The Crucified Toddler

Raised in the rough neighborhood of Pacific Heights, the young boys had been exposed to several robberies and muggings. Their father remarked that the brothers had already bore witness to “all the nasty stuff the city offers.” “Bobby” and “Billy” were raised by their single father, who was enrolled as a vocational school student. The boys grew up with minimal supervision and were often walking the streets of the city alone. Their father had given them a bus pass so they could visit their mother, who lived across town. And these cross-city bus treks were always without any adult supervision.  

The boys were close and spent a lot of time playing and exploring together. On that fateful afternoon in April, the brothers found themselves at the park to play on the swings and in the baseball field. This is when the two stumbled upon Noah, who was wandering alone. According to “Bobby” (only 10 years old at the time), the brothers asked Noah where his mother was. Noah was unable to communicate with them, so the two decided to take him by the hand and ask the other adults in the park if they knew him or his mother. No one claimed him or shared any information as to where his mother might be.

After several failed attempts to get help from the adults at the park, “Billy” and “Bobby” decided they wanted to play and took their new companion to a fort area they frequently played in. Only a block and a half away from the park, this “fort” was a dirty, unkempt, abandoned basement littered with broken chairs, glass bottles, and discarded mattresses. Baby Noah, unfamiliar with these surroundings and apprehensive in such a dark space, began to cry.

The brothers desperately tried to stop Noah’s sobbing but became aggravated by the incessant noise. “Bobby,” amidst his anger, began slapping Noah. “Billy,” a young boy of 7, joined his brother and the two continued to beat Noah. It would later be discovered that slapping was not the only means of violence inflicted on Noah in this “fort,” rather little Noah’s cause of death noted a ruptured liver and internal bleeding. It turns out, the young boys repeatedly jumped up and down on him and eventually hit Noah on the head with a brick. This brick assault sliced open his head, exposing his skull.  

“I think the most disturbing visual memory I have is seeing a bruised baby, and it wasn’t moving. That was the one thing that I’ve tried real hard not to remember, but that’s the visual I get.” 

After the beating, Noah was moved to a makeshift wooden cross on the floor, where his hands and feet were restrained and tied. He was also stripped of his clothing, as he had wet his diaper. “Bobby” later told police that it was his Christian knowledge and naïve belief that the baby could be resurrected if put on a cross: “The only thing I could think of [was] I really didn’t mean to do this, I didn’t want this to happen,” he said in his interview. “I don’t remember being very religious, but I felt like [putting the baby on a cross] was the only thing to do…I wanted the baby back alive. I wasn’t absolutely sure it was dead, but it wasn’t moving, and it was bruised. So, I put it in a cross formation, and I hoped.”

Meanwhile, San Francisco police searched for Noah for five days. They, along with Noah’s family and loved ones, scoured the city for this little boy. It wasn’t until an eyewitness came forward describing three boys, one of which held a baseball glove. Once police went public with this eyewitness account, a local schoolteacher revealed that one of her students frequently wore a baseball glove matching the eyewitness’s description.

Following this tip, police were led to the brothers. Detective Dan Driscoll asked “Billy,” “if you were a policeman, where would you look?” To which “Billy” replied saying he would look in an alley. “Billy” would consequently lead police to an alley and walk them through a basement door. It was in this basement that Detective Driscoll found little Noah’s unclothed body shoved in a corner, tied to a cross, covered in paper and debris, with his bloody shirt laying next to him. After the police discovered Noah’s body, the two boys confessed and Melanie would be asked to identify her son’s mutilated corpse.

Noah’s case led to a divided public opinion. The idea of charging a 7 and 10-year-old with homicide was a challenging idea for some to grasp. Many believed that the brothers were not vicious, only victims of their circumstances. San Francisco homicide detective John Fotinos publicly remarked, “[Kids] need supervision, period, and apparently, these guys ran amok, and it’s not their fault, really, I think it would be criminal to [incarcerate] a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old…We don’t even do that to animals for crying out loud.”

Juvenile Court Judge Francis W. Mayer, a former chief deputy district attorney, imposed a gag order on the case just a few days after Noah’s body was found. As a result, “Billy” and “Bobby” were fiercely protected in the media and their names were never made public. Even Noah’s distraught mother, Melanie, did not know the true identities of these boys.

“Bobby,” the eldest at just 10-years-old, was placed in a juvenile detention facility for two months following his confession. A judge eventually dropped the murder charges against the brothers in favor of therapy. The judge also ordered that the two be placed in foster care outside of the Bay Area, where they could receive two years of extensive counseling and psychotherapy before being returned to their mother.

“Bobby” has gone on to live a quiet, responsible life with a family of his own. “Billy,” on the other hand, has struggled with substance abuse and has twice been convicted of physically abusing children, including his own 3-month-old son.