Sorry in British Columbia, sits just north of the Canada United States border.

It was named after Sorry in England, and was incorporated in eighteen seventy nine, when it was little more than scattered farms, logging camps, and dense forest.

But as Vancouver's population exploded in the decades that followed, Surrey became the natural destination for family seeking more affordable housing and open space.

By twenty fourteen, it was home to nearly half a million people.

It had become a patchwork of neighborhoods, ranging from industrial zones to quiet suburban enclaves, where families sought the promise of safety and community.

South Surrey in particular had long been considered one of the more desirable areas, tree lined streets, worn and three gated communities where houses sat behind manicured lawns and tall fences.

The area around Crescent Road was especially quiet, a network of called the Sacks, where the only regular sounds were the hum of lawnmowers in the summer and the rustle of leaves in the autumn.

It was the kind of neighborhood where an unexpected knock on the door was unusual enough to be noteworthy, and on the morning of the tenth of December twenty fourteen, just after noon, Joan Cook heard that knock.

She opened up her front door to find a woman standing on her doorstep, a woman that she didn't recognize.

The woman's breath stank of alcohol.

Her words came out frantic, disjointed, tumbling over each other in a way that made it hard to understand what she was saying.

She said she had crashed her car.

She said her baby was dead.

She said to call nine one one.

Within minutes, emergency vehicles descended on the quiet called the sack.

Neighbors emerged from their homes, standing on porches and peering through windows, trying to understand what was happening.

On their straight Officers approached the vehicles stuck in the ditch at the end of the street.

The trunk was open, and what they found inside was worse than anybody could have ever imagined.

In the autumn of twenty and fourteen, eight year old Tagan Aaron Batstone was a third grader at Rosemary Heights Elementary School in Surrey, British Columbia.

Her teachers and classmates new as a girl who seemed to radiate kindness, the kind of child who made friendship look effortless.

Those who knew Tagan described her as possessing an uncanny gift.

She had this remarkable ability to make everyone she met feel better about themselves.

Tagan had been born in white Rock, British Columbia, on the twenty seventh of June two thousand and six.

White Rock was a seaside city just south of Surrey, known for its long pair and the massive white boulder that gave the town its name.

For the first years of her life, she lived with both her parents, Lisa and Gabe Batstone.

Her father, Gabe, was the CEO of a Vancouver based tech company, a position that required frequent travel and long hours.

It was the kind of job that meant early flights, late nights, conference calls from hotel rooms, and weeks away from home.

Her mother, Lisa, worked for some time as a whale trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium, but by two thousand and eight, when Tagan was just two years old, the march had fractured.

Lisa gave divorce two years later in two thousand and ten.

The separation carved Hagan's childhood into two distant geographies.

Her primary home was with her mother in South Surrey, in a gated community.

It was the type of neighborhood where people waved at each other from driveways but rarely knew what went on behind closed doors.

Neighbors would later remember Lisa as super friendly and Tagan as a child who was always playing outside with her friends.

She rode her bike, she played games.

She was by all appearances, a happy child, and indeed Lisa seemed to be adapted well to being a single mother.

On a photography website, she wrote that love was being a single mom nearly twenty four to seven and loving every single second, even the freaking exhausting ones he he taken is worth it.

By the post, it seemed as though Lisa was embracing the chaos of parenthood.

In another post on her social media she wrote, I love being a step at home mom and take but Tagan's life extended far beyond British Columbia's borders.

Four times a year she would board a plane bown for Ottawa, where her father had relocated after the divorce.

There waiting for her were two brothers, an eight year old stepbrother and a two year old half brother.

Gbe had remarried, and his new wife, Stephanie, embraced Tagan as fully as her own children.

The blended family dynamic could have been complicated, but by all the counts it wasn't.

Tagan adored her brother's and they adored her.

During those Autoa visits, Taken blended in seamlessly, as if she had always been there.

She played with her brother, and she helped with the baby.

She attended their school events and sat at the dinner table, and became, for those precious weeks, a constant presence in their lives.

Her father would recall that she was a big sister in every sense of the word.

There had been communication problems between Cabe and Lisa, however, the kind that crept in after divorce, when two people who once shared a life now shared only a daughter and the logistics that came with her.

They enlisted the help of Vancouver based family counselor Michael Elderman.

Gabe later said that he was pivotal in creating a strategy for meaningful communication that included emails once a week to discuss plans and childcare.

Back in Sorry, Taken, through herself, went to life with the same enthusiasm that she brought to everything.

She loved to play tennis, she performed gymnastics, and she loved to run.

She and her mother, Lisa, were familiar faces at White Rock Baptist Church.

Pastor Fey Puddikumbe described Hagan as an affectionate, vivacious little girl, loved by everyone who knew her, the kind of child who sat attentively during services.

She participated in Sunday school.

She loved her dog, bat and her cap beans.

In December twenty fourteen, just a few weeks before Christmas, Gabe had traveled to Surrey to spend a few days with his daughter.

The city would have been decorated for the holidays by then, light strung across storefronts, wraiths hanging on doors, the kind of season when everything feels hopeful.

On the eighth of December, Gabe took his daughter taken to school.

It was a routine morning breakfast, getting dressed, the drive through familiar streets.

It stopped at the dentist appointment first, that made their way to Rosemary Heights Elementary.

Gabe walk taken to her classroom.

He later said, I remember the steps down the hallway holding her hand.

Of course, she always loved to hold hands.

It was such a small detail, the kind of thing apparent might not even notice in the moment.

Just another morning, Just another walked on a school hallway.

But it was the last time.

Gabe then returned to Ottawa, back across the country, to his other children, to his work, to his life over there.

He had no way of knowing those would be his last moments with his daughter.

Taken.

After Gabe arrived back in Ottawa, he received a text message from Lisa.

It read, it seems you rather I just disappear.

He didn't think it was out of the ordinary.

Gabe and Lisa had a contentious relationship, and cryptic, passive, aggressive messages had become part of that pattern.

It was the kind of text that could mean everything or nothing, depending on her mood that day.

So Gabe filed it away mentally and moved on with his evening.

The next morning, just after four am, Gabe received an email from Lisa.

The timestamp alone was unusual, four am on a school day.

It said that Tagan had the flu and wouldn't be going to school, and Gabe had no reason to doubt that children got sick.

But somewhere across the country, in the darkness of that early December morning, something had already gone terribly wrong.

Around four hours later, Pastor David Hogan at White Rock Baptist Church received a strange email from Lisa Batstone.

It read Jackie is evil and she killed us.

It's too late now I'm broken.

He knew exactly who she was referring to.

A Few months earlier, Lisa and another church member, Jacqueline Joseph, had a falling out.

They had been scheduled to host a new life group, wherein members of the church gathered to study the Bible, but something had fractured between the two women, and Jacqueline got off contact with Lisa.

Lisa didn't let it go.

She continued to text her messages that grew increasingly hateful and nasty.

The kind of messages the cross lines.

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Pastor Hogan was made aware of the falling out when Jacqueline showed him the messages.

She said that she didn't feel comfortable around Lisa anymore.

The pastor decided it would be best if Lisa didn't attend the group.

He was trying to keep the peace, to put some distance between the women, but Lisa didn't take that decision well.

She texted when John ages, I pray he doesn't have to experience what Tagan is from adults at this church, it was pointed and bitter, a mother wielding her child as proof of injury.

After that, Lisa Intagan stopped attending church altogether.

But now Pastor Hogan was staring at the strange email from Lisa.

Jackie is evil and she killed us.

It's too late now I'm broken, He later recalled.

It had a tone of finality to it, so we became concerned for Tagan's well being, and he had every right to be concerned.

Shortly thereafter, a woman living in a quiet called the sack Off Crescent Road heard a knock on her front door.

It was late morning on the tenth of December two thousand and fourteen.

John Cook opened the door to see a woman she didn't recognize standing on her doorstep.

The woman's stank of alcohol.

Her words came out frantic and disjointed.

She said she had crashed her car, that her baby was dead, and to call nine one one.

Joan didn't hesitate.

She called.

Within minutes, emergency vehicles descended on the quiet street.

Constable Elizabeth Cuckerran was the first officer to arrive.

She saw the vehicle immediately, a car with its back half stuck in a ditch at an awkward angle, as if some one had lost control or given up trying to drive it properly.

The trunk was open.

She approached cautiously, the way officers are trained to do so when a scene doesn't make sense.

Yet, as she got closer, she saw movement inside the trunk.

Lisa was lying in there, curled up around something.

It was taken, but taken was clearly dead.

She hadn't died in the car accident either.

There was no blood, no obvious injuries, no sign of trauma from the crash.

She looked almost peaceful, as if she were her small body still, her face calm.

It was the kind of image that would stay with the officer long after the scene was processed and documented.

Lisa was ordered out of the trunk and was placed into handcuffs.

She stank of alcohol, her movements were unsteady.

The officer told her that she was under arrest for impaired driving.

Trying to make sense of what she was seeing, a crashed car, a dead child, a mother who smelled like a bar at closing time, she then called for backup, knowing this was already far beyond a simple traffic accident, but before more officers arrived, before the scene could be secured and investigated, Lisa blurted out, I murdered her seeking Batstone's body was transported to the medical examiner's office.

The autopsy would reveal what Constable Cocheran had suspected at the scene, that Tagan hadn't died in any car accident.

It was discovered that she had been smothered to death.

There were bruises over her body that indicated she had struggled for her life, and it was already clear who had killed her.

Her mother, Lisa started talking at Peace Arch Hospital, where she had been transported following the car crash.

The words poured out of our waves, unprompted and unstoppable.

She kept repeating, I just want to die, please, there's nothing to live for.

Lisa spoke with several psychiatrists when she was there, each conversation adding another piece to the horrifying puzzle.

She said that she and Tagan had been having a campout in the living room the night before.

It was supposed to be fun, sleeping bags on the floor or maybe snacks, the kind of thing that children begged their parents to do.

Lisa said that she kept waking up throughout the night.

She said, taking looks so peaceful sleeping, and I just wanted her to be with Jesus.

She said that she grabbed a knife and held it over her daughter as she slept, but she said she couldn't bring the knife down on her.

Something stopped her.

Whether it was love or fear or the last shred of conscience, no one would ever know.

Instead, Lisa said she got a plastic bag and then held it over Takan's face.

Lisa said she had killed her daughter to protect her from her father, but she also said she had killed her because she didn't want her daughter to have her brain to inherit.

Whatever darkness Lisa believed lived inside her own mind, according to Lisia, she planned on taking her own life so that she could die with her daughter.

She said she tried to suffocate herself by wrapping two plastic bags around her head and securing them with duct tape, but she couldn't go through with it.

The survival instinct apparently was stronger than her resolve.

She claimed she planned on dropping her dog off at a sitter and then going somewhere to take her own life, but she got the car stuck in a ditch and a stranger opened their door, and suddenly police were there, and it was too late to finish what she'd started.

On several occasions, Lisa mumbled, you win, Gabe.

The words were chilling in their implication that this had been at least in part about Gabe, about hurting him in the most devastating way imaginable.

After some time at the hospital, Lisa was transported to the police station.

She was taken into the interrogation room, where her confession continued.

The detectives asked her what she had used to some mother her daughter.

She replied a bag before she fell out of her chair and curled into the fetal position on the floor, crying.

After some time, she explained further, I just grabbed the bag from under the cupboard.

I needed the pain to end.

She said that Tagan looked so beautiful and peaceful, before adding I just didn't want her to have to live with what I have to live with.

Lisa Bathstone was charged with the second degree murder of Tagan.

She didn't say a word when she appeared in court, but she was crying.

Her defense attorney Craig's Sout requested a psychiatric assessment.

He said, it's a very serious concern.

Miss Batstone's mental state is very fragile.

Without an assurance that she's fit to stand trial, this can't proceed any further.

It was soon discovered that Lisa had struggled with her men health since she was a teenager.

The problems weren't new, they had been there for years.

Looking beneath the surface of the cheerful social media posts, and the friendly waves to neighbors.

She was involuntarily hospitalized in twenty twelve after she attempted to take her own life.

Taken temporarily went to live with her father, Gabe, in Ottawa, but once Lisa was released, Taken was sent back to live with her.

Gabe was worried.

He didn't think that Lisa was capable of looking after Taking, he worried about her safety.

He tried to get custody of his daughter, but his request was declined, so the court sent Taken back to Surrey, back to the gated community, back to her mother.

After Lisa was arrested, detectives executed a search warrant at her home.

They came across four letters that offered an insight into her state of mind.

They had been clearly written after Taken was killed.

In those rs between the smothering and the knock on Joan Cook's door, one read I can't believe I took my daughter's life.

Another part read I deserve to go to jail or institution plus death penalty.

Another was found on top of a garbage can, which read I'm so sorry.

Two others were discovered attached to a closet door.

One read you win, Gabe, the other you broke me.

One of the letters read that Lisa had suffered relentless mental and emotional abuse.

She also complained about how Gabe was putting Tagan first.

Daily, she continued writing, I tried because Tagan deserved better.

I just couldn't imagine leaving here and leaving her to Hymn.

I loved her to the moon and back, and now she's in no pain.

The letters painted a picture of a woman who believed she was simultaneously a victim and a savior, someone who had convinced herself that killing her daughter was an act of love of protection, that taking Tagan's life was somehow better than letting her live it.

The news of the tragic discovery and the arrest of Lisa spread rapidly through Surrey and beyond.

People were stunned.

The gated community where Lisa and Tagan had lived was quiet, in the way that neighborhoods get when something unspeakable happens behind one of their doors.

One local woman, who has not to be named, said, Lisa has always been a loving, devoted mother to her daughter.

Everyone who knows Lisa is so shocked because she was a single mom whose life revolved around Taken in every way.

It was the refrain that would echo through the community in the days to come.

People couldn't reconcile the Lisa they knew, the super friendly neighbor, the woman who posted enthusiastically about loving motherhood with the woman now standing accused of killing her own daughter.

Tigan's father, Gabe, was obviously distraught across the country in Ottawa, he was processing the unthinkable.

He posted on Twitter, life will never be the same after losing my daughter to murder, Our family courts and thus we all failed.

He said that he wasn't able to talk about his daughter without sobbing.

He also posted photographs of Taken and a link to a video he had made six months earlier.

It was a photo slideshow, a collection of moments from her short life.

One photo contained the caption Taken will not be me, she will be better than me.

Gabe made the video for an international campaign called Girls twenty under the title Father's Impowering Daughters.

The campaign was created to encourage g twenty leaders to invest in girls and women now.

The video stood as a haunting testament to a future that would never arrive Gabe spoke with the media and said he hadn't yet told the boys about Taking's death.

His sons didn't know yet that their sister wasn't ever coming to visit again.

He said that Grave councilors were going to help him deliver the news.

He also asked for privacy, but said he hoped to speak more publicly about Taking in the future.

He said, I don't want her to ever be forgotten, and the next day Gabe spoke further.

He called for law reform when it came to custody cases.

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On the eighteenth of December, hundreds of people gathered for a memorial for Taking at White Rock Baptist Church.

Pastor alis Andre addressed the congregation and said, to be clear, this is a celebration of life, pink, white, and purple balloons sat alongside matching arrangements of flowers.

They sat at the front of the church, surrounding frame photographs of Taken, images of a smiling girl with her whole life ahead of her frozen noine time.

People stood before a microphone and shared fond memories of Taken.

Pastor Putticumb said the first thing Tagan did when she got to church was run and give certain people hugs.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the recipients of those amazing hugs.

The children's program coordinator at the church, Lisa Strue, said Tagan was an absolute delight and she blessed our livesin His maternal grandfather, Barry Hamilton, was there, along with the number of her classmates.

Barry later said that his daughter was so remorseful and so sorry for what had happened.

He said that Tagan was his daughter's only reason for being.

He said, everyone that knew Taken and new Lisa knows that she was probably the best mother in the world and this never ever would have happened if she had been in the right frame of mind.

According to Barry, bipolar disorder ran in the family.

He said that he had been visiting his daughter in jail and that he loved her unconditionally.

She was a good mom.

He said.

The words were complicated and painful, a father defending his daughter even as his granddaughter lay dead.

It was the kind of situation where love and horror existed in the same place, where family loyalty collided with unspeakable tragedy.

A few days later, it was announced that Lisa had received a full psychiatric assessment and was confident to stand trial.

Her defense attorney said he was content with the finding.

Lisa was ordered to remain held at a psychiatric hospital.

Her father, Barry, commented, she needs to be in an environment where she can build up her strength and confidence.

Her defense attorney remarked that Lisa was suffering from severe depression.

The case continued to move through the court slowly.

Months past seasons changed.

The first anniversary of Tagan's death approached.

Before that one year mark arrived, gab and his family established a national nonprofit advocacy organization.

They named it Tagan's Voice, and it was focused on driving policy and procedural changes across federal and provincial boundaries to prevent violence against children.

Gabe said he was pushing the federal government to appoint a national Children's Advocate whose focus was on the well being of children, not the financial aspect of childcare.

He said he also wanted to see children have legal representation in custody cases, their own lawyers, their own voices, independent of their parents' battles.

He felt that Tagan had been let down by the courts when they returned her to her mother's care after her suicide attempt.

It was the kind of change that came too late for taking, but perhaps Gabe hoped it wouldn't be too late for someone else's daughter.

The murder trial began on the fourteenth of November twenty to eighteen, nearly four years after Takan's death, four years of legal maneuvering, psychiatric assessments and a father waiting for answers, four years of a community trying to make sense of senseless The courtroom was filled with family members and friends.

Members of White Rock Baptist Church were there as well, a show of support that spoke to the complicated nature of the case.

Faiputticum was now retired as a pastor, but she said we're here to support her.

I think it's important that people know that it was a statement that would sit uncomfortably with some supporting a woman accused of murdering her child, But for those who knew Lisa before that December morning, the woman in the courtroom seemed like a stranger wearing a familiar face.

During opening statements, Prosecutor Fatima Negetale led out the central question whether Lisa had intended to kill her daughter.

She stated miss Batstone made a decision to kill her daughter.

It was the prosecution's belief that Lisa had killed Tagan despite Gabe, not out of love, not out of protection, not because of mental illness, out of a desire to hurt him in the most devastating way imaginable, to take away the purse and he loved the most.

The courtroom got to hear about Lisa's behavior in the lead up to the murder, including her falling out with Jacqueline Joseph at the church.

The defense said that Lisa felt as though she had been let down and ostracized by the church.

This only added fuel to her mental health problems.

They said she was spiraling, isolated, unraveling, and no one had seen it.

In time.

The court got to hear Lisa's comments after her arrest, wherein she confessed to killing her daughter.

One psychiatrist testified she said she had killed Tagan despite her ex husband.

They also got to see the four letters that were discovered in the home.

You win Gabe, you broke me.

Each won a piece of evidence, suggesting that this was as much about him as it was Tagan.

The prosecution then called on Gabe.

It was the first time he had seen Lisa since Teagan's death, the first time they had been together in the same room in four years.

He didn't look at his ex wife as he took to the witness stand.

He testified about the loving relationship he had with his daughter.

He described the sometimes acrimonious and combative communication and costaly battle between him and Lisa.

He spoke about the weekly emails they had, the structured communication that was supposed to keep things civil, but he said that in the lead up to Tagan's murder, Lisa was bombarding him with texts, phone calls, and emails.

He said they were sent at such a rate that it would have been impossible to reply to all of them.

Lisa's defense questioned Gabe on the type of language he used with Lisa, especially after she tried to take her own life.

In twenty twelve, defense attorney Tony Passiana asked if he told Lisa she had abandoned taken by trying to kill herself.

He also asked Gabe if he had ever mocked Lisa's intelligence.

Gabbe said he couldn't recall, before adding, I think she took opportunities to make my life more difficult.

He said he had noticed changes in Lisa's tone in the month's leading up to take It's murder.

Something was off, something was building.

It was revealed during trial that while Lisa had been very open and described in detail what she had done to take in that night while in the hospital, when she was interviewed by forensic psychiatrist Jeannette Smith in February and May of two thousand and fifteen, she seemingly couldn't remember.

Doctor Smith said to the court she maintained that she had no recollection of smothering her daughter, no or little memory of the actual offense.

She said that this raised red flags for her around the reliability of Lisa's statements during their interviews.

She told the court that Lisa was likely unable to know that her actions were morally wrong, but it was apparent that she knew they were legally wrong.

In other words, Lisa understood she would face consequences, She just didn't believe in her mind that what she had done was morally wrong.

In later interviews, Lisa had said that she heard a voice telling her you have to save her, you have to protect her.

However, Lisa never mentioned this voice during early interviews.

It wasn't until the next year that she claimed she heard a voice.

Another contradiction came when Lisa told the doctor that she didn't hold any anger towards Gabe, yet when she was first arrested, she kept blaming Gabe for what had happened.

She said, you win, Gabe, over and over again.

The suggestion was clear Lisa had killed Tagan to get back at Gabe, but later decided to try for an insanity defense to claim she heard voices and had no recollection of the murder, to reframe her actions as something she couldn't control, couldn't remember, couldn't be healthfully accountable for.

Prosecutor Macpherson said Lisa's hallucination was perhaps directed at giving the impression to the assessing forensic psychiatrist that she had been psychotically ill at the time of the offense, and therefore eligible for a finding of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder.

In other words, the voices might have been invented, the memory loss might have been strategic, and if that was true, then Lisa Batstone had killed her daughter with full awareness of what she was doing and had spent years trying to construct a defense that would absolve her of responsibility.

After that, the defense began their case.

Yes.

Lisa's defense team said that her level of intoxication may have limited her ability to gauge the consequences of killing Taken.

They said that, combined with borderline personality trades, significant levels of depression and a cloud of stressors, these factors raised thoughts that Lisa had the intent to kill.

The defense also suggested that Lisa had acted in an altruistic motive, in a distorted belief that she was saving or protecting Taken.

It was the mercy killing argument that a mother, however misguided, however ill, believed that she was doing the right thing.

On the seventh of December twenty fourteen, three days before Taken was killed, Lisa had brought a three liter box of wine and six mixed drinks please find the empty box of wine when they searched her home on the tenth.

However, the defense admitted they didn't know how much alcohol she had drunk before killing her dog.

They couldn't say if she had consumed it that night or over several days.

The uncertainty was part of their argument that the exact state of Lisa's intoxication remained unknown.

That was their entire case.

During closing arguments, they said that Lisa fell asleep after killing Taken, and that she had memory problems, both consistent with excessive alcohol consumption, a blackout, perhaps a woman so intoxicated she couldn't form the intent necessary for murder.

The prosecution fought back.

They said that Lisa intended to kill Taken and had done it to Spike Gabe.

The letters proved it, The hospital statements proved it.

You win, Gabe, The words of a woman who knew exactly what she was doing, and why.

The judge ultimately found Lisa Badstone guilty of second degree murder.

In announcing the verdict, she said, the whole of the evidence points to only one inference, when the accused smothered her daughter, whatever the motive, the only possible inference is that her intent was to end Tacan's life.

It was deliberate, it was purposeful, and it was murder.

Lisa returned to court on the twelfth of June twenty nineteen for the sentencing phase.

She was facing an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least ten years.

The question was how many years beyond that minimum the judge would impose anywhere from ten to twenty five years before Lisa could even apply for parole.

Gabe stood before the court.

He tearfully said that a happy, empathetic, sensitive and loving child was taken away from the world for no reason.

He said the worst part was seeing the impact on Tagan's two brothers, who now lived with profound grief.

He said, the first questions that they asked shortly after her murder and many times since, offer a glimpse into their shattered innocence and raw emotional pain.

Why is my sister in the ground when other kids have sisters at school?

Is Tagan's mommy going to kill me too?

Those questions were devastating children trying to make sense of something that made absolutely no sense.

A little boy wondering if he was next.

His wife, Stephanie, said that her oldest son had lost his ability to be a child because Lisa took his sister, his best friend, and his childhood.

Lisa was given the opportunity to speak.

She read from a prepared statement and said, I would give anything to go back and change what happened that day.

She cried as she said she woke up each morning to an excruciating nightmare, and I don't know what happened.

She apologized to Tagan's father, stepmother, brothers, and all who knew and loved her.

She then said said Tagan loved all of you, and I know you loved her.

I'm so very sorry.

The words hung in the courtroom.

For some, they may have seemed genuine.

For others, they came far too late.

Lisa Batstone was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fifteen years.

In announcing the sentence, the judge said the killing was intentional, It involved choices and decisions, It involved effort.

Miss Batstone's actions were purposeful and goal directed.

She never wavered from that goal.

The judge also said that although Lisa was suffering from depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder.

Her mental issues did not significantly diminish her moral culpability, she said.

Tagan relied on her mother.

She trusted her more than anyone for good reason.

Her mother took care of her.

Her mother was her safety net.

Her mother was her protect her until the end.

That a parent could kill their own child rocks the foundation of societal values.

When it's for a selfish reason, as it was here, it's all the more shocking.

The message was clear.

Mental illness might explain, but it did an excuse.

Lisa had made a choice.

She had held that plastic bag over her daughter's face and held it there until she stopped struggling.

In the end, Lisa Batstone would serve a life sentence, but it would be much less than fifteen years.

On the first of January twenty twenty four, just over four years into her sentence, Lisa was found dead in prison.

The cause of death was never disclosed, but one can only assume it was suicide.

The same escape she had attempted that December morning in two thousand and fourteen, finally completed behind prison walls.

Gabe said afterwards that a significant burden had been lifted with her death.

He said, we no longer faced the daunting prospect of her potential release, an event that would have posed an undeniable risk to other innocent children.

The safety of our family and community from a convicted child murderer is now assured, bringing a substantial relief amidstar enduring grief.

There was no victory in her death, no celebration, just the cold certainty that the woman who killed Tagan would never walk free, would never have the chance to harm another child.

Well that is it for this episode of Morbidology.

As always, thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to say a massive thank you to my new supporters up on patroon Bean Karen, Angie, Gwen and Sarah.

The link to patron is in the show notes if you'd like to join.

And I upload Adfrey in early release episodes behind the scenes, and I also send out some merch along with a thank you card.

I also do bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus that aren't on the regular podcast platforms, and these are also available over on Apple subscriptions for those who like to listen there.

Remember to check us out at morbidology dot com for more information about this episode and to read some true crime articles.

Until next time, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.

Tump