A Startling Confession Was Made- The Story of Olivia Stripling

WARNING: The details of this case that are discussed within this video may be very explicit.  
The material contained in this video is intended for educational purposes.    


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Transcript

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Welcome or welcome back, and thanks for being here. I'm Cassie and this is a Wicked World. If you haven't checked out a Wicked World on Patreon yet, and you want to have access to over 50 exclusive videos with new ones being added each month, then make sure you check out the link in the description box below. Now the story I have for you today is one about a little girl who died shortly after her babysitter picked her up from her mother. Yet no arrest would be made in connection with her death until over a year later. This is the story of Olivia Stripling. Olivia Lynn Stripling was born on October 27, 2019, to her mother, Cody Ann Lyon, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The little girl was said to be happy, sweet, and bright, and she also had four older siblings. It's unclear whether Olivia's mother Cody actually had a job or not, but nonetheless, starting in April of 2021, she hired a woman named Melissa Bradley to begin watching Olivia. According to the new sitter Melissa, the first time that she watched the little girl, she would end up calling Child Protective Services. This was because she noticed that Olivia had multiple bruises on her face and body. She also had bite marks on her and a huge bulge on her head. Every time Melissa saw the little girl after that, she just looked worse and worse. So the babysitter had begun documenting all of Olivia's injuries, and then she would send them over to Child Protective Services. However, the caseworker that Melissa had sent these photos to would never follow back up with her. But according to Child Protective Services, they had looked into the case. Olivia was taken to the emergency room where doctors checked her over. However, there was no signs of trauma found. Therefore, Child Services had closed at the case, stating that there was no signs of abuse or neglect. Melissa said that she also contacted police in regards to Olivia's injuries, but they also did not follow up with her. After that, she didn't know where to go. She was lost on what to do to further try to protect little Olivia. Additionally, there were allegations made of Olivia being SAID while in her mother's care. Shortly after the babysitter contacted Child Services, Olivia's mother Cody found out that she had done so. As soon as she realized that Melissa had been the one who reported her, she called her out on social media saying, Melissa Bradley, I'm calling you out. Make sure you get the right info when you say my baby's being touched. Now, when Melissa had confronted the mother about why Olivia had all these injuries on her body, she had been given a number of different excuses, including that the girl's older brother had been playing with her too rough and had hurt her. But this wasn't the first time that child services had been called on Cody. They had been called in regards to her children in the past as well. Back in 2011, Cody had been arrested and a case was opened against her. After she'd been caught driving recklessly with one of her daughters in the car. She was later convicted in relation to this incident, however, just on a charge of resisting arrest. Cody's defense was that a friend of hers had her child taken away when she had been pulled over, so she feared that the same thing would happen to her. But instead of cooperating with authorities to make sure that didn't happen, she resisted, making the situation much worse. Makes sense. Her children had not been taken away following this. They would, however, be taken away from Cody years later in 2017, after she was arrested for having meth and other drugs in the home with her three children. They would, however, later be returned back to her. Then in January of 2021, child services were called yet again. This was just a few months before Melissa had called and reported Olivia's injuries. The January report stated that Olivia and her siblings were in a home with very poor living conditions. And at that time, for whatever senseless reason, Cody's other children were removed from her custody, but Olivia was not. There was additionally a social media post from 2013 that was written by one of Cody's friends in which she says that Cody was not capable of properly supporting her kids. She then threatened to call CPS on her. And just looking at Cody's various social media accounts and posts, it seems pretty clear that she was not fit to be a mother. Now, regardless of Cody calling out the babysitter Melissa for reporting her to child services, the mother still apparently needed someone to watch 21-month-old Olivia. So on August 7th, 2021, she once again called Melissa. The babysitter agreed to watch the little girl, and she headed to Cody's apartment on Bluebird Court in Portage, Michigan. The plan was for Melissa to pick up Olivia, then drive her back to her place in order to babysit her overnight. But when Melissa arrived at Cody's apartment, she noticed that Olivia's head was swollen. Very swollen. The little girl was lying in bed with her mother Cody, and she was still sleeping. Then on the car ride back to Melissa's place, she would notice that Olivia didn't want to eat any of the food that she'd been offered. Just moments after Melissa arrived back at her place with the toddler, less than 30 minutes after she had picked her up from Cody's, Olivia fell to the floor and began having a seizure. Then she fell unconscious, so Melissa immediately called 911. When paramedics arrived at the apartment, they found the babysitter performing CPR on the little girl. Olivia would then be rushed to a hospital and placed on life support. However, she would die the following day, on August 8th, 2021, after suffering a significant skull fracture that led to brain bleed. Her death would later be ruled as a homicide. But there would not be any arrests made in connection with her death for quite some time. It wasn't until over a year later, in December of 2022, that her mother, Cody Lyon, would be arrested and charged with second-degree murder and CA. She was held on a measly $50,000 bond. According to state police, it had taken them so long to make an arrest because they had to wait on additional follow-up and lab analysis. But that seems like a ridiculously long time to wait for all that. Especially since the little girl's mother had already previously told investigators that it was her who had accidentally kicked Olivia when the little girl had crawled up in her bed while Cody was trying to sleep. Olivia had then fallen off the bed and hit her head on an end table. And even though the mother said that it was just an accident, Cody also admitted that she was frustrated from a lack of sleep due to being up for days on a bender using methamphetamine. And she was upset that the kids just would not let her sleep. Because you know they're kids and they need things. Weird, huh? Detectives had also interviewed Cody's boyfriend at the time, who said that Cody had admitted to him that she kicked her daughter. Then, Cody's older daughter would tell authorities that her mother often got angry with the kids. And she felt like it was mostly the drugs that made her so frequently do so. Now, in the time that Cody was free, between the time that Olivia had died in August of 2021 and the time that she was arrested in December of 2022, she had been actively posting on her Facebook page, talking about how much she loved and missed her daughter and wanted justice for her. During this year and a half where she was still a free woman, Cody also had time to get a new boyfriend. Then, just a few months before her arrest in October, she had put up a post on her social media asking if anyone knew of a good criminal defense attorney who was willing to take on a case that was going to go national pro bono. So she knew something was coming. Speaking publicly, Melissa's babysitter would say, CPS obviously did not do their job. It's messed up. I lost someone I considered my daughter. In January of 2024, just four days before her case was set to go to trial, 32-year-old Cody Lyon pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in connection with Olivia's death. A few weeks later, she was sentenced to serve between 22 months and 15 years in prison, with credit for her 430 days already served. This pathetic sentence is even though a judge had previously said in court about Olivia, this child was not killed in one day. This child was treated savagely and brutally based on the injuries I've seen. And also despite an officer at the Sheriff's Department saying, in all of my years of public service, which has been a long time, I would just like the court to know this is probably one of the most heinous scenes I've been on. To see what had been done to that child. This is a story that will haunt us for a long time. I can assure you of that. But apparently the judge thought that just 22 months to 15 years was appropriate. When Cody was given a chance to speak at her sentencing, she didn't specifically address any remorse surrounding her daughter's death, but she said that it was a blessing for her to get locked up so she could clean up her life. Then in December of 2024, just months later, Cody was paroled, so she's once again a free woman. She does have a long list of conditions that she is to follow, including that she can't leave the state, she must maintain a job, she can't own any weapons or firearms, and she will be tested for drugs and alcohol. However, come December of 2026, Cody will be free from all these terms and conditions of her parole. Here's yet another case where the child did not get justice. Olivia's mother barely served any time behind bars for killing her daughter. And while I understand that her death was not intentional, Cody still kicked her daughter hard enough to make her fall off the bed. What kind of mother does that? Not to mention that this little girl had clearly been going through months of mistreatment prior to her untimely death. And now Cody is free again and can go on to have more babies if she'd like. So if you like true crime and you want to hear it from me, then don't forget to hit that subscribe button below. And turn on your notifications too, so you'll know when I upload a new video, which is at least three times every single week. Thanks for watching a wicked world today. Until next time, take care guys. Bye. Thank you to all the patrons of a wicked world. Now there's even more of a wicked world on Patreon. So check it out on patreon.com/slash a wicked world. Or use the Patreon app. You'll have access to exclusive videos each month and more. Any support truly helps to make sure the victims are never forgotten and to highlight the shortcomings of society associated with each case. Do you have a suggestion for a story you'd like to see me cover? If so, send me an email to a wicked world true crime at gmail.com.