IN-DEPTH
Nearly two years after their 8-month-old son Coleman died as the result of his babysitter leaving him unattended in a car seat, Rachel and Robert Shirley walked out of the Greene County courthouse on Feb. 28 and said they are pleased with the jury’s verdict and sentencing recommendation for their son’s babysitter.
“We let God handle the verdict. We waited and watched what He had in store,” Robert Shirley told reporters following the trial of Deborah Lundstrom, the woman found responsible for his son’s death. “And at the end of the day, it came out exactly what we hoped for.”
Lundstrom was caring for nine children under the age of 3 in her home on the 2800 block of North Washington Avenue in Springfield on March 2, 2022. That afternoon, Lundstrom placed most of the children in car seats, including Coleman Shirley, and left the home for 12 minutes to go pick up her son from school.
About 10 minutes after she returned home, she discovered Coleman Shirley was not breathing and called 911. The baby died later at Mercy Hospital in Springfield.
After two days of testimony, a Greene County jury found Lundstrom guilty on all charges on Feb. 28: first-degree involuntary manslaughter, first-degree endangering the welfare of a child causing death of a child; eight counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child creating substantial risk; and operating a child-care facility without a license.
During the penalty phase of the trial on Feb. 29, that same jury heard emotional testimony from the Shirleys and from other parents of children who were in Lundstrom’s care the day Coleman Shirley died. The jury also heard from from a few of Lundstrom’s friends and family members.
The jury recommended the judge sentence Lundstrom to 20 years in prison for the endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death charge; seven years for involuntary manslaughter; four years for each count of endangering the welfare of a child creating a substantial risk; and 15 days in jail for operating a child-care facility without a license. Judge Todd Myers will consider the jury’s recommendation and formally sentence Lundstrom in May. The judge will announce then Lundstrom's prison sentences are to run concurrently or consecutively.
“I don’t think anybody who testified for her (Thursday, Feb. 29) truly knew who she was or what she was capable of,” Rachel Shirley said to reporters. “I didn’t take a lot of that to heart. It was hard for us to hear and upsetting. It made me angry because it’s just so far from everything that we’ve been shown in the past couple of days.”
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
LeAnne Bachman was among those who testified as a character witness for Lundstrom. Bachman said her daughter used Lundstrom as a babysitter in 2008-2009. Bachman said she would often pick up the child in the afternoons and became friends with Lundstrom.
“Very often we would walk in and children would be playing in the living room and I would chit chat with Deborah,” Bachman testified. “There was nothing that gave me any alarm at that time.”
Greene County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Fax also had an opportunity to question Bachman and asked if she was aware of the details of the case against Lundstrom. Bachman said yes.
“If you had another grandchild, would you feel comfortable?” Fax asked.
“Not now,” Bachman replied. “But I had no concerns in the past.”
Medical examiner: Baby was strangled by car seat strap
Dr. Deiter Duff, the Greene County Medical Examiner, testified on Feb. 27 that the baby’s cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation caused by the car seat’s buckle and strap. Duff testified in detail about the marks on the baby’s neck that matched the car seat’s buckle and strap.
Springfield Police Cpl. Jason Marcum, with the Child Victim Unit, the lead detective on the Lundstrom case, testified on Feb. 28 about his initial interview with Lundstrom at the scene on March 2, 2022, and then later at a police station on March 7, 2022. The hour-long video recording of that second interview was played.
The video shows Marcum using a doll and car seat to explain to Lundstrom how the medical examiner believes the baby was strangled by the car seat’s strap and buckle. The evidence — which includes marks on Coleman’s neck that match the buckle — shows the strap and buckle that goes between the legs likely was not buckled, which allowed for Coleman to slip down to where the chest clip strangled him.
Parents wonder how much time their children spent in car seats
During the trial, parents of the nine children who were at the Lundstrom home on March 2, 2022, testified Lundstrom would meet them at the front door when they picked up and dropped off their children. They testified Lundstrom had a baby gate at the entrance of her home and parents did not come inside as a “COVID protocol.”
Several parents testified they believed or were told that Lundstrom was caring for four children other than their own, for a total of five. One parent testified Lundstrom told him she cared for six children.
Several of the parents testified they believed Lundstrom was a licensed child care provider. Others said they didn’t know.
In Missouri, it is illegal for an unlicensed daycare provider to care for more than six children at one time.
Robin Phillips with Child Care Aware of Missouri spoke with the Hauxeda in the days after Coleman Shirley’s death. Speaking generally and not specifically about the Lundstrom case, Phillips said these types of “warehousing” child care operations often use car seats and ‘pack-n-plays’ to corral the children for long periods of time. Besides the physical safety issues of one adult caring for so many babies and toddlers, there are emotional and developmental issues, as well.
Signs of development delays
Margaret Boomgaarden’s son, Max, was in Lundstrom’s care on March 2, 2022. At the time, she and her husband worried about Max’s delayed development with his language and his inability to crawl or walk.
“I knew there was something more there,” she said. “I know now.”
Boomgaarden said once she got Max into a different child care facility, he “flourished.”
“We got him into leg braces. He was running and walking,” she said. “He is still delayed, but we are working on it and supporting him.”
She tearfully recalled one time picking up her son and noticing that he had obviously been crying for a long time. She noticed he had red marks from what she guessed were car seat straps.
“Now I know,” she said. “I should have taken him away. It’s one of those things I should have noticed.
Lingering issues of distrust
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
Jerilyn Osborn’s daughter was four months old when in Lundstrom’s home on March 2, 2022.
“She told us she could have no more than five (children). That was her limit,” Osborn said.
Osborn said she went through five and a half years of fertility treatment and two rounds of in vitro fertilization to become pregnant with twins. But at the first ultrasound, they learned one of the fetuses no longer had a heartbeat.
“We spent the rest of that pregnancy — this is all we have left. We don’t have another chance after this. So I wanted to make sure she was safe,” Osborn said. “We finally had this miracle baby.”
After Coleman Shirely’s death, Osborn said she struggled with the idea of trusting someone else to care for their baby. She recalled breaking down in the office of a daycare manager, “spilling out” what had happened at Lundstrom’s home.
“Can you promise me somebody is going to hold my baby and she’s not just going to sit in a carrier?” Osborn said she cried to the manager.
Parent Cody Weaver, too, said he struggles to trust potential child care providers.
“There’s nobody in this room other than my fiancée I’d let watch my kid,” Weaver testified.
Weaver shared with the jury something that happened about two weeks after Coleman’s death. Weaver said his mother purchased a new car seat for his then-toddler daughter. When his daughter saw the car seat, she screamed and cried for a long time.
Mom believes son’s death might save others
Outside the courthouse, Rachel Shirley reflected on Weaver’s testimony.
“You heard the one parent testify about the child having a complete breakdown seeing a car seat. That breaks my heart,” Rachel Shirley said. “Every kid has to have a car seat. It’s just a normal thing that shouldn’t be so traumatizing for kids. I think our son helped save other children from having to live through that.
“He paid the ultimate price, but he also saved a lot of kids from having to go through the hardship of being in (Lundstrom's) care and living through the traumas of that,” she said. “He was a happy baby who, in my opinion, saved lots of future children from suffering.”
Lundstrom’s sister calls her a ‘nurturer’
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
Lundstrom’s sister, Joy DeBoard, testified as a character witness. DeBoard recalled when they were children Lundstrom would babysit her dolls while DeBoard would pretend to be a business woman.
“She was born to be nurturing. It just exudes from her,” DeBoard said. “When I first heard, I thought this doesn’t make sense[…] She’s had to turn people away because of her limit with kids.”
Lundstrom did not testify during the guilt phase of the trial, but testified during the penalty phase.
“I am sorry. I made a bad choice that day,” Lundstrom said, but then continued to claim her daughter was home when Coleman began to asphyxiate.
Shane Paul Cantin, one of Lundstrom’s defense attorneys, gave a closing statement during the penalty phase of the trial. He said he spent the last two years studying the case, looking at the photos, watching the videos, listening to parents and getting to know Lundstrom.
“There is no excuse for any of it,” Cantin said, adding he doesn’t mean to compare Lundstrom’s loss with that of the Shirley family.
In Cantin’s view, sentencing is about two things.
“It’s about the crime and it’s about the person,” he said. “Deborah is the person.”
Cantin told the jury he didn’t believe Lundstrom deserved the maximum sentence Missouri law allows — 30 years or life for the first-degree endangering the welfare of a child causing death of a child charge.
“Maximum sentences are handed out to people we are scared of,” Cantin said. “This is not that. This is a terrible case. This is a painful case. This is not a maximum case.”
Cantin reminded the jury Lundstrom is a 49-year-old person with no criminal history, and she will do a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
‘Playing Russian Roulette with other peoples’ children'
In her closing statements during the penalty phase of the trial, Fax told the jurors when a person holds themself out as a professional child care provider and takes money from parents with the promise of taking care of their children, those people should be “held to a higher standard.”
Fax said Lundstrom lied to parents about how many children she was babysitting, about leaving the children unattended sometimes when she drove back and forth to her son’s school, and about why parents were not allowed inside her home.
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
“The Shirley family suffered a loss so vast and so immense, they can’t even put it into words,” Fax said. “There is a missing piece and will always be a missing piece to their family.
“The defendant took that away,” she said. “The true test of people’s character is who they are when people aren’t looking. The defendant was playing Russian Roulette with other peoples’ children.”
First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Philip Fuhrman also made closing remarks on Feb. 29.
Fuhrman took issue with Lundstrom saying she was sorry but then appearing to blame her teenage daughter, who was not home at the time of the incident and not responsible for the children’s care.
“Sorry for what is a little difficult to understand,” Fuhrman said. “Because according to the defendant, Ms. Lundstrom did not do anything wrong.”
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
Fuhrman said Lundstrom’s apology came “conveniently” before the jury decided her sentence.
Fuhrman reminded the jury Lundstrom was caught on police body cam videos telling false stories about what happened before she found Coleman unresponsive in his car seat.
‘She wasn’t sorry then,” Fuhrman said. “She was lying to get out of trouble.
“(Lundstrom) is not sorry for what she did. There is no evidence of that,” Fuhrman said. “The defendant in the last few days in court — she has shown you all you need to know about her character.”
Fuhrman talked about the lies Lundstrum told the parents regarding the number of children she was caring for and why parents weren’t allowed inside her home.
“If she hadn’t lied about those things, Cole’s family would have pulled him out of that daycare,” the prosecutor said. “She is trying to put the crimes and criminal responsibility on her 18-year-old daughter.
“That is Deborah Lundstrom. That is her character.”
Judge Myers ordered a sentencing assessment report for Lundstrom, who is currently in Greene County jail. She will be formally sentenced in May.
