Mother goes on trial in toddler’s death

(Updated)

(Story contains content that some may find disturbing)

A Fort Erie woman is on trial in Hamilton for the second degree murder of her two-year-old daughter Marissa — who was beaten to death in 2011. 25-year-old Roseanne Whalen pleaded not guilty. But last year, her one-time live-in girlfriend Rainbow Hill did plead guilty in the death — and Rainbow Hill was the first witness on the stand.

There was very disturbing testimony heard in court.

Rainbow Hill says Roseanne Whalen and her daughter Marissa lived with her for about two months before the toddler was killed. The Crown asked what Marissa’s demeanor was like.

“She was scared. malnourished, abused.”

Hill went on to say Marissa was beaten every day.  She was slapped, punched, forced to stand in the corner while her mother and Hill got high on the couch, and forced to lay on the floor while food was stuffed into her mouth. If she spit it up, she was forced to eat it again.

Whalen and Hill kept Marissa hidden so the general public wouldn’t see the bruises. Marissa stayed for a bit with Hill’s mother, Carol Hill, after hill sent this text:

“Hey! you gotta keep that baby. I messed up her face sorry.”

Where was Roseanne Whalen through all this, the Crown asked?

“Right beside me, every time.”

Two days after Marissa’s 2nd birthday, Hill says she accidentally dropped her in the bath, and when she picked her up, her eyes rolled back. Hill’s step-father called 911 — but when paramedics came, the adults lied, and hid the unconscious Marissa in the basement. That night they buried her in a wooded area of the Six Nations Reserve. Three months later Whalen reported her missing. She tried to pin everything on Hill, but the day after Hill was arrested, so was Whalen.

The crown stated: “So besotted was Roseanne Whalen with Rainbow Hill that she preferred her romantic interest with Rainbow Hill over ther duty as a parent, and she knowingly and deliberately placed Marissa in harm’s way. Roseanne Whalen’s actions, omissions and negligence caused the death of Marissa Whalen just as surely as if she’d beaten the child to death herself.