TANNER LEE NELSON - 16 Months (2010) - Mauston (E of LaCrosse) WI

A young mother's negligence in leaving her 16-month-old son
unchecked in a hot camper for hours caused the toddler's death,
authorities charged Friday.

The Sauk County District Attorney's Office charged Mauston
resident Brandie L. Nelson, 20, with child neglect resulting in
death, a felony that carries a maximum 25-year sentence, Friday.



Investigators who re-created the scene and reviewed medical
evidence say Nelson's story - that her son was sleeping in a cool
camper before the air conditioner broke and caused him to overheat - doesn't add up.

The charges against Nelson stem from a July 17 incident at the
VFW Memorial Park Campground in Prairie du Sac.

First responders were called to the scene for a child who was
not breathing and did not have a pulse. They arrived to find Nelson
performing chest compressions on her son, 16-month-old Tanner Lee Nelson.



The Nelsons and friends were among many others who came to
Prairie du Sac for the Sauk Prairie Harley-Davidson Freedom Ride,
an annual charity motorcycle ride that benefits the Muscular
Dystrophy Association of Wisconsin.

Officers at the scene said Nelson provided conflicting accounts
about how long it had been since she last checked on her child
before finding him unresponsive. The criminal complaint says Nelson
told EMS workers she last checked on the child three hours before
she discovered him not breathing.

But the criminal complaint says she told a police officer it had
only been an hour since she last checked on the child, and officers
overheard her say she thought the air conditioner in the camper broke.

The "makeshift" camper was a car hauler trailer, which had the
front section altered into sleeping quarters.

During follow-up interviews with investigators, Nelson provided
a time line of events in which she said she put her son down for a
nap in the camper around 11:30 a.m. and checked on him
approximately every 1/2 hour, according to the criminal complaint.
Each time she checked, she said, the boy was sleeping fine and the
air conditioner was keeping the camper cool.

Around 2:40 p.m., Nelson said, she opened the door to the camper
to feel a rush of heat come out and noticed her son's hair was wet.
She told investigators she removed him, placed him on a nearby
table, began chest compressions and called 911.

Sauk Prairie Police Department detectives recreated the scene
July 21, a day in which they say the temperature and sunlight were
similar. They placed the camper in the same location and turned the
air conditioner on at the same time Nelson said she had in her time line.

Investigators found that, even with the air conditioner running,
the camper reached 102 degrees by 12:10 p.m. The temperature
climbed to 113 degrees by 2:39 p.m., around the time the boy was
found, the complaint states.

After he was taken to the hospital, medical staff found that the
boy's internal temperature was 108 degrees.

The doctor that performed the autopsy told detectives it would
be "extremely unlikely that (the toddler) was sleeping comfortably,
breathing normally and felt cool to the touch at 2:15 p.m. and then
was found pulseless and non breathing, extremely hot to the touch
with a core body temperature in excess of 108 degrees at 2:39
p.m.," the criminal complaint states.

The doctor also told detectives the boy had partially digested
sandwich meat in his stomach, leading him to believe the boy died
within one to two hours of last eating. Nelson told authorities she
took her son to Subway to eat that morning, and that they left the
restaurant around 11 a.m., the complaint states.

Authorities also consulted Bill Klein, manager of the University
of Wisconsin Dairy Plant, regarding milk in the child's possession
that was found curdled to a consistency similar to cottage cheese.

"Klein said that for the milk to have curdled to that point in
such a short period of time, the temperature had to have been at
least 110 degrees Fahrenheit and there had to have been the right
bacteria introduced to the milk," the complaint states.

Nelson was arrested and booked at the Sauk County jail Thursday
and remained in custody Friday evening. She is scheduled to appear
in Sauk County Circuit Court at 2:30 p.m. Monday.

Sauk Prairie Police Chief Gerald Strunz stated in press release
that a news conference regarding the case has been scheduled for
9:30 a.m. Monday at the Sauk County Law Enforcement Center in
Baraboo and authorities will not grant media interviews prior to that time.

This happened just a few miles from my home. So incredibly tragic. I cannot understand why she had him at that biker rally in the first place.

Tanner is my nephew. My family never got to see him until he was dead. My brother got to see his son once and he could not even hold him. She took our rights away from us. And now we will do anything to take her rights away. We will not resst until Tanner is down here in Missouri with us and away from her.

tanner_nelson_we miss you wrote:Tanner is my nephew. My family never got to see him until he was dead. My brother got to see his son once and he could not even hold him. She took our rights away from us. And now we will do anything to take her rights away. We will not resst until Tanner is down here in Missouri with us and away from her.

I'm so sorry for your loss. She sounds like a very selfish girl to not let Tanner's side of the family see him and show him love. I don't blame you in wanting her rights taken away. She no longer deserves them.

I'm so sorry for your family's tragic loss. Tanner deserved a long happy life and a less selfish, neglectful mother. I hope you can find some peace knowing that little angel Tanner is watching over you from above.

tanner_nelson_we miss you wrote:Tanner is my nephew. My family never got to see him until he was dead. My brother got to see his son once and he could not even hold him. She took our rights away from us. And now we will do anything to take her rights away. We will not resst until Tanner is down here in Missouri with us and away from her.

I am so incredibly sorry for your loss. I cannot even imagine what you must be going through. Those of us in this area (near both the fairgrounds and where Brandie and Tanner lived) have had many conversations wondering where Tanner's father was in all of this. Your brother and the rest of your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope this woman is persecuted to the full extent of the law and that you will be offered some sense of peace through that.

Mother of toddler who died in heat in Sauk County is charged with child neglect

By PATRICIA SIMMS | psimms@madison.com | 608-252-6492 | Posted: Friday, August 13, 2010 4:30 pm

After almost a month of investigation, authorities have arrested the mother of a 16-month-old Mauston toddler who died July 17 from the heat in a makeshift camper at a Prairie du Sac park.

Brandie L. Nelson, 20, of Mauston was arrested Thursday afternoon and booked into the Sauk County Jail on felony charges of child neglect resulting in death, jail officials said. She is to make an initial court appearance Monday.

Sauk Prairie Police Chief Jerry Strunz on Friday identified the toddler who died at the VFW Park as Tanner Nelson.

According to the complaint, Nelson said she checked on the boy five or six times after she put him down for a nap around 11:30 a.m. in a converted car hauler trailer with generator-powered air conditioning. Nelson said she last checked on him at 2:15 p.m. and found the camper cool and the toddler breathing.

When she checked him at about 2:40 p.m., she said, the toddler was not breathing and limp, and the temperature in the camper was about 95 degrees.

In the complaint, medical experts, in were skeptical about the time line Nelson described. “It is extremely unlikely that (the toddler) was sleeping comfortably, breathing normally and felt cool to the touch at 2:15 p.m. and then was found pulseless and non-breathing, extremely hot to the touch with a core body temperature in excess of 108 degrees at 2:39 p.m.,” said Dr. Robert Corliss, who conducted the autopsy on the boy and determined the cause of death to be hyperthermia due to heat exposure.

In addition, the complaint said Nelson told one of the EMTs who responded that it had been three hours since she’d checked on her son before he was found not breathing.

Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital staff said the boy had a core temperature higher than 108 degrees when he arrived at the hospital. “The thermometer only goes up to 108 degrees, so it had to have been above 108 degrees for it to read that high,” a nurse told police.

Nelson, her boyfriend and family members were at the park for the annual Freedom Ride, a motorcycle riders benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Association that attracts 2,000 to 3,000 people and basically transforms the park into a small community.

Nelson told police that she’d had trouble starting the generator for the air conditioner when she put her son down for a nap at about 11:30 a.m. but got it working. She said she put the toddler in a portable crib, gave him a bottle and thought the camper was starting to cool down. Then she told police that she and her boyfriend sat down in two lawn chairs by the door.

Each time she checked on the boy, Nelson told police, he was dry and sleeping well until her last check at around 2:40 p.m., when she said it was very hot in the trailer and the boy wasn’t breathing. She told emergency workers that she thought the air conditioning had failed.

The complaint said that on July 21, police replicated the scenario as Nelson described it, including starting the generator for the air conditioning. In the demonstration, the camper reached 109 degrees by 1:30 p.m. and 113 degrees by 2:39 p.m.

Strunz, who last month said the death was accidental, said he would hold a press conference Monday with more details about the investigation.

UPDATE: Judge releases Mauston mom on $25,000 'personal appearance' bond
AUK COUNTY (WKOW) -- A Mauston mom could face up to 25 years in prison after her toddler died in what investigators call an overheated converted trailer.

20-year-old Brandie Nelson appeared in Sauk County court Monday afternoon: nearly a month after her 16-month-old son Tanner died of heat exposure at a Prairie du Sac campground.

Nelson faces charges of child neglect resulting in death.

The judge released her on a $25-thousand dollar personal appearance bond: meaning if Nelson fails to show up to her next court appearance, she will owe that much to the court.

At a press conference Monday morning, authorities with both the Sauk Prairie Police Department and the Sauk County Sheriff's Department explained their investigation.

Sauk Prairie Police Chief Jerry Strunz said, "When investigators first entered the trailer, they found temperatures in excess of 100 degrees."

They showed the media for the first time a picture of the converted trailer Brandie Nelson said she set her 16-month-old son down in for a nap on July 17.

Chief Strunz said there was an air conditioning unit in the middle of the trailer: separating a sleeping quarters from a storage area in the back.

He says, "On the date of this incident, the rear cargo door was found to be closed."

That meant the air conditioning couldn't vent properly, and was blowing warm air.

Investigators also say Nelson gave contradicting stories through the course of the day.

Strunz said, "Her initial statement to EMS was that she put him down three hours ago, and when asked when she last checked on him, she said.. three hours ago."

But when interviewed later, Nelson told investigators she checked on him every 20 minutes, stating in a criminal complaint that at 11:30 "it was starting to get pretty cool in there." At 12:25 she told investigators it was still cool.. and still cool at 2:15 PM.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Calkins said, "It's our position that she put the child in the trailer and did not check on him again."

That's because investigators did their own re-enactment. At 12:10, the inside of the trailer would have been 102 degrees. By 2:39 PM, it would have been 113 degrees.

Strunz added, "If the child was checked at the intervals indicated in the criminal complaint, it would have been very obvious early on that the temperature was increasing instead of decreasing."

Members of Nelson's family was in court Monday: they declined to speak with us.

Nelson faces up to 25 years in prison and/or $100,000 in fines.

She'll be back in court September 13.

****************

SAUK COUNTY (WKOW) -- A Mauston mom will face a judge this afternoon on preliminary charges of Child Neglect Resulting in Death.

After an investigation into the death of 16-month-old Tanner Lee Nelson at a Prairie du Sac campground, investigators arrested his mother, 20-year-old Brandie Nelson of Mauston.

Monday at a news conference, Sauk County authorities say their investigation found Brandie Nelson's story that she checked on her toddler every 20 to 30 minutes could not have been true.

Authorities say it was not that the air condition failed but that it wasn't used properly. Officials say a backdoor of the trailer needed to be completely open in order for the trailer to vent, since it was not, it instead was pumping hot air into the sleeping area. Through their investigation, they believe Nelson did not check on the toddler at all in the three hours.

She was court at 2:30 p.m. via video conference. The judge released Nelson on a $25,000 personal appearance bond, meaning she'll owe that much money if she misses her next court appearance on September 13th.

A charge of Child Neglect Resulting in Death is a class D felony. The defendant could face up to $100,000 in fines, and/or up to 25 years in prison.
http://www.wkow.com/global/story.asp?s=12985577

Mauston mother waives hearing
By Brian D. Bridgeford, Capital Newspapers | Posted: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 8:42 am | (0) Comments

A Mauston woman whom police say negligently caused her child's death in an overheated camper took steps toward trial during a hearing last week.

Brandie L. Nelson, 20, appeared in Sauk County Circuit Court on Sept. 22 on a felony count of child neglect resulting in death. The charge stems from an incident during July's MDA Freedom Ride in Sauk Prairie.

Nelson waived her right to a preliminary hearing, at which the prosecutor would've had to convince a judge there is enough evidence to justify a trial. With that hearing waived, the judge ruled there was probable cause to bind her over for trial.

Nelson stood mute to the charge during an arraignment moments later, and the judge entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, a routine defense procedure, records show.

According to an investigation by Sauk Prairie police, Nelson left her son, 16-month-old Tanner Lee Nelson, to sleep in an improvised camper at VFW Park in Prairie du Sac. She claimed an air conditioner was running and that she checked on him regularly between 11:30 a.m. and 2:40 p.m.

However, Assistant Sauk County District Attorney Kevin Calkins asserted the mother did not check on her son until she found him overheated and unresponsive about three hours after putting him down for a nap.

After an autopsy the pathologist said it was "extremely unlikely" the boy's body temperature could have risen from normal to more than 108 degrees in the 25 minutes the mother said lapsed between when she last checked on the boy and when she found him dead or dying.

If convicted, Nelson faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and $100,000 fines.

No further hearings nor a trial date had been scheduled as of Sept. 24. Nelson is free on a $25,000 signature bond.
http://www.wiscnews.com/saukprairieeagle/news/local/article_c0294414-cbcf-11df-bfb5-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.wiscnews.com/saukprairieeagle/search/?l=50&sd=desc&s=start_time&f=html&type=article&k=%23spe&q=brandie+nelson

will continue to search for her trial date - i can't understand why they can't look at a calendar and pick a date - it is felony neglect resulting in death - not some misdemeanor - a child is dead.

Mom found guilty in toddler’s death

February 19th 2011

BARABOO — A Mauston woman charged with felony negligence in the
death of her infant pleaded no contest Friday in Sauk County
Circuit Court.

Brandie L. Nelson, 21, was charged with neglecting a child
resulting in death after an incident July 17, during the weekend of
the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association motorcycle ride in Sauk
City.

According to the criminal complaint, Sauk Prairie police officers
were called to VFW Park in Prairie du Sac after a report of a child
who was without a pulse and not breathing. They found Nelson doing
chest compressions on her 16-month-old son, Tanner Nelson. He was
taken to Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced
dead, the complaint states.

Nelson said she regularly checked the child, who was sleeping in an
improvised trailer with an air conditioner.

A nurse at Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital reported Tanner’s
temperature was higher than the top 108-degree reading of the
thermometer when he was checked at the emergency room.

The pathologist who examined Tanner’s body said it was extremely
unlikely the child would be sleeping well and cool to the touch at
2:15 p.m., as Nelson claimed, then be found not breathing and hot
to the touch less than a half-hour later, the complaint
states.

Sentencing was set for April 20. She faces a maximum penalty of 25
years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_6ab1f9e4-3bdd-11e0-b48b-001cc4c002e0.html