I agree, it's beautiful that Jessica could extend compassion to Melissa. That mother also lost her child that day. Despite that, she did the right thing and turned her son in, playing an integral role in getting justice for Maddie.
I gotta say, props to Melissa (Josh's Mom) for immediately finding a police officer and turning her son in. You hear those stories where the mothers stick by their garbage children regardless of what bad decisions they made and Melissa's home life was scary and abusive but she chose to do the right thing
This hit me immediately. So many moms don't/wouldn't but she got that little girl back to her parents and didn't front for her own kid, even if it was too late for her to go home alive. So much respect for going against what I gotta think is biological reflex, because he could've wound up with more victims.
I think he did this before, and his dad found out, and instead of turning him in, moved them all abruptly. He covered for him. That's why he was so against Josh talking to little girls. He didn't want him going out because he didn't want him to hurt anyone else. He was very controlling. And maybe Josh's hiding place was where he hid the last one.
@@SuperSPatrick super interesting theory!! Yeah, why DID he move the family so suddenly? Only taking Josh? I doubt the mom knew if that were the case though... Given her reaction
I would at least get my son the best lawyers. 14 yos should not be tried as adults, it's just wrong. A 12 yo in FL is currently being charged as an adult for a triple slaying. I wonder what's next, a 9 year old?! To think that there is no minimum age for adult court let alone criminal responsibility is scary, time to overhaul the justice system entirely
@@Unbreakable245 Not uncommon at all for Florida to try underage murderers as adults. Check out the youngest murderers in Florida, Derek and Alex King.
Josh's mom should hold her head high knowing she found her, knew what it meant, and STILL got the police! Some parents don't! She's a remarkable woman! I can't imagine her pain!
please cover April Beth Pitzer. she is still missing. (( i added this to your thread as you have many likes. she is still missing and cared about. just trying to get her name out
Literally my exact thoughts! Sometimes I feel bad for the convicted. But you also think of the victim and their family and it's hard to feel bad! But, at this young of an age... with a crazy father, it's hard not to feel bad. They had a sh*tty upbringing and were too young to comprehend the severity of what they did. Yet, that doesn't change that he took a life and needs to be held responsible.
@@stephaniew8311 I would honestly like the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 15 and the justice system overhauled entirely in Florida. It is just way too harsh, even on murderers. The only states that i really would find to be harsher would be Louisiana and Iowa.
I mean it’s so incredibly valid. He stole/ended a life, shattered a family, traumatized an entire community…. I believe people can change, but I don’t have enough forgiveness in my heart to give someone like that another chance
I was thinking the dad said that because DAD had issues as a young boy having THOSE kinds of thoughts....and that dad was projecting. But your idea is also equally plausible.
Personally, i think maybe josh had done some inappropriate things to a girl, they moved, josh got maddie into his room, tried to force inappropriate things (thats why her shorts were off), maddie started screaming and trying to fight, he panicked, and um yeah…
@@kjaxthegrate😅 that sounds funny in my head lol but seriously I feel like I’d do that too cos what an awful thing to discover 😫my heart and stomach would sink right down
how did the cops search the house multiple times and not notice the smell and disarray of the kid’s room??? did they write off the smell of a DEAD BODY as the normal smell of a teenage boy??? boys, do better. in every way :’) edit: of course bailey mentioned this!! no reason to keep searching. but still this case is so incredibly disgusting and sad. rip.
What if Josh had hurt a little girl before, back in Pennsylvania and his dad found out but couldn't bring himself to call the police on his son? It would explain the abrupt move across country. Then the dad's efforts to keep Josh away from any other little girls would look super strict, controlling, and like the dad hated little girls.
The fact that maddie's older sister found Josh's mom and hugged her made me tear up. She didnt hold a grudge, she just understood that this had hurt both of them and that they both were just trying to move on and heal from that traumatic experience. That kind of empathy is so rare and so important ❤😭
Maddie’s sister is such an amazing soul. I think she understood what the mom went through realizing what her son did and turning him in instead of covering it up. I can’t imagine being in that situation as a mom
I am a deaf MMM-fan and I love that Bailey takes the time (or has someone else) to properly do the captions because 🥹 so few people do and it really helps with understanding! 🖤
@@miriamiuricich6636 I could tell they were done authentically rather than just automatically because when she clicked her tongue, the caption said it and automatic doesn’t caption those sounds. It was so nice!!! 😭🖤
same!!!! i'm not deaf/HoH but i have auditory processing difficulties and it's always a relief to have dedicated captioning. i feel like too many creators don't realize how simple it could be to run an automatic transcription of their audio and then just like.......edit the transcript manually. the fact of the matter is that even just providing a full transcript in the description/a separate link, REGARDLESS of whether they put in the effort of captioning line-by-line, is better than no captions - and few youtubers think to do even that bare minimum.
The hardest thing for me to hear was that Maddie's body was found clutching the bed frame. This was one of the harder stories for me to listen to for sure.
I got nauseous when she said the little girl had been put under the bed still alive... that's like my worst nightmare, slowly dying somewhere confined and dark.
I did as well. Bailey is really skilled and compassionate in how she delivers the gorriest of details. Otherwise, as a bereaved mom myself I couldn't watch any of her videos.
I have to agree- I had to check out and come back to this one bc it was too triggering for me. Plus it sounded like she was going to suggest he SA’d the little girl and I just couldn’t deal!!!
Josh’s mom was courageous for not trying to protect what her son did and also enduring the loss and her terrible husband. Maddie’s Family I am so sorry for their loss.
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” by Adam Smith. This qoute came to my mind about giving the guy a second chance. What he did is just to horrible to look past it as just a 'mistake' that he did.
I don’t think she should only be seen as “Josh’s mom” but also as “the fellow woman who released Maddie” cause she really chose the sweet baby child’s justice over her family. I really hope she isn’t facing loneliness. And I’m glad Jessie is seeking healing in her childhood home. This story made me cry way too hard
Honestly though, because I can’t even imagine finding a child’s body…. Let alone under my roof in my own child’s room. She deserves every comfort and kindness in this world.
Most of the time during traumatic life changing experiences we make up lies and we tell them over and over to the point we believe those lies so that may be the case with him. Not to justify anything but with his brain damage and all the version he sticks to may be his reality and he is convinced he is telling the truth.
Selfish huzzy. Because she wouldn’t apologize even if her dumb take believes josh is innocent when 99% of us knows different l, she couldn’t atleast have some sympathy for the lost of an innocent baby girl. She lost my sympathy after that
The fact that the father specifically did not want Josh playing with little girls is very telling, there HAD to have been some kind of incident previously…
I’m wondering if maybe he new the things that josh was watching on the computer and a possibility that josh openly talked about Jessie the older sister to his parents (before the rules came about) that made his dad come up with the rule to specifically not hang out with little girls or maybe it was specifically not the neighbor girls, I also question how his dad or mom didn’t know he was out creeping on the neighbors and silently tormenting them ? If his dad was so strict how was he freely going over and doing these things.
No. I get where you're coming from, but his dad didn't want him playing with ANYONE, and also happened to hate little girls himself. It was never specified that his dad only didn't want his son to play with little girls, those are two different statements.
Maybe the dad wasn't just a control freak maybe he knew something that happened previously or that he been watching the sister which is why he wasn't allowed without him and the beatings ain't right but maybe they stemmed from something he couldn't forgive before or trying to beat out this "thing" out of him don't know what to call it like his behaviour or how he is if that makes sense
I think Josh had done this before , because hiding a body ? And sleeping with a body under his bed , cleaning up all drag marks blood , his composure around people ? I think his dad knew his son and Josh had done a similar thing in the past and so his dad forbade him from playing with little girls.
I agree with this. I dont think it was the first time. Im assuming hiding a body is a very bold move to do for the first time. And again they moved so abruptly that it makes sense
I think she was killed somewhere else which is obvious since there was no blood found. They cleaned up her body and hid it under the bed. Him and the father
And also everything happening in the girls bedroom The bedsheets being stapled onto the mattress, creepy asf , the phone going missing , the picture also that was taken. It was premeditated. It wasn’t so much of a coincidence.
I had the same thought, didn't have abusive parents but controlling religious ones, I just hid books DVDs then phones when I figured out you could get cheap ones from the store and use restaurant wifi
@@megami7373 that’s what I’m thinking. That maybe even the reason he made them move in the first place. If he was such a horrible person would he help the mom look for her right away? Idk.
My thoughts exactly! I lived in a similarly hostile situation when I was a teen, your brain works on a whole different level when you're in danger. You get crafty.
As someone who was also preyed upon at age 8 by a 15 year old, I think his original sentence was the right call. If you’re old enough to do something as heinous as that, you’re old enough to suffer the consequences.
I have a friend who had a similar experience, and I totally agree with you, my sro says that anyone that young who will do something that at that age is not gonna be any better when they grow up.
Weird thing I just thought about... if Josh had a dog, seems like the dog would be going crazy with a dead body in the house. How did no one know for a week????
@Leah Waggoner that's because when the police came to the house they only concentrated on the focal points of the home, kitchen, living room, bathrooms. In order to search the rest of the home they needed a search warrant. Plus, decomposition usually happens within a certain amount of days which in this case the smell happened around 7 days. Rigor mortis settles between 7-17 hours after death.
I’m from Jacksonville and this was a huge story when it first happened. The sister has been super vocal about the case and wants to make sure he is not granted parole. She does not believe he is able to be rehabilitated. She said there is a lot people get wrong about this case due to the police trying to protect Josh, since he was a minor. They said there was countless occurrences that were inappropriate with Josh and the parents did not want him playing with her.
@@h.b.2003 I'm sure he lured her inside and tried to get fresh with her. She freaked out ,he was being in appropriate. probably threatened to tell on him, so he then hit her had some anger. Poor baby.
The sister is right that he can't be rehabilitated. He literally has lesions on his frontal lobe. The brain is who you are and any damage to it will permanently mess you up. Whether anyone likes it or not, he can't be allowed to rejoin society with that kind of brain damage.
This one was heartbreaking...and the fact that the older sister came up to that boy's mom years later and hugged her after what they had all been through😩
Goes to show you how loving, caring and nurturing that household was. I’m sure that, had Maddy lived, she would’ve been as remarkable as Jessie 💔 such a heartbreaking case 😞
The fact he hasn’t told the full true story about what he did and what happened just shows he doesn’t need to be let out. So many unanswered questions and things that still don’t fully add up. Keep him locked up. lol
I feel like if a “brain injury” caused him to do THIS when he was younger, how on earth could we trust that he’s going to be a *magically* better adult with the same brain injury plus the added trauma I’m sure he’s endured in prison? I say keep him there, maddie never got to move on so neither should he.
Plus putting him away likely saved other potential victims later on. He could be there right now perfecting his MO to not be caught next time for all we know! He is too dangerous, keep him there until he needs to use a walker to get around too!
I would love for you to cover a case from Sweden, the case about Engla Höglund. A terrible case about a little girl that was solved by a stranger coincidentally testing out his new camera… A lot of twists and turns in this one!
I totally agree, it would be interesting to hear Bailey talk about that case. It’s is such a horrible story, I still cry every time her mom comes on tv
Want to look this one up for myself! It's one I'm not familiar with and it sounds like something I've never come across, either! Thanks for bringing this one up!
I don't think anyone should even consider letting him out until he gives the real story of what happened. If he wants to show that he's grown and become better, he needs to own up to what he did.
he himself might not even know though. the brain is a weird thing & he not only had brain lesions which can disrupt how your brain even functions & processes information in a normal situation, but the brain also has mechanisms for warping traumatic memories. he could fully & honestly believe his version of events is exactly how things happened due to his brain damage or his brain closing off/warping those memories. i don't think this means he should be released though, just in case it was sounding like that!
@@pomegranate818 he hasn’t changed at all. An interview during COVID showed that he had ZERO remorse and was just annoyed to still be in jail. He brushed her off when asked.
@@Sunderbee as i said, my comment was not in defense of him or because i think he should be released. i think he should stay exactly where he is. that being said, people with brain damage as well as deep trauma have memory issues. it's well-documented. i think the fact he has never changed his version of events once does suggest that on some level he really does think that is what happened. if he was conciously lying it's highly unlikely he would not make minor adjustments to his tale all these years. again, that does not absolve him of his wrongdoings at all, nor do i think he should be released.
Jessie and Josh’s Mom reconnecting is a special kind of forgiveness and understanding. It reminds me of Sue Klebold and the victims of columbine. I cried so hard for her and the victims. I was so astounded by the survivors understanding and forgiveness even though it wasn’t directly her fault. It made me cry, it probably took a-lot for them to do that. Years even.
My theory: He lured her into his room, thinking he would be able to reenact the videos with her. She freaked out, so he attacked her sadly. He mostly likely wanted to try it on the older sister, but settled for the little one instead thinking she would be easier to manipulate 😢
As a mother myself, I don’t think he deserves a second chance. It wasn’t accidental it had thought and continuance behind it. It’s just sad. That little girl will never get a second chance and neither will her family. It really affected more lives than just his.
This!!! As a mother of two young kids, I don’t see anything accidental about this, nor do I think he deserves a second chance. If his father had been so manipulative and controlling like they say, I understand why as a kid, he would have panicked. But I do not and will not understand resorting to immense violence because of that.
My issue is , if this all started in his backyard,how didn’t anyone hear it , if there was always neighborhood watch. And also if he gets a second chance what if his demons return and it repeats itself. The little girls family cant get a second chance , and their lives were practically ruined without the probability of getting a fresh start. just so sickening.
Besides you know how kids are... they rationalize things in ways that seem crazy once they become adults. I know I did. My stepdad was pretty scary back then. And I can see how a kid who doesn't understand life and death at all. Maybe has a lot of anger issues and fear... How he might be so afraid to come forward that he would gi to any extent to "cover up his crimes"... Idk... it's a sad situation all around. It's very unfortunate. And it goes to show the extent of how much power and damage and overly strict parent can cause to a child.
His dad committed a crime, probably yes, but it was him covering up for the son. He probably caught him hurting a little girl, or maybe even killed one, that's why they moved. That's why he had strict rules about him going out when no one was around, that's why he said things like that about little girls, that he wasn't allowed to have contact or play with them. Not because he did it himself. His son definitely was the one who did it.
I have a crime TH-cam channel and also a bachelors degree in psychology. I thought about talking about this with a mix of psychology in with it because there’s soo many issues here.
Agreed, I've often found that with these kind of situations everyone looks at the family of the perpetrator as of they were also guilty and that's not fair. They didn't do anythang wrong and in this case the mother actively did the right thing.
And you KNOW at LEAST ONE of those cops would have smelled that smell at some point in their career, so it's not like they wouldn't have known it. We see all the time in the true crime shows that the cops always say that it's a singular distinct smell that you never forget.
I thought this too. Possibly the first search, the decomposition wasn't that far along. The next one was Possibly masked as she was essentially in a box in a room that smelled anyway (birds and a dog and a teenage boy 😅) but I can't understand how they missed it the third time.
Josh’s Dad died in the car accident late one night on his way home from visiting Josh in prison. I’ve lived in Jacksonville all of my life. I was part of the many people that helped search for Maddie. He knew exactly what he was doing when he lured her over there to her death. She trusted him and lost her life for it. Honestly I’m quite surprised that given the circumstances in house prison justice hasn’t been served. He can spend his time in prison until he’s carried out in a pine box.
@@dewintate1979 Possibly, the lesions on Josh's frontal lobe didnt appear out of nowhere and the dad probably knew that he was the cause for his son messing up that way. Maybe one drunken night he hit his son so hard it caused the brain damage that lead to his son turning out the way he did.
They told a child that her sister was dead in the middle of a public restaurant? That is like, the worst choice ever. Edit: 5/27 and 2.4K likes. Thanks so much!
@@Honeyin2013 I know I wouldn’t want to receive that news in an IHOP, I would have a breakdown in a very public place and be embarrassed on top of being devastated 😔
i totally get the parents’ reasoning of different location, but as a server i’m imagining the scenario of me walking up to my table like “do you guys want a coffee refill?” & there’s a child just wailing from grief over the loss of their sibling like …?
You should be. My son is 17 and it's been so many years of so many smells. It's ridiculous. He was gone for a few days, I deep cleaned his room and it was so nice. As soon as he came back it smelled again.
💀 that’s crazy, my older brother as a teen wasn’t that bad. I think the worse it was, when my mom and I picked him up after sport practice, the car stunk so bad. But his room was pretty clean all the time, and he took many showers. Now hes 27 😮
the only thing that stuck with me hearing this story for the first time was that he actively was involved in the search party for Maddie, along with having her missing flyer on his bedside table
I feel like if Josh's dad would have answered when Josh's mom called after finding Maddie under her his bed, things might have gone in a completely different direction.
Why would she beg to play with him when he was never outside? Especially when her sister was around and there’s lots of other kids in the neighborhood.
If 14 year olds were fully mature with a complete understanding of the consequences of their actions, we wouldn't call them children, and we'd let them drive and drink alcohol and get married and have full time jobs and take out loans and buy homes. We don't do those things. Why? Because a 14 year old can "intellectually" know that something is wrong without having a solid understanding of permanence, mortality, and the consequences of their impulsivity. Are you the exact same person you were at 14? If you had an abusive father, is there no possibility that you would have done something irreprehensible in a panic in order to avoid further abuse? I had abusive parents and, let me tell you, avoidance of that abuse can really skew a moral compass.
I was surprised when Josh's mom immediately looked for help after finding the body,some parents after finding the body they would wait for their kids to get home so they could help them get rid of it before anyone else finds out.Josh's mom is the hero of this story.
Lived in Jax,FL raising 4 grade school kids at tat time. I had to quit my job so I can hover over my kids every sec every day. It was a scary, bizarre time.
please do a video on Kristen smart! she’s been missing for more than 20 years and she lived about 30 mins from my town and went to our college! her story is heartbreaking and the people are finally gonna get charged, yet we still haven’t found her and they won’t admit to it
Exactly. His friends can come over here, but he’s not going anywhere. I just don’t trust anyone but certain family members (not all family, just some!)
@@Ryninja769 you’re smart for not automatically trusting family because you are blood family with them! A lot of people just trust them automatically and bad things happen
It’s so crazy to me how some people waste their entire lives at such a young age. I respect the judge for not going easy on him due to him being a kid; actions have consequences.
I’d like to just say. When Bailey mentioned how josh could know about the compartments in the water bed, if I was being abused by my dad and beaten, I would try to find any place to hide when I felt unsafe.
I think a lot of people haven't thought of the most obvious explanation of how he knew about the compartments. The sort of base his bed had is flat pack, and is usually joined by those locking connectors so that you only need a screwdriver to lock the outer panels to each other. The cross supports don't even have connectors, they're just slotted together. He, or he and his dad or mum, would have most likely pulled it down and then put it together when they set up in the new place so of course he'd have known. I had one for years and the frame was very simple to assemble and disassemble. I put my waterbed up and pulled it down several times just by myself. He would have had no trouble putting the bed up by himself, I know that I could have at his age. Basic waterbed frames are remarkably easy to assemble, disassemble and move. The only thing that takes any time is filling and "burping" the bladder when you put it up and draining the bladder when you pull it down, neither of which are difficult.
He wasn't abused or beaten, though. Those are just the lies Josh himself told and you knew he lied because he claimed he damaged her eye yet the autopsy of her corpse showed no damage to her eye.
I lived in Jacksonville and was 14 at the time Maddie went missing. It was so sad, and when it was discovered a 14 year old boy killed her, everyone was devastated. I couldn't believe someone my age did that to a little girl. It made me look at boys at my school a little different.
I have to say I didn’t even consider the incredible impact it would have on all the school aged girls in her community! Just like you said, it made you look at boys differently.
Same, I was also 14 and lived in the neighborhood, I knew some friends of his. It was definitely scary. His friends never said a thing about Joshua, just that they knew him from school and that I wouldn't understand.
My heart breaks for Jessie tho. She lost her sister, learned that she was also a target, then parents getting divorced and now has to live with the possibility he might get out and come after her. Ugh! I hope she's doing ok!
Well, it really appears he lured her in and acted on his sick, twisted fantasies. I highly doubt the baseball in the backyard story. They already established that he’d been creeping on the girls prior to this. If he can’t bother to come clean about the real story then he just needs to stay in prison.
i agree i definitely think that he had some degrading fantasies towards little girls i think he definitely touched her or did something wrong to her body
If his brain injury was the cause of why he committed such a heinous crime against this young girl, how has he miraculously recovered enough to be released & not be a danger? make it make sense.
I agree .prison is not only about punishment and rehabilitation .but also to protect society .not convinced he could ever be rehabilitated if his brain injury makes him a risk of offending again .
I grew up with Maddie. We went to same YMCA. I remember when she went missing. We were only a year apart. I lived down the street and it was very traumatizing. The YMCA has a bench in honor of her outside. RIP Maddie.
@@edunx10. this is an extremely rude comment. These are real stories, real peoples lives. It's not far fetched at all that someone watching would know this family and these people.
I’m from Jacksonville. I remember this. A girl in my girl scout troop was her best friend. My mom got real weird and wouldn’t let me out of her sight after this. Horrible awful time.
It’s wild to me how these things reverberate, where they affect so many more people than the direct people they harm. The whole community is affected. Like that whole period of your life probably effected your whole outlook on life.
I’m from Jacksonville too, I was a toddler at the time this happened but I remember everyone talking about it and my mom was the same way, she was terrified
I am from there too. I vividly remember when this all went down. My mama was adamant that I didn’t go anywhere alone and that I would always call the moment I got home from school. It was a very scary situation.
I was friends with Joshua in high school together. It was a totally shocking and heartbreaking situation. Most of Maddie's family still lives here in Duval
His mother and father could of easily gotten rid of the body, and no-one to this day would of even known what happened to Maddie. But thankfully the mother told the police. Can you imagine how many unsolved cases like this exist???
@@Cali4nication No, not at all. Seemed like a concerned kid trying to help find his neighbor. I obviously did not have a conversation with him, nor did I know him at all- so I am probably not the best source of info on that. I can say that most people here locally that knew him were in shock because it did not seem like anything they would have ever expected him to do.
My father was part of this investigation team. He stated years later that Josh was the most sociopathic person he ever interviewed. His eyes were so cold when he described the crime that he got chills.
I was 13 when this happened. I took ballet with Maddie and Jessica. I couldn’t understand at all when Maddie went missing. I thought she had to of run away. This whole thing really opened my eyes to the fact that there can be evil so nearby. I remember that when Josh was up for appeal we all prayed that he would remain in prison. He belongs there. The way he killed Maddie was absolutely brutal. If I’m not mistaken Jessica works for the D.A in Jacksonville these days. I wonder if this happening steered her into that career choice. This just never should of happened to Maddie and her family.
I'm not sure if the sentence should have been different but I definitely think the brain scan should have been brought into court. I'd really like to know how it would compare to another scan more recently done. Lesions on the frontal lobe could DEFINITELY effect some ones judgment and impulse control. With that being said, that would obviously mean he still has those issues and it would be hard to trust that he could be reformed.
I'd love to know this too. But I wonder if it causes impulsively and behavioural difficulties, why were these not seen before? Everyone said how nice and gentle he was. That bit confused me a little.
@niamhmadden28 maybe side effects and symptoms were just starting to occur? They may not have had a reason to think anything was wrong physically in his brain so they wouldn't have gone looking for it. Tumors and lesions can cause all kinds of issues depending on where they are. They can even impare judgement and memory if they push on the right things.
Honestly f that guy. He wants to be released but he hasn’t changed. He STILL hasn’t told the TRUTH about what happened. Maybe tell the truth Josh and then think about parole
I cannot imagine what this poor child went through. It's so disturbing and horrific. No child should ever have to experience that. As a mother my heart breaks for her mother.
His mother is such a strong human being for turning her son in instead of burying his sins as many do. I really hope she found some sort of happiness in her life, as well as all the others that suffered so deeply in this case.
This is one of the most disturbing stories . When I discovered the story a few months ago it bothered me for DAYS. I was so sad thinking of that poor child. It made me cry as a mother. Consequences need to be had and the original punishment is fitting.
Same. This one isn’t even as graphic as others I’ve heard, but picturing myself as a mother frantically looking for my child, knowing she was across the street stuffed under a bed…it guts me. And the other poor mom had to find her. It’s just the worst.
We moved to this city 2 months before this happened. I've lived with this story since then, literally grew up with it, and it still is shocking. Poor Maddie
I really thought it was going to come out that Josh's dad actually committed the crime and Josh took the fall either because he was somewhat involved, or his dad had that much control over him. It would explain why Josh's account didn't make sense.
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The sister's compassion to the mother years later is the one thing of beauty in this horrific story.
Indeed! I think she might know more...
I was thinking maybe because of how the mother spoke up when discovering Maddie instead of not saying at all.
I agree, it's beautiful that Jessica could extend compassion to Melissa. That mother also lost her child that day. Despite that, she did the right thing and turned her son in, playing an integral role in getting justice for Maddie.
The #1 reason I don't believe in the death penalty- even killers have families.
@@Cherriboberry know more as in what exactly ❓️❓️
I gotta say, props to Melissa (Josh's Mom) for immediately finding a police officer and turning her son in. You hear those stories where the mothers stick by their garbage children regardless of what bad decisions they made and Melissa's home life was scary and abusive but she chose to do the right thing
This hit me immediately. So many moms don't/wouldn't but she got that little girl back to her parents and didn't front for her own kid, even if it was too late for her to go home alive. So much respect for going against what I gotta think is biological reflex, because he could've wound up with more victims.
I think he did this before, and his dad found out, and instead of turning him in, moved them all abruptly. He covered for him. That's why he was so against Josh talking to little girls. He didn't want him going out because he didn't want him to hurt anyone else. He was very controlling. And maybe Josh's hiding place was where he hid the last one.
@@SuperSPatrick super interesting theory!! Yeah, why DID he move the family so suddenly? Only taking Josh? I doubt the mom knew if that were the case though... Given her reaction
@@SuperSPatrick wow that's a really interesting point you've got. I can totally see it.
Yeah but I wonder if Melissa would’ve still turned him in if she had been able to get in touch with Josh’s father
Josh's mom found a body in her son's bed and didn't help him cover it up. She immediately told the authorities. That makes her so much easier to hug.
Brian Laundry 's Mom wrote him a letter saying that if he needed to bury a body she'd be there with a shovel. :( Kinda opposite.
I would at least get my son the best lawyers. 14 yos should not be tried as adults, it's just wrong. A 12 yo in FL is currently being charged as an adult for a triple slaying. I wonder what's next, a 9 year old?! To think that there is no minimum age for adult court let alone criminal responsibility is scary, time to overhaul the justice system entirely
@@Unbreakable245a triple slaying? To me, that seems to drive the point even harder that some of these people are just born evil.
@@Unbreakable245 Not uncommon at all for Florida to try underage murderers as adults.
Check out the youngest murderers in Florida, Derek and Alex King.
@@Unbreakable245 they did the crime they do the time
Josh's mom should hold her head high knowing she found her, knew what it meant, and STILL got the police! Some parents don't! She's a remarkable woman! I can't imagine her pain!
"I want to believe people change but its not fair to the victims family because they don't get a second chance, why should you?" was so real.
please cover April Beth Pitzer. she is still missing. (( i added this to your thread as you have many likes. she is still missing and cared about. just trying to get her name out
Context, context, context…
Literally my exact thoughts! Sometimes I feel bad for the convicted. But you also think of the victim and their family and it's hard to feel bad! But, at this young of an age... with a crazy father, it's hard not to feel bad. They had a sh*tty upbringing and were too young to comprehend the severity of what they did. Yet, that doesn't change that he took a life and needs to be held responsible.
@@stephaniew8311 I would honestly like the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 15 and the justice system overhauled entirely in Florida. It is just way too harsh, even on murderers. The only states that i really would find to be harsher would be Louisiana and Iowa.
I mean it’s so incredibly valid. He stole/ended a life, shattered a family, traumatized an entire community…. I believe people can change, but I don’t have enough forgiveness in my heart to give someone like that another chance
I think the dad not wanting Josh around little girls alludes to that his dad knew something about Josh that no one else knew.
Great point
Yes! I just posted the same thing
I was thinking the dad said that because DAD had issues as a young boy having THOSE kinds of thoughts....and that dad was projecting. But your idea is also equally plausible.
@@user-jy3zl2vp4b I could definitely see that with how abusive he was
Personally, i think maybe josh had done some inappropriate things to a girl, they moved, josh got maddie into his room, tried to force inappropriate things (thats why her shorts were off), maddie started screaming and trying to fight, he panicked, and um yeah…
finding a body attached to a sock under the bed in your house would be hands down the most terrifying thing of all time
My soul would vacate the premises and forget to take the rest of me.
Especially under your kids bed 😮
@@kjaxthegrate😅 that sounds funny in my head lol but seriously I feel like I’d do that too cos what an awful thing to discover 😫my heart and stomach would sink right down
how did the cops search the house multiple times and not notice the smell and disarray of the kid’s room??? did they write off the smell of a DEAD BODY as the normal smell of a teenage boy??? boys, do better. in every way :’)
edit: of course bailey mentioned this!! no reason to keep searching. but still this case is so incredibly disgusting and sad. rip.
Honestly, the abusers that create these broken people need to be held accountable
THIS
What if Josh had hurt a little girl before, back in Pennsylvania and his dad found out but couldn't bring himself to call the police on his son? It would explain the abrupt move across country. Then the dad's efforts to keep Josh away from any other little girls would look super strict, controlling, and like the dad hated little girls.
Ahhhh!!!!🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
That actually makes sense
Except he got those frontal lobe lesions from abuse
I feel as if the dad had something to do with this tbh. He said he "hated little girls" something about that doesn't seem right
Wow. I thought the same thing for a fleeting moment at the point in the story, but was like...mmmm. now, I'm not second guessing myself. 😮
The fact that maddie's older sister found Josh's mom and hugged her made me tear up. She didnt hold a grudge, she just understood that this had hurt both of them and that they both were just trying to move on and heal from that traumatic experience. That kind of empathy is so rare and so important ❤😭
Maddie’s sister is such an amazing soul. I think she understood what the mom went through realizing what her son did and turning him in instead of covering it up. I can’t imagine being in that situation as a mom
I feel bad for them both. As a mother she had to be beating herself up about what she could have possibly done to raise a child like that.
Your post made me cry 😢
ikr such an amazing person
@@prim.an.propher1505sometimes humans just turn into monsters....and you ain't gotta do a thing about it
I am a deaf MMM-fan and I love that Bailey takes the time (or has someone else) to properly do the captions because 🥹 so few people do and it really helps with understanding! 🖤
I’m so happy to read this comment!
Thanks for pointing that out as I didn’t know there were captions. I think it’s great that everyone can access the content.
@@miriamiuricich6636 I could tell they were done authentically rather than just automatically because when she clicked her tongue, the caption said it and automatic doesn’t caption those sounds. It was so nice!!! 😭🖤
@@amymckay23 truly made my day! 🥹
same!!!! i'm not deaf/HoH but i have auditory processing difficulties and it's always a relief to have dedicated captioning. i feel like too many creators don't realize how simple it could be to run an automatic transcription of their audio and then just like.......edit the transcript manually. the fact of the matter is that even just providing a full transcript in the description/a separate link, REGARDLESS of whether they put in the effort of captioning line-by-line, is better than no captions - and few youtubers think to do even that bare minimum.
The hardest thing for me to hear was that Maddie's body was found clutching the bed frame. This was one of the harder stories for me to listen to for sure.
I got nauseous when she said the little girl had been put under the bed still alive... that's like my worst nightmare, slowly dying somewhere confined and dark.
Me Too 😢
I hope you're doing ok after this one
She must has suffered terribly, I felt sick as well.
I did as well. Bailey is really skilled and compassionate in how she delivers the gorriest of details. Otherwise, as a bereaved mom myself I couldn't watch any of her videos.
I have to agree- I had to check out and come back to this one bc it was too triggering for me. Plus it sounded like she was going to suggest he SA’d the little girl and I just couldn’t deal!!!
Josh’s mom was courageous for not trying to protect what her son did and also enduring the loss and her terrible husband. Maddie’s Family I am so sorry for their loss.
Maddie was my best friend the summer before this happened. This broke me. I gave my oldest daughter her middle name in her memory. ❤️
I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been and still is for you. You honored her in a beautiful way
I did this to honor my best friend that died on my wedding day on the way to get ready with me at my parents home. I gave my daughter her middle name.
I am so sorry for your loss!!!
I'm crying for you, honey. I'm so sorry.
So very sorry for your loss💔
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” by Adam Smith.
This qoute came to my mind about giving the guy a second chance. What he did is just to horrible to look past it as just a 'mistake' that he did.
The abrupt move, obsessed with not having little girls around, and not wanting them to leave the house… makes me think it wasn’t the first time.
Me too! The dad didn't want him playing with little girls for a reason 😢
@@SLUBUG right?! Something was up.
Dad appears to be a bad guy… to me he was trying to protect the community while keeping his son out of trouble, too.
Or dad was just as bad and was worried about himself getting caught..
That’s what I was thinking!!!
I don’t think she should only be seen as “Josh’s mom” but also as “the fellow woman who released Maddie” cause she really chose the sweet baby child’s justice over her family. I really hope she isn’t facing loneliness. And I’m glad Jessie is seeking healing in her childhood home. This story made me cry way too hard
Beautifully said
Who knows what she would have done if she’d been able to get a hold of her husband first, tho.
@Anna Victrix I was wondering that also.
That’s still Josh’s mom 💀
Honestly though, because I can’t even imagine finding a child’s body…. Let alone under my roof in my own child’s room. She deserves every comfort and kindness in this world.
I feel like if he really wants a "second chance" he should be mature & finally tell the whole story as it actually happened.
THANK YOU exactly what I was thinking!
Yes exactly this
Nope. 14 years old? He doesn’t deserve any chances.
This one!!
Most of the time during traumatic life changing experiences we make up lies and we tell them over and over to the point we believe those lies so that may be the case with him. Not to justify anything but with his brain damage and all the version he sticks to may be his reality and he is convinced he is telling the truth.
How hard this would be as a mom to apologize to those parents who lost their daughter 🥺🥺
Selfish huzzy. Because she wouldn’t apologize even if her dumb take believes josh is innocent when 99% of us knows different l, she couldn’t atleast have some sympathy for the lost of an innocent baby girl. She lost my sympathy after that
@@kuroe-chan5190girl what
@@arit.4103must’ve watched a different podcast than we did ☺️
The fact that the father specifically did not want Josh playing with little girls is very telling, there HAD to have been some kind of incident previously…
Right!!! That was my thought on it
I’m wondering if maybe he new the things that josh was watching on the computer and a possibility that josh openly talked about Jessie the older sister to his parents (before the rules came about) that made his dad come up with the rule to specifically not hang out with little girls or maybe it was specifically not the neighbor girls, I also question how his dad or mom didn’t know he was out creeping on the neighbors and silently tormenting them ? If his dad was so strict how was he freely going over and doing these things.
No. I get where you're coming from, but his dad didn't want him playing with ANYONE, and also happened to hate little girls himself. It was never specified that his dad only didn't want his son to play with little girls, those are two different statements.
Maybe the dad wasn't just a control freak maybe he knew something that happened previously or that he been watching the sister which is why he wasn't allowed without him and the beatings ain't right but maybe they stemmed from something he couldn't forgive before or trying to beat out this "thing" out of him don't know what to call it like his behaviour or how he is if that makes sense
I was thinking the same thing
I think Josh had done this before , because hiding a body ? And sleeping with a body under his bed , cleaning up all drag marks blood , his composure around people ? I think his dad knew his son and Josh had done a similar thing in the past and so his dad forbade him from playing with little girls.
That could be why they moved away so abruptly too
I agree with this. I dont think it was the first time. Im assuming hiding a body is a very bold move to do for the first time. And again they moved so abruptly that it makes sense
I think she was killed somewhere else which is obvious since there was no blood found. They cleaned up her body and hid it under the bed. Him and the father
100%
He probably had that hiding spot for a while. If you have an abusive, controlling, dad you always have hiding spots.
💯
I did, but I also knew right from wrong.
And also everything happening in the girls bedroom
The bedsheets being stapled onto the mattress, creepy asf , the phone going missing , the picture also that was taken. It was premeditated. It wasn’t so much of a coincidence.
I had hiding spots as a child and my parents were loving 🤣
I had the same thought, didn't have abusive parents but controlling religious ones, I just hid books DVDs then phones when I figured out you could get cheap ones from the store and use restaurant wifi
Just when I thought I had a bad day, I hear about Josh's mom's day and I realize I've never had a bad day before.
Exactly 😢
This statement is so incredibly true and heavy .
Josh's mom?? Uh.... What about Maddie's mom???
Due to the time shift from the US to germany bailey always teils me a bedtime Story on mondays
haha same for ireland
@@JokeswithMitochondria Got curious by ur usernamee so cIicked on ur profiIe.Was not disappointed haha. Lovely stuff
@Kate Nolan wer schläft denn so früh? 😀
@@nadine5741 hab ein 4 monate altes Baby 😂 bin froh so lange durchzuhalten
Ich hör sie immer beim duschen und skincare machen! Ist ein Ritual inzwischen ❤
my father is across-the-street neighbors with maddy's mom, that woman is so kind and generous, you'd NEVER know she went through such a loss.
I live in that area too. So horrible
I feel so sad for the older sister, the unnecessary guilt she must have had and probably still has ❤️
When you said that the dad told his son to confess and to "do the right thing" i totally thought the dad did it and the son took the fall.
I was think the exact same thing. I still believe that the dad was involved somehow
100%.
I thought that for a minute too
either that or this isn’t his first time
@@megami7373 that’s what I’m thinking. That maybe even the reason he made them move in the first place. If he was such a horrible person would he help the mom look for her right away? Idk.
Having abusive and/or controlling parents can make you very sneaky. I think that's how he figured out about that spot.
Agree
I agree entirely. I grew up in Tampa Bay and am about Josh's age. I have to say that reality was very relative at that time.
Plus, since they'd just moved 2 years prior, he may have watched the waterbed being put together in his room. Or even helped with the assembly.
My thoughts exactly! I lived in a similarly hostile situation when I was a teen, your brain works on a whole different level when you're in danger. You get crafty.
Or maybe the dad would put him in there since he wasn't allowed to go out
As someone who was also preyed upon at age 8 by a 15 year old, I think his original sentence was the right call. If you’re old enough to do something as heinous as that, you’re old enough to suffer the consequences.
You take a life deliberately then, you lose your life. Period.
He's a sick human then and now.
I have a friend who had a similar experience, and I totally agree with you, my sro says that anyone that young who will do something that at that age is not gonna be any better when they grow up.
I’m so sorry that happened to you, one survivor to another. You’re strong! You got this.
he was a kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can we just appreciate how GORGEOUS Bailey is 💖
I mean that's obviously what she made this video for, right? Not the 8yo that lost her life. 😒
@@itsme-s.you're weird
Stunning
@@itsme-s. She is just charing the story with you, silence is not beter than sayng it happened
@@itsme-s. I’m sure she cares about the child that lost her life-
Weird thing I just thought about... if Josh had a dog, seems like the dog would be going crazy with a dead body in the house. How did no one know for a week????
I thought that too!
brrrooooooo????
Maybe the dog was kept outside
maybe the dog wasn’t allowed in bedrooms or something? my childhood dog wasn’t
The smell of something dead/rotting is SO distinct. I'm surprised nobody knew something was rotting in his room.
The only explanation I can imagine making sense would be rotting food?
Of maybe a form of denial. A missing little girl, bedroom smelling like rot…. Honestly this case boggles the mind
@Leah Waggoner that's because when the police came to the house they only concentrated on the focal points of the home, kitchen, living room, bathrooms. In order to search the rest of the home they needed a search warrant. Plus, decomposition usually happens within a certain amount of days which in this case the smell happened around 7 days. Rigor mortis settles between 7-17 hours after death.
I read that he blamed it on a squirrel nest just outside his window. So unbelievable.
Police incompetence at it's most obvious, literally 3 times over.
I’m from Jacksonville and this was a huge story when it first happened. The sister has been super vocal about the case and wants to make sure he is not granted parole. She does not believe he is able to be rehabilitated. She said there is a lot people get wrong about this case due to the police trying to protect Josh, since he was a minor. They said there was countless occurrences that were inappropriate with Josh and the parents did not want him playing with her.
I remember this. It was very talked about that he'd had inappropriate contact with her
@@h.b.2003 I'm sure he lured her inside and tried to get fresh with her. She freaked out ,he was being in appropriate. probably threatened to tell on him, so he then hit her had some anger. Poor baby.
The sister is right that he can't be rehabilitated. He literally has lesions on his frontal lobe. The brain is who you are and any damage to it will permanently mess you up. Whether anyone likes it or not, he can't be allowed to rejoin society with that kind of brain damage.
Do you know how old josh was?
@@Truthorfib at this point why keep him alive? Like really why?
This one was heartbreaking...and the fact that the older sister came up to that boy's mom years later and hugged her after what they had all been through😩
Goes to show you how loving, caring and nurturing that household was. I’m sure that, had Maddy lived, she would’ve been as remarkable as Jessie 💔 such a heartbreaking case 😞
Humans ability to connect..... Absolutely marvelous
I'm sure that was so healing for both of them too.
Probably exactly what each other needed 🥺🖤
The fact he hasn’t told the full true story about what he did and what happened just shows he doesn’t need to be let out. So many unanswered questions and things that still don’t fully add up. Keep him locked up. lol
I feel like if a “brain injury” caused him to do THIS when he was younger, how on earth could we trust that he’s going to be a *magically* better adult with the same brain injury plus the added trauma I’m sure he’s endured in prison? I say keep him there, maddie never got to move on so neither should he.
I agree totally. Maddie can't get on with her life, he should not be allowed either.
Plus putting him away likely saved other potential victims later on. He could be there right now perfecting his MO to not be caught next time for all we know! He is too dangerous, keep him there until he needs to use a walker to get around too!
I would love for you to cover a case from Sweden, the case about Engla Höglund. A terrible case about a little girl that was solved by a stranger coincidentally testing out his new camera…
A lot of twists and turns in this one!
I totally agree, it would be interesting to hear Bailey talk about that case. It’s is such a horrible story, I still cry every time her mom comes on tv
Want to look this one up for myself! It's one I'm not familiar with and it sounds like something I've never come across, either! Thanks for bringing this one up!
I don't think anyone should even consider letting him out until he gives the real story of what happened. If he wants to show that he's grown and become better, he needs to own up to what he did.
You can’t come back from that. Time doesn’t heal what he did. Not on occasions such as these.
he himself might not even know though. the brain is a weird thing & he not only had brain lesions which can disrupt how your brain even functions & processes information in a normal situation, but the brain also has mechanisms for warping traumatic memories. he could fully & honestly believe his version of events is exactly how things happened due to his brain damage or his brain closing off/warping those memories.
i don't think this means he should be released though, just in case it was sounding like that!
Was thinking the same thing. He needs to tell the full truth before it’s even considered. If he’s really changed he should be man enough to do that
@@pomegranate818 he hasn’t changed at all. An interview during COVID showed that he had ZERO remorse and was just annoyed to still be in jail. He brushed her off when asked.
@@Sunderbee as i said, my comment was not in defense of him or because i think he should be released. i think he should stay exactly where he is.
that being said, people with brain damage as well as deep trauma have memory issues. it's well-documented. i think the fact he has never changed his version of events once does suggest that on some level he really does think that is what happened. if he was conciously lying it's highly unlikely he would not make minor adjustments to his tale all these years.
again, that does not absolve him of his wrongdoings at all, nor do i think he should be released.
Jessie and Josh’s Mom reconnecting is a special kind of forgiveness and understanding. It reminds me of Sue Klebold and the victims of columbine. I cried so hard for her and the victims. I was so astounded by the survivors understanding and forgiveness even though it wasn’t directly her fault. It made me cry, it probably took a-lot for them to do that. Years even.
My theory: He lured her into his room, thinking he would be able to reenact the videos with her. She freaked out, so he attacked her sadly. He mostly likely wanted to try it on the older sister, but settled for the little one instead thinking she would be easier to manipulate 😢
that actually makes a lot of sense
That makes so much sense
What videos?
@@Mary3874 the “cheerleader brutality” video
Did you watch the video?@@Mary3874
As a mother myself, I don’t think he deserves a second chance. It wasn’t accidental it had thought and continuance behind it. It’s just sad. That little girl will never get a second chance and neither will her family. It really affected more lives than just his.
This!!! As a mother of two young kids, I don’t see anything accidental about this, nor do I think he deserves a second chance. If his father had been so manipulative and controlling like they say, I understand why as a kid, he would have panicked. But I do not and will not understand resorting to immense violence because of that.
My issue is , if this all started in his backyard,how didn’t anyone hear it , if there was always neighborhood watch. And also if he gets a second chance what if his demons return and it repeats itself.
The little girls family cant get a second chance , and their lives were practically ruined without the probability of getting a fresh start.
just so sickening.
Besides you know how kids are... they rationalize things in ways that seem crazy once they become adults. I know I did.
My stepdad was pretty scary back then. And I can see how a kid who doesn't understand life and death at all. Maybe has a lot of anger issues and fear... How he might be so afraid to come forward that he would gi to any extent to "cover up his crimes"...
Idk... it's a sad situation all around. It's very unfortunate. And it goes to show the extent of how much power and damage and overly strict parent can cause to a child.
As a mother - when Bailey was explaining how his mother was cleaning his room…a part of her knew when she went in his room… that’s how she found her
His dad committed a crime, probably yes, but it was him covering up for the son. He probably caught him hurting a little girl, or maybe even killed one, that's why they moved. That's why he had strict rules about him going out when no one was around, that's why he said things like that about little girls, that he wasn't allowed to have contact or play with them. Not because he did it himself. His son definitely was the one who did it.
If Josh wasn’t caught, this very likely would have continued. He is deeply disturbed. I’m so glad his mother did the right thing & turned him in.
I do believe though that rehabilitation would’ve been better than prison for such a disturbed person
The best thing about Bailey telling stories is her laughing then saying “i am sorry its not funny” i love it 😂
After growing up in prison I'm not sure if he could function in the outside world without being even more of a danger to girls and women
yeah, they really don't work on rehabilitation or preparing you for release.
exactly!
Especially because nowadays certain people would defend him.
For real
Especially since he went in so young. I agree
I feel absolutely horrible for Josh’s Mom too. She’s been through a lot and she lost a lot.
As a mum I couldn't even imagine that absolutely horrific
I have a crime TH-cam channel and also a bachelors degree in psychology. I thought about talking about this with a mix of psychology in with it because there’s soo many issues here.
agreed. unrelated, April Beth Pitzer. she is still missing. adding the name and comment to get the name out and raise awareness
@TiffanyTellsAll I'm gonna keep an eye on your channel. I hope you do dive into this one also.
Agreed, I've often found that with these kind of situations everyone looks at the family of the perpetrator as of they were also guilty and that's not fair. They didn't do anythang wrong and in this case the mother actively did the right thing.
SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! Cops searched 3 TIMES ???? They couldn’t smell decomp !!!???? SERIOUSLY 😳
This really got me too and where are the pants and underwear?
And you KNOW at LEAST ONE of those cops would have smelled that smell at some point in their career, so it's not like they wouldn't have known it. We see all the time in the true crime shows that the cops always say that it's a singular distinct smell that you never forget.
Yeah Surely ❗
That was a bit odd also, because body odor is strong but not predominantly,like you can for sure tell the difference.
I thought this too. Possibly the first search, the decomposition wasn't that far along. The next one was Possibly masked as she was essentially in a box in a room that smelled anyway (birds and a dog and a teenage boy 😅) but I can't understand how they missed it the third time.
That orange makeup looks so pretty on you Bailey you can literally rock any color and look gorg
Josh’s Dad died in the car accident late one night on his way home from visiting Josh in prison.
I’ve lived in Jacksonville all of my life. I was part of the many people that helped search for Maddie.
He knew exactly what he was doing when he lured her over there to her death. She trusted him and lost her life for it. Honestly I’m quite surprised that given the circumstances in house prison justice hasn’t been served. He can spend his time in prison until he’s carried out in a pine box.
Prison justice is a myth. The people in prison with him are usually there for similar charges or other violent crimes.
I read people think he crashed on purpose.
Pretty sure they wouldn’t serve prison justice to a 14 year old. Now when he turned 18, I would’ve expected it…
@@dewintate1979 Possibly, the lesions on Josh's frontal lobe didnt appear out of nowhere and the dad probably knew that he was the cause for his son messing up that way. Maybe one drunken night he hit his son so hard it caused the brain damage that lead to his son turning out the way he did.
@@dewintate1979 And from that he told himself he was useless and did what he did
They told a child that her sister was dead in the middle of a public restaurant? That is like, the worst choice ever.
Edit: 5/27 and 2.4K likes. Thanks so much!
I know! I know they were trying to make her comfortable but you also don’t know how she’s going to react and that could have gone badly
@@Honeyin2013 I know I wouldn’t want to receive that news in an IHOP, I would have a breakdown in a very public place and be embarrassed on top of being devastated 😔
i totally get the parents’ reasoning of different location, but as a server i’m imagining the scenario of me walking up to my table like “do you guys want a coffee refill?” & there’s a child just wailing from grief over the loss of their sibling like …?
I don’t know, I think I’d definitely need some comfort pancakes after news like that
Like they should have went to a family members or close friends house
The idea that teenage boys stink so bad you can't tell there is a dead body in their room really has me worried about the teenage years with my son.
Teenage boys are some of the grossest beings on this planet 😂 May the odds be ever in your favor
Girllll! My son was disgusting!!!! He's 20 and his room is still putrid.
My oldest is extremely clean. He's OCD so it's a different kind of curse 😂.
You should be. My son is 17 and it's been so many years of so many smells. It's ridiculous. He was gone for a few days, I deep cleaned his room and it was so nice. As soon as he came back it smelled again.
💀 that’s crazy, my older brother as a teen wasn’t that bad. I think the worse it was, when my mom and I picked him up after sport practice, the car stunk so bad. But his room was pretty clean all the time, and he took many showers. Now hes 27 😮
the only thing that stuck with me hearing this story for the first time was that he actively was involved in the search party for Maddie, along with having her missing flyer on his bedside table
I remember when Bailey had like 100k subscribers and now she’s nearly at 7 million 😭 how incredible
i found her channel when she had just reached 5mil and it’s insane to see how quickly she’s acquired 2+mil mORE
😮❤🎉
Yes!!
@@ambernicholle6344 6,,
I feel like if Josh's dad would have answered when Josh's mom called after finding Maddie under her his bed, things might have gone in a completely different direction.
I agree with this. I believe he would’ve made the wife keep quiet and try to hide it. I was honestly shocked the mother even said anything.
I don't think Josh would have lived to see prison, at the very least.
His dad would have tried to hide it because the dad did it
Karma
Agreed probably would’ve just dumped the body then moved to a different part of the country again
How did the police miss the body after three separate searches?!? That’s insane!
laziness
Need a warrant for extensive searches. And I’d the bed was flush to the floor would make it an odd place to “peak” and look.
@@trevntichecking under the bed is extensive? Maybe to a child rushing to clean their room 😂
@@trevnti they had searched the home THREE SEPARATE TIMES. If they had smelled a dead body in the house, they had cause to search more thoroughly.
@@prim.an.propher1505 If I remember correctly it was a water bed. Those are not set up in a way that you can look under it like a regular bed.
Why would she beg to play with him when he was never outside? Especially when her sister was around and there’s lots of other kids in the neighborhood.
He was probably the one who was begging....
Bailey you make my mondays soo much better (who agree with me?)
Literally 😂
Absolutely!!!
Meeeeeeeeeee
Meeee
EVERYONE
He was 14 so too old not to know unaliving her was worse than his dad getting mad. He took his anger out on that poor girl.
Unaliving?
If 14 year olds were fully mature with a complete understanding of the consequences of their actions, we wouldn't call them children, and we'd let them drive and drink alcohol and get married and have full time jobs and take out loans and buy homes. We don't do those things. Why? Because a 14 year old can "intellectually" know that something is wrong without having a solid understanding of permanence, mortality, and the consequences of their impulsivity. Are you the exact same person you were at 14? If you had an abusive father, is there no possibility that you would have done something irreprehensible in a panic in order to avoid further abuse? I had abusive parents and, let me tell you, avoidance of that abuse can really skew a moral compass.
I was surprised when Josh's mom immediately looked for help after finding the body,some parents after finding the body they would wait for their kids to get home so they could help them get rid of it before anyone else finds out.Josh's mom is the hero of this story.
Yes!!
Lived in Jax,FL raising 4 grade school kids at tat time. I had to quit my job so I can hover over my kids every sec every day. It was a scary, bizarre time.
please do a video on Kristen smart! she’s been missing for more than 20 years and she lived about 30 mins from my town and went to our college! her story is heartbreaking and the people are finally gonna get charged, yet we still haven’t found her and they won’t admit to it
How scary for his mother to find her under the bed.
And realizing that your own child put her there.
Dude, I never ever trust (other people's)kids with my own. Kids can be just as much of a threat
Seriously, you never know what kind of sinister things some kids will do.
Yeah this is the case I always think about when my daughter asks to go play with the neighborhood kids
Exactly. His friends can come over here, but he’s not going anywhere. I just don’t trust anyone but certain family members (not all family, just some!)
@@Ryninja769 you’re smart for not automatically trusting family because you are blood family with them! A lot of people just trust them automatically and bad things happen
@@69kat69I feel like you should be able to trust family and the fact that you actually can't is extremely sad and disturbing.
It’s so crazy to me how some people waste their entire lives at such a young age. I respect the judge for not going easy on him due to him being a kid; actions have consequences.
As a mom this story tears my heart into a million pieces!!! No remorse at all. Absolutely awful.
I’d like to just say. When Bailey mentioned how josh could know about the compartments in the water bed, if I was being abused by my dad and beaten, I would try to find any place to hide when I felt unsafe.
I think a lot of people haven't thought of the most obvious explanation of how he knew about the compartments. The sort of base his bed had is flat pack, and is usually joined by those locking connectors so that you only need a screwdriver to lock the outer panels to each other. The cross supports don't even have connectors, they're just slotted together. He, or he and his dad or mum, would have most likely pulled it down and then put it together when they set up in the new place so of course he'd have known.
I had one for years and the frame was very simple to assemble and disassemble. I put my waterbed up and pulled it down several times just by myself. He would have had no trouble putting the bed up by himself, I know that I could have at his age.
Basic waterbed frames are remarkably easy to assemble, disassemble and move. The only thing that takes any time is filling and "burping" the bladder when you put it up and draining the bladder when you pull it down, neither of which are difficult.
He wasn't abused or beaten, though. Those are just the lies Josh himself told and you knew he lied because he claimed he damaged her eye yet the autopsy of her corpse showed no damage to her eye.
@@BubblesChika the same way his dad must’ve ‘had no idea’ and Josh didn’t have a brain injury ? Riiiight. The selective hearing on you is fr
@@oki__ I don't care about your irrelevant opinion, kid. Stop replying to me
I lived in Jacksonville and was 14 at the time Maddie went missing. It was so sad, and when it was discovered a 14 year old boy killed her, everyone was devastated. I couldn't believe someone my age did that to a little girl. It made me look at boys at my school a little different.
that's a horrible thing to have to take away from the experience and i'm sorry. you deserved to feel safe at school.
I left jacksonville in 2000( i was 10)! I lived not far from her... I remember having so many questions on why someone would do this to someone my age
I have to say I didn’t even consider the incredible impact it would have on all the school aged girls in her community! Just like you said, it made you look at boys differently.
Same, I was also 14 and lived in the neighborhood, I knew some friends of his. It was definitely scary. His friends never said a thing about Joshua, just that they knew him from school and that I wouldn't understand.
My heart breaks for Jessie tho. She lost her sister, learned that she was also a target, then parents getting divorced and now has to live with the possibility he might get out and come after her. Ugh! I hope she's doing ok!
“Do the right thing” - said the father. That made me think that Josh might have covered for his dad.
The father had a solid alibi during her time of death, he was at work
I don't see it
Actually this made me think the opposite, that the dad knew something about Josh he never shared.
We helped look for her 😔 it was the only time I had ever seen my father cry.
“All of the student’s were in complete disbelief.-I never saw it coming.”
“Maybe if you squint”
Had me dead 😭
I guarantee there was at least one classmate and one teacher who were not surprised when they heard.
@@kaceyreed1284 yep, they may just have been afraid to speak up or maybe other people didn’t listen
Naw the news interviews or only shows the interviews that are the "never saw it coming"
Well, it really appears he lured her in and acted on his sick, twisted fantasies. I highly doubt the baseball in the backyard story. They already established that he’d been creeping on the girls prior to this. If he can’t bother to come clean about the real story then he just needs to stay in prison.
i agree i definitely think that he had some degrading fantasies towards little girls i think he definitely touched her or did something wrong to her body
Or maybe he tried and it didn’t work the way he wanted it to and so he got mad and took it out on the innocent 8 year old.
This is such a scary case. I am with a lot of people, I kept screaming 'look at the dad'!! I just don't know.
If his brain injury was the cause of why he committed such a heinous crime against this young girl, how has he miraculously recovered enough to be released & not be a danger? make it make sense.
Exactly! We put sick dangerous animals down for far less, but this sick dangerous person is suddenly “cured” and should be free?? No way
I agree .prison is not only about punishment and rehabilitation .but also to protect society .not convinced he could ever be rehabilitated if his brain injury makes him a risk of offending again .
It doesn’t make sense because it’s an excuse
I grew up with Maddie. We went to same YMCA. I remember when she went missing. We were only a year apart. I lived down the street and it was very traumatizing. The YMCA has a bench in honor of her outside. RIP Maddie.
And my best friend was lebron james
I bet that is a really harsh childhood memory for you and many others, count your blessings 💖
I’m so sorry
@@edunx10. this is an extremely rude comment. These are real stories, real peoples lives. It's not far fetched at all that someone watching would know this family and these people.
@@aliceinweberland mate it was 4 months ago and you would be shocked to know how many people of the internet lie. I wont respond anymore.
I’m from Jacksonville. I remember this. A girl in my girl scout troop was her best friend. My mom got real weird and wouldn’t let me out of her sight after this. Horrible awful time.
It’s wild to me how these things reverberate, where they affect so many more people than the direct people they harm. The whole community is affected. Like that whole period of your life probably effected your whole outlook on life.
I’m from Jacksonville too, I was a toddler at the time this happened but I remember everyone talking about it and my mom was the same way, she was terrified
I am from there too. I vividly remember when this all went down. My mama was adamant that I didn’t go anywhere alone and that I would always call the moment I got home from school. It was a very scary situation.
You mean your mum became worried? And you think that's wierd
I feel so bad for both Mother's 😢
He should never be released. If he was capable of something that horrific as a child imagine what he’s capable of as an adult.
The chills I got when you said it was Maddie’s sister and she hugged the mom. That shows how forgiving that woman is ❤️
As a mom of a nine-year-old little girl, this one was really hard to watch. That poor thing must’ve been so terrified.
I was friends with Joshua in high school together. It was a totally shocking and heartbreaking situation. Most of Maddie's family still lives here in Duval
And i was lebrons best friend
@@edunx10.and you were lebrons best friend
His mother and father could of easily gotten rid of the body, and no-one to this day would of even known what happened to Maddie. But thankfully the mother told the police. Can you imagine how many unsolved cases like this exist???
It makes you think… what could have happened if Josh’s dad had answered her multiple calls?
Still waiting for “I’m laughing because I’m uncomfortable” merch 😂
Same!
Same here
Now I want to do a mockup of it (but also, I need it because I always laugh because I'm uncomfortable).
I was actually in the search party looking for Maddie back then, so was Joshua. It was a devastating situation when they found her. Shocking.
Wow I’m so sorry
it’s so weird & confusing as to why ppl gotta insert themselves into cases. lol
Did the kid seem off to you?
@@embadly LOL So weird & confusing how you feel the need to insert yourself into my comment.
@@Cali4nication No, not at all. Seemed like a concerned kid trying to help find his neighbor. I obviously did not have a conversation with him, nor did I know him at all- so I am probably not the best source of info on that. I can say that most people here locally that knew him were in shock because it did not seem like anything they would have ever expected him to do.
My father was part of this investigation team. He stated years later that Josh was the most sociopathic person he ever interviewed. His eyes were so cold when he described the crime that he got chills.
I cant imagine the pain maddies parent must feel.. knowing your baby was scared, hurt and alone. Breaks my heart
I know that’s what’s so gut wrenching about this one! That poor little girl.
I was 13 when this happened. I took ballet with Maddie and Jessica. I couldn’t understand at all when Maddie went missing. I thought she had to of run away. This whole thing really opened my eyes to the fact that there can be evil so nearby. I remember that when Josh was up for appeal we all prayed that he would remain in prison. He belongs there. The way he killed Maddie was absolutely brutal. If I’m not mistaken Jessica works for the D.A in Jacksonville these days. I wonder if this happening steered her into that career choice. This just never should of happened to Maddie and her family.
I'm not sure if the sentence should have been different but I definitely think the brain scan should have been brought into court. I'd really like to know how it would compare to another scan more recently done. Lesions on the frontal lobe could DEFINITELY effect some ones judgment and impulse control. With that being said, that would obviously mean he still has those issues and it would be hard to trust that he could be reformed.
Yepppp!
I'd love to know this too. But I wonder if it causes impulsively and behavioural difficulties, why were these not seen before? Everyone said how nice and gentle he was. That bit confused me a little.
@niamhmadden28 maybe side effects and symptoms were just starting to occur? They may not have had a reason to think anything was wrong physically in his brain so they wouldn't have gone looking for it. Tumors and lesions can cause all kinds of issues depending on where they are. They can even impare judgement and memory if they push on the right things.
@@niamhmadden28 Perhaps that was his nature BEFORE his pos father beat him to the point of brain damage.
Honestly f that guy.
He wants to be released but he hasn’t changed. He STILL hasn’t told the TRUTH about what happened.
Maybe tell the truth Josh and then think about parole
Bailey please don’t shy away from the cases involving kids, they are just as important to get that story out there
I cannot imagine what this poor child went through. It's so disturbing and horrific. No child should ever have to experience that. As a mother my heart breaks for her mother.
His mother is such a strong human being for turning her son in instead of burying his sins as many do. I really hope she found some sort of happiness in her life, as well as all the others that suffered so deeply in this case.
I absolutely love how you tell the story like you were the investigator. Aaannnddd I get to learn how to colour blend and I love it . Thank you 🧡
He had 7 days to make up his story. I wonder how many times he changed it in his head.
Child cases are very tough but very necessary to discuss and spread awareness ❤
,
This is one of the most disturbing stories . When I discovered the story a few months ago it bothered me for DAYS. I was so sad thinking of that poor child. It made me cry as a mother. Consequences need to be had and the original punishment is fitting.
Same. This one isn’t even as graphic as others I’ve heard, but picturing myself as a mother frantically looking for my child, knowing she was across the street stuffed under a bed…it guts me. And the other poor mom had to find her. It’s just the worst.
Not the crusty socks and the bedroom drawers 😂
We moved to this city 2 months before this happened. I've lived with this story since then, literally grew up with it, and it still is shocking. Poor Maddie
“The sun goes down at 4 for no reason… it’s so rude” 😂
I really thought it was going to come out that Josh's dad actually committed the crime and Josh took the fall either because he was somewhat involved, or his dad had that much control over him. It would explain why Josh's account didn't make sense.
yeah, It's possible that the dad is the one who made those internet searches. Being that he stated "he hated little girls"
Especially when his dad told him to "do the right thing" it seemed like he was forcing his son to take the fall
That’s what I thought too! So many things just didn’t seem like a 13 yr old would think of/ do unless pressured to do it.
I literally thought the same thing!
some people assume that the dad forbid him from playing with girls cause his son hurt a girl before