because the baby doesn’t show any outward signs of a problem “right now”, doesn’t mean that his/her condition couldn’t change in a few minutes/hours/days/weeks, and so on – if the baby was deprived of oxygen, that could potentially cause brain damage, or similar problems that wouldn’t be obvious right away. I hope to G_d that that is not the case here, but the parents are being irresponsible by not having the baby looked at).

    There are more questions, but I’ll let someone else ask them.

  37. @non jewish nurse
    This is not a licensed nurse that is writen about.as an RN myself, it drIves me crazy when anyone and everyone calls themselves “A nurse” from baby nurses to medical assistants.
    When you go to nursing school and pass your boards then we’ll talk

    • People aren’t paying $80, $60 or even $20 per hour for these baby nurses. I don’t know anyone who is under the illusion that these are RN’s

  38. @non-Jewish nurse

    You are right. But the nature of people is to generalize, especially when it comes to safety.

    Say the nurse was Jewish and child was not, can you positively tell me there wouldn’t be calls to only hire non-Jewish nurses.

    I’m sorry- I think not.

    Having said that, if you are indeed better, you shouldnt take offense.

  39. I had an awful experience a few years ago with a baby ‘nurse’ . BH I didn’t observe actual physical harm but I saw negligence ,which with a newborn can be just as harmful. When I called the agency their response was we have to see why she did that we will talk to her because someone wants her after you. I was horrified by the experience. What I feared the most was that she came with wonderful references, however I was probably not given as a reference for the next family.

  40. What I’m getting from many of the comments is that foreign women have performed some frightening acts.

    It could be that some of these acts are considered appropriate in some segments of foreign cultures.
    An assimilated foreigner with some training might know not to perform these acts or to try to appease spirits for the safety of the child.

    If you have to employ a well-meaning untrained heathen, be aware that in some cultures they conform to a blend of several religions as the situation may “require.” A professionally-trained caretaker would not rely on such folkways to try to help the child.

    If you need such a caretaker, it is up to you to de-paganize the employee’s time in your home.

  41. It is against the law for anyone to use the title of Nurse unless they are licensed to do so. The fact that these so called “baby nurses” are using the title of Nurse at all is illegal and they should be prosecuted.
    A Nurse is a highly skilled professional who are entrusted to take care of others.
    These imposters are belittling the profession.

  42. It is against the law for anyone to use the title of Nurse unless they are licensed to do so. The fact that these so called “baby nurses” are using the title of Nurse at all is illegal and they should be prosecuted.
    A Nurse is a highly skilled professional who are entrusted to take care of others.
    These imposters are belittling the profession.

  43. Besides for someone being so cruel to harm a little infant,don’t they realize they would be the obvious suspect and end up in jail for life.
    This person must have been mentally unstable

  44. I’m very confused a neighbor posted to this very article and, I confirmed myself “other people referred her used her and we’re happy” “no malicious intent” “nice caring person”

    What is the whole hubka sounds like lots of hyper inflated gossip to any thinking person.

    Thousands of happy satisfied people have been benefitting from this amazing service that was not available to my parents I myself had many nurses did a great job

  45. As an added benefit to my statement earlier regarding frum single girls becoming night nannies, it would also solve the shidduch crisis. The girls would get hands on experience and see how challenging babies are and decide to wait until they are properly prepared for it…and maybe wait until the old age of 20 to begin dating 😉

  46. Im going out on a limb here but perhaps this was in self defense? Or perhaps she was wiping her nose w a pillow.

    (Im not being serious in case ur wonering)

Comments are closed.