A former babysitter has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the 2019 death of a man she injured as a baby in 1984.
Terry McKirchy, 62, accepted a plea deal for the death of Benjamin Dowling, who passed away at age 35. Dowling had severe disabilities from a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 1984 when he was just five months old while under McKirchy’s care in her Fort Lauderdale home. Investigators believe McKirchy caused the injury by shaking him.
In a letter of apology read to Dowling’s parents by her attorney, assistant public defender David Fry, McKirchy expressed remorse for the injury she inflicted. She explained that she was overwhelmed and exhausted from caring for multiple children and struck Dowling, leading to his injuries.
McKirchy, who now resides in Sugar Land, Texas, was indicted for first-degree murder by a Broward County grand jury three years ago. This followed an autopsy that determined Dowling’s death resulted from injuries sustained decades earlier. Dowling never crawled, walked, spoke, or fed himself throughout his life. McKirchy turned herself into Broward County Jail on May 29 after being free on $100,000 bail since her indictment.
This plea deal is not McKirchy’s first encounter with legal consequences related to Dowling’s injuries. In 1985, she received a significantly lighter sentence after pleading no contest to attempted murder. At that time, she was six months pregnant and facing 12 to 17 years in prison. Instead, she was sentenced to weekend jail time until she gave birth, then was placed on probation for three years.
McKirchy maintained her innocence during that earlier case, stating that she accepted the plea deal to focus on her family and move past the case. “I know I didn’t do it. My conscience is clear,” she said at the time. “But I can’t deal with it anymore.”
Prosecutors described the previous sentence as “therapeutic,” though they did not elaborate. Ryal Gaudiosi, McKirchy’s public defender at the time, deemed the sentence “fair under the circumstances.” Gaudiosi passed away in 2009.
Benjamin Dowling was born on January 13, 1984, to Rae and Joe Dowling, who had hired McKirchy, then 22, to babysit him while they worked. Rae Dowling noticed on July 3, 1984, that Benjamin was limp and had clenched fists when she picked him up. She rushed him to the hospital, where doctors determined he had suffered a brain hemorrhage from severe shaking. McKirchy was arrested shortly after.
The Dowlings were shocked when prosecutors informed them of McKirchy’s plea deal minutes before a court hearing in 1985. Benjamin never achieved basic developmental milestones and required multiple surgeries, including having metal rods placed in his spine. He received nutrition through a feeding tube and attended special schools. The Dowlings continued to support him throughout his life, moving to Florida’s Gulf Coast in the late 1990s. Benjamin died at their home on September 16, 2019.
The Dowlings shared in a 2021 statement that Benjamin never fully understood his family’s love and was unable to communicate his feelings. “Benjamin did smile when he was around his family, although he could never verbalize anything. We believe he knew who we were and that we were working hard to help him.”
Shaken baby syndrome, a term that emerged in the 1970s, explains sudden infant deaths with no visible abuse signs. It is diagnosed based on symptoms like brain swelling, bleeding on the brain’s surface, and retinal bleeding. However, recent research has shown that these symptoms can also result from genetic issues, diseases, and accidents. Since 2000, 29 shaken baby convictions have been overturned, according to the University of Michigan’s National Registry of Exonerations.
The American Academy of Pediatrics now uses the term “abusive head trauma” and estimates that about 1 in 3,000 babies under one year old are abused by shaking annually, with a quarter of those cases resulting in death. The Academy advises doctors to look for signs of possible shaking, such as bruising on the torso, ears, neck, and any bruising in infants younger than four months.
