Babysitter Wanted To Silence Her Daughter’s Crying | Harper Rose Briar Case

Today I got the report from DCF and just their findings from the daycare on the day that Harper died. And when you read about what happened to your child and like someone else hurting them, just reading that, I mean, really really broke my heart.

This poor mother lost her six-month-old daughter, Harper. While she thought she was safe in the care of a 52-year-old nanny, Stacy, Marissa thought she had taken the right decision for Harper, but she had no way of knowing that Harper’s third day at that daycare was going to be her last. What seemed like a sudden medical emergency at first would soon become a chilling homicide investigation, turning January 24th into the worst day of Harper’s family’s lives.

Hi, my name is Christine. This is one of the most heartbreaking child care cases to come out of Vermont. Harper Rose Brier was just 6 months old, a baby who should have been safe, loved, and protected while her parents were at work. Instead, on only her third day at a home daycare in Rutland, Vermont, Harper lost her life.

This is not a story being told for shock value. It is the story of a family’s trust, a little girl whose life was far too short, and the criminal case that followed her death. I’ll tell Harper’s story with the utmost care and respect because someone else’s tragedy should never be used as entertainment. Marissa and Blake Brier were high school sweethearts who had always promised each other they would be together forever.

Years later, they built a life together. Blake worked as a solar installer at Capefar Energy Systems, and together they were already raising their firstborn son, who was eagerly waiting to become a big brother. Marissa’s baby shower was filled with family, friends, and the excitement of welcoming their very own little princess. The celebration was princess themed from start to finish, from the tiaras and decorations to the carefully decorated cakes. By then, their home was already filled with baby pink and white clothes, tiny outfits waiting for the daughter they had dreamed of meeting. Then on July 24th, 2018, Marissa and Blake welcomed their daughter, Harper Rose Brier, into the world.

Harper was only 6 months old, but she was already stepping into that bright, fleeting stage when a baby seems to discover something new every day. She had started crawling, had learned to hold her bottle by herself, and had gotten her first tiny tooth—small milestones that, to her family, become enormous ones. Harper shared a special bond with her big brother. Despite being so young, he was already fiercely protective of his little sister. The two loved spending time together and playing, and in his eyes, Harper was someone to look after. He was proud to be her big brother. She was still at the age of soft naps, warm bottles, little hands reaching for familiar faces, and the kind of laughter that can turn an ordinary room into a memory. All of her clothes, blankets, and bottles were pink. Even at such a young age, she already had her favorite color. She would always be dressed in the prettiest clothes with polka dots, tulle skirts, and bows. And playing with her brother and their furry friend was the time she enjoyed the most.

“A no more kisses,”

Harper was the kind of baby who needed closeness with her mom to settle down. Harper couldn’t fall asleep without her mother’s hand patting her gently, sometimes for so long that her mother’s arms went numb from holding her. Comfort for Harper wasn’t a routine. It was her mother’s touch. By January 2019, Marissa and Blake faced a decision countless new parents know all too well. Someone needed to watch their baby during the workday. They selected a local in-home child care program run by Stacy Vealoncourt from her house on North Street in Rutland, Vermont. She was no stranger advertising herself online. She was a state-licensed provider with roughly 25 years of experience behind her. Harper began attending the daycare in January 2019.

Two days at the daycare had passed and they were hard on Harper. The little one was still learning how to let go of her parents. For Marissa and Blake, those first drop-offs probably started to feel like the tough but normal adjustment so many parents go through when they leave their baby with a caregiver for the first time.

Harper first attended Stacy’s daycare on January 22nd, 2019. When Marissa picked her up that afternoon, Harper appeared normal, perhaps a little tired. The next day, January 23rd, Harper again came home tired, fussier than usual, and more exhausted than normal. She slept for more than an hour after arriving home, then did not sleep that night at all. Her parents took turns holding her through the night because Harper would wake whenever they tried to put her down. Marissa had sent everything Harper would need: diapers, wipes, brand new bottles, unopened formula, baby food, clothes, and a pediatrician-prescribed bottle of Tylenol for teething discomfort. There was no diphenhydramine among the supplies Harper’s mother brought.

But now came the third day, and tragically, it would become Harper’s final day. Thursday, January 24th, 2019 began like any other daycare morning for Marissa and Blake. It was another morning of doing what parents have to do, getting their 6-month-old daughter ready, packing what she needed, and placing their trust in someone else for a few hours. Harper was only 6 months old. She was still a baby who needed bottles, naps, warmth, and the familiar comfort of the people who loved her most. According to her parents, Harper was healthy when she was dropped off that morning at Stacy’s home daycare in Rutland, Vermont. It was only Harper’s third day there. There was no reason to think this drop-off would be any different from the previous two days—no reason to imagine that this would become the final time Harper’s parents saw her alive.

Inside the house, Stacy was the only person working in the daycare area that day. Her adult son and his fiancée were also at the home, but they were sick with food poisoning and had remained apart from the children. Later that morning, Stacy’s son briefly entered the daycare area to make sure everything was okay. He would later say the house appeared quiet. He did not speak with his mother. He saw nothing that struck him as wrong, so he assumed the children were asleep. But in cases like this, silence can be misleading. A quiet house does not always mean a safe house.

At some point that afternoon, Stacy fed Harper what she later described as the baby’s second bottle of the day. The bottle had been supplied by Harper’s parents. Afterward, Stacy placed Harper down for a nap in a crib with a blanket, and she claimed that she checked on Harper several times during her nap. She also said that Harper seemed to be breathing a little bit heavy and kept pulling the blanket upward. For a six-month-old baby, those words now carry a terrible weight because Harper was not simply taking a nap—she was struggling. And as the hours passed, her parents had no idea that their daughter was living her final moments. Her parents were living an ordinary afternoon, believing their little girl was being watched over.

Then, at around 3:00 p.m., Stacy found Harper unresponsive in her crib. Suddenly, the quiet house became chaos. Stacy screamed for help and pounded on her son’s bedroom door. She told him Harper was not breathing. She said she had attempted CPR but could not find a pulse. Her son, who was studying to become a nurse, laid Harper on her back and began CPR himself. He asked his fiancée to call 911 immediately. In that very moment, every second mattered. Harper had no detectable pulse. She was not breathing. Stacy’s son later described blue discoloration around Harper’s mouth and nose, a sign that her body had been deprived of oxygen. Somewhere in that panic, a call went out for emergency help.

First responders arrived and took over the fight to save Harper’s life. CPR continued. Harper was rushed by ambulance to Rutland Regional Medical Center while the people around her tried to reverse what had already become a catastrophic medical emergency. Meanwhile, Harper’s mother received a phone call no parent is ever prepared for: something was wrong with her baby. Marissa immediately called the daycare, but it was not Stacy who answered the call. Instead, an EMT picked up the phone and told Marissa that Harper was having trouble breathing and was rushed to Regional Medical Center. Marissa called Blake and told him to get to the hospital.

By the time Harper’s parents arrived at the medical center, Harper was already taken to the emergency ward. Harper was described in court records as “really pale.” Doctors and nurses surrounded her. CPR was still being performed. There was only a hospital room, a team of medical professionals, a baby who was not breathing, and two parents watching the world they knew disappear in real time. At 4:04 p.m., the medical team stopped resuscitation efforts, and unfortunately, Harper Rose Brier was pronounced dead. She was 6 months old.

At first, Harper’s death may have looked like an unexplained tragedy, but the questions began almost immediately. Harper had been healthy that morning. She had been in the care of an experienced daycare provider. There were no visible answers in that hospital room for why a six-month-old child had suddenly died. The answers would come later through toxicology, through an investigation that would reveal Harper had diphenhydramine in her system—a sedating antihistamine commonly known as Benadryl. But the question was, how did that get in her system? And who was responsible for all of this? What began as a nap at a trusted daycare was no longer being treated as an accident. It was becoming an active criminal investigation.

In the hours after Harper Rose Brier was pronounced dead, the case began to change. The question investigators now faced was terrifyingly simple: How had diphenhydramine gotten into a six-month-old baby’s body? Because the examination that followed found no obvious external trauma and no visible injury that could immediately explain why Harper had died.

Bundock says the autopsy showed no natural signs of death like a heart attack or a stroke, or traumatic signs of death like a fall or a head injury. Instead, the answer was hidden in toxicology. The medical examiner found diphenhydramine in Harper’s system, for which she had no prescription, and the concentration was not consistent with an ordinary therapeutic dose. Harper’s blood contained 670 nanograms of diphenhydramine per milliliter. For comparison, the opinion notes that a standard oral therapeutic dose produces an average peak blood concentration of about 81.8 nanograms per milliliter. That means Harper’s concentration was roughly eight times the average peak level associated with a standard therapeutic dose.

The drug was found not only in her blood, but in her stomach and urine. The medical examiner said the stomach finding showed that it had been taken by mouth and had not fully absorbed before she died. They could not determine the exact dose or exact time it was given, but concluded that at least one administration happened within the last few hours. Diphenhydramine, often sold under the name Benadryl, is an antihistamine designed to treat allergy symptoms. But it also has a powerful sedating effect on the brain. In infants, these physiological effects can escalate rapidly leading to severe respiratory distress, lethargy, impaired vital signs, and critical medical emergencies. Medical guidelines stress that such practices directly contravene established safe sleep protocols.

And suddenly, all attention turned to the person responsible for Harper during the crucial hours of that day: Stacy. Diphenhydramine is commonly found in medicine like Benadryl. Attorneys for Vealoncourt questioned evidence that she was the only one to administer the medication. Stacy had run a state-licensed home daycare in Rutland for decades. She had years of experience, an established program, and the kind of background that can make parents feel they are making the safest possible choice. At trial, she emphasized that she had operated the daycare for approximately 25 to 26 years and had never faced disciplinary action from childcare regulators. But experience was not an explanation. Stacy maintained that she had never given Harper anything other than the bottles and food supplied by the baby’s parents.

“We would enter a plea of not guilty to each of the counts,”

Stacy Vealoncourt pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to a child in the death of the six-month-old. She testified that Harper had difficulty falling asleep, but she denied giving her any medication, especially diphenhydramine. That denial became the center of the case. No bottle of Benadryl, no container of diphenhydramine, and no medication matching the toxicology result was recovered from Stacy’s daycare. The defense would later argue that this missing physical evidence left open the possibility that someone else had administered the drug before Harper arrived.

But the prosecution’s theory focused on access and timing. Harper’s parents and other caregivers denied giving her diphenhydramine. Harper was unable to medicate herself, and during the most critical part of the day, prosecutors argued she was in Stacy’s care. The Supreme Court also noted that Harper had been more tired than normal when she came home from daycare the day before she died. She took an unusually long nap after arriving home and then would not sleep that night.

During this time, another family would come forward with an allegation connected to the same daycare. Melanie McAtee said that after Harper’s death, she became concerned about her own infant son, Martin, who had also attended Stacy’s daycare. Harper’s family came up with the slogan that “babies don’t come with instructions, but medications do,” and it really just stuck with me. It was very upsetting for both me and my husband. The McAtee family says their son Martin, who was eight months old at the time, was also given the drug, but experienced only normal reactions such as drowsiness. McAtee was tested shortly after Brier’s death, where they found high doses of diphenhydramine in his system. A hair follicle toxicology test reportedly detected diphenhydramine in Martin’s hair. McAtee later filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Martin had been drugged without permission and that he suffered symptoms including unusual exhaustion, dizziness, impaired coordination, and headaches. Martin’s case is important to understand more about the person these parents trusted with their precious children.

Stacy was not criminally charged in connection with Martin. The civil lawsuit was later settled, and an allegation in a civil case is not the same as a criminal conviction. Still, the allegation gave Harper’s case a disturbing additional dimension. Harper may not have been the only child whose family questioned what had happened inside that daycare.

While the investigation moved forward, the Brier family faced the unbearable reality of planning a funeral for their six-month-old daughter. The ceremony was filled with photographs of Harper—tiny moments frozen in time, now displayed as heartbreaking reminders of the little girl she would never grow up to be. White flowers surrounded her, a final tribute to the angel. As her family gathered to say goodbye, the room was filled with grief for a child whose life had been far too brief. During the funeral, Marissa gave an emotional speech which genuinely broke my heart:

“We’ve thought of every what if, every situation that could have happened, everything that could have gone differently. We’ve cried, we’ve screamed, we felt pain we never knew was possible to feel. Our bodies hurt. Our hearts are shattered. For the rest of our lives, we will never get to hold you, kiss you, hug you. We would ask for just one more day. We have asked for just one more day. The thing is, one more day would never be enough. We thought we had eternity. We wish we could say we will be okay. But the truth is, we don’t think we could ever be okay. For now, we will wake up every day knowing that we are just one day closer to being with you again.”

Harper should have been growing into new milestones of her childhood. Instead, Marissa and Blake Brier had to say goodbye to their baby girl. Her obituary identified her as the infant daughter of Marissa Coburn and Blake Brier, who died on January 24th, 2019 at Rutland Regional Medical Center. No courtroom proceeding, lab report, or police interview can capture what that loss meant. Behind every later headline, every charge, hearing, and legal argument was a family forced to live with an absence that could not be replaced.

And as the toxicology findings pointed investigators toward a criminal explanation, the Briers faced another painful truth. Learning what happened to Harper was difficult enough—they were already devastated by the truth, but they had no idea that the pain of losing her would follow them for years inside a courtroom. Because getting justice for Harper would be anything but easy.

Nearly 5 years passed between the day Harper Rose died and the day Stacy faced the jury. For Marissa and Blake, those years were not simply a wait for court dates. They were years of birthdays Harper would never celebrate, holidays without her, family photographs with an empty space where a little girl should have been growing up. And through it all, there was one question: Would anyone be held accountable for what happened to their daughter? And will their daughter ever get justice?

In late November 2023, inside Rutland Superior Court, the state of Vermont put Stacy on trial again. She faced two charges: involuntary manslaughter with criminal negligence and cruelty to a child, resulting in death. The prosecution’s case was not built around a confession. There was no video showing the moment Harper was given the drug, and investigators never recovered a bottle of Benadryl or another medication containing diphenhydramine from Stacy’s daycare. Instead, the case rested on medical science, timing, access, and the conclusion that a healthy six-month-old child could not have medicated herself.

The state’s message to the jury was direct. Harper had arrived at daycare healthy. Hours later, she was unresponsive. Toxicology showed a dangerous level of diphenhydramine in her body, and prosecutors argued that the person with the opportunity to give it to her was the woman paid to keep her safe. But the defense fought back just as forcefully. Stacy’s attorneys argued that the state had no direct proof that she gave Harper any medication. They emphasized that no diphenhydramine-containing medicine was recovered from the daycare. They also argued that the evidence did not prove exactly how the drug had entered Harper’s system. During this time, Stacy’s son also gave his statement about what happened that day:

“I immediately jumped into action and began performing infant CPR. I brought Harper in… and I had her set down on the floor and I began performing chest compressions with rescue breaths in order to try and help get her back to a stable cardiac rhythm and provide some respiratory assistance. I had asked my fiancée Carrie Lawler to immediately call for the EMTs so we could get immediate medical attention here because we were going to need help with this.”

Harper’s mom gave her victim statement before hearing the final verdict:

“I truly hope my words here today are heard and that finally Miss Vealoncourt is held accountable for what she has done and what she has taken, and that my daughter Harper Rose Brier can finally rest in peace.”

And finally, after all that, Stacy took the stand in her own defense. Stacy described herself as an experienced child care provider. She admitted that Harper had trouble settling down to sleep, but she denied sedating her. After closing arguments, the jury deliberated for approximately 4 hours. And as the verdict approached, the Brier family could only hope that after everything they had endured, the courtroom would finally deliver justice for Harper.

Harper’s family would return to court to speak about everything they had lost. Stacy’s lawyers would ask the judge for leniency, and the court would have to decide how much time the woman responsible for Harper’s death would spend behind bars. But even after a conviction, the fight for justice was not over. On March 12th, 2024, more than 5 years after Harper Rose Brier died, her family returned to Rutland Superior Court for sentencing.

They had already heard a jury find Stacy guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but a guilty verdict does not close a wound. It does not give parents back the baby they carried, held, fed, and loved. Inside the courtroom, Harper’s family spoke about what her death had done to them. Her maternal grandmother, Brenda Coburn, described the devastating effect on Harper’s mother, Marissa:

“You know, all I kept telling myself was I needed to be strong for my daughter and her fiancée at the time because they needed that strength. They needed me to be there and be strong for them.”

Harper, Marissa, and Blake had been living with Brenda in Pittsford since Harper’s birth. This was not a distant loss; it happened inside the heart of a close family home. Blake Brier told the court that losing Harper brought on depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Marissa described living with anxiety, depression, PTSD, panic attacks, nightmares, and insomnia. Marissa and Blake were still fighting for justice for their child. Because when a child is taken from you, you don’t simply move on. You keep fighting, hoping that one day the person responsible for ending your child’s life will be held accountable. Marissa shared her pain of going through the reports from DCF which described what exactly happened to her that day, and it’s one of the hardest videos to watch being a parent:

“So, um, I don’t normally do this, but felt like it’s really important for um me to talk about this with everybody. Um, today I got um the report from DCF um and just their findings um from the daycare on the day that um Harper died. And for any parent who has lost a child um, when you read about what um what happened to your child and like someone else hurting them… I haven’t fully been able to read through um every detail of the affidavit just because at the time um I just couldn’t stomach it. And um a lot of things in this report kind of gave um details of how she found Harper, um her details of their day. And um, honestly, um I’ve I’ve kind of blocked a lot of that day out ’cause it’s too hard to think about. Um so um just reading that, I mean, really really broke my heart. And I don’t like to, you know, go on and make videos of myself crying, um but I also think it’s really important um for people to see, you know, that yeah, I’m not as strong as I look all the time. You know, just ’cause I don’t go on and show people this every day or go on and beg for people’s sympathy… um doesn’t mean I don’t hurt. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think about it. It’s just something I like to do on my personal time ’cause it’s personal, you know? It’s my loss and I like to deal with it with my husband by ourselves. Um, hi baby. So, I’m just really hoping that things start to move forward with this case and that Harper can get justice.”

Harper’s aunt, Alexia Coburn, said the family had not simply lost Harper; they had lost the version of their family that existed before her death. She said:

“I didn’t just lose Harper. I lost my sister, my mother, my father, and my brothers.”

That is what a sentence cannot repair. Before January 24th, 2019, Harper’s family had ordinary routines, plans, and a future centered on a baby girl who was only beginning her life. Afterward, there were police reports, toxicology results, hearings, court dates, grief, and an absence that followed them into every birthday and holiday.

On December 1st, 2023, the courtroom waited for the verdict. Vealoncourt took the stand in her own defense, telling the jury that she didn’t give any over-the-counter medicine that day that caused the baby’s death. Now, the chief medical examiner determined that high levels of diphenhydramine, commonly found in over-the-counter medications like Benadryl, caused her death. Police searched Vealoncourt’s daycare and never found any empty bottles of it. Harper’s mother testified that they never gave their daughter over-the-counter medication. Vealoncourt said today the only thing she gave the baby girl was bottles of soy formula that Harper’s parents had packed for her. But in the end, prosecutors were able to prove that whatever caused the baby’s death happened in the care of Vealoncourt. Stacy Vealoncourt was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

For the Brier family, the verdict did not restore Harper. It did not erase the horror of January 24th, 2019. It did not return the ordinary future that had been taken from a six-month-old baby, but it was a legal acknowledgement of what they had spent years trying to make the system see. A jury had concluded that Harper’s death was not an unexplained tragedy. It was a crime.

The conviction brought the case to its next stage: sentencing. The family asked the judge for the maximum sentence. The defense asked for home confinement or parole, citing Stacy’s lack of criminal history, years as a daycare provider, and medical concerns. Judge Courtland Corsones imposed a concurrent prison sentence of 3 to 10 years. The defense also asked the court to delay Stacy’s incarceration because she had upcoming surgeries. The request was denied. Judge Corsones ruled that the Department of Corrections was responsible for providing any necessary medical care while she was in custody.

As Stacy was led from the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy, Harper’s family and friends, many wearing black and dark pink, quietly cheered. It was not happiness; it was the release of more than 5 years of waiting for someone to be held accountable.

The conviction was not the final legal step. Stacy appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient, that the convictions were inconsistent, and that the court should not have allowed videos of Harper into evidence. In May 2025, the Vermont Supreme Court rejected those arguments and upheld both convictions. The court found there was enough evidence for the jury to conclude that Stacy Vealoncourt administered diphenhydramine to Harper and caused her death. The criminal case was finally settled.

A former child care provider convicted of providing a fatal dose of medicine to a six-month-old will stay behind bars. Last year, Stacy Vealoncourt was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of manslaughter and child cruelty in Harper Rose Brier’s death. Her lawyers appealed and argued the state’s evidence had significant gaps and some of it was unfair and emotionally charged. However, the Supreme Court denied her appeal this morning, saying there was sufficient evidence to convict her and no issues with the evidence or the verdicts.

In a statement, Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan says:

“I hope today’s decision brings closure and a sense of justice to everyone who loved Harper during her all too brief life.”

But even after justice was finally served, her family said it came far too late and that no punishment could ever be enough to make up for the unimaginable torture inflicted upon the baby. The room was filled with loved ones of six-month-old Harper Rose, and many of those loved ones have been waiting for a long time—5 years since the incident happened back in 2019.

“We don’t have to fight anymore to get Harper Rose justice. We will love her endlessly and cherish the best moments that we have with her until we see her again.”

An emotional day for loved ones of six-month-old Harper Rose Brier wearing pink in the courtroom Tuesday. The infant was in the care of Stacy Vealoncourt for three days at her in-home child care center in 2019.

“Real justice would have been Harper in school playing with her friends, having birthday parties with her family. Nothing we could do in the criminal justice system could achieve that real and true justice for her and for her family.”

While the weight is lifted for loved ones of Harper, they say the emotional toll of a years-long court proceeding was difficult. No justice will ever be enough to bring our baby girl back from heaven. The fact that she tortured Harper’s family by not taking accountability and tormenting us for over 5 years tells you all you need to know what kind of person she is.

Even Harper’s grandfather came forward to spread awareness for other parents.

“My son called my wife and said that we lost our princess.”

Larry Brier is a retired Marine from Camp Lejeune. Brier says Blake and Marissa moved to Vermont right before she gave birth on July 24th, 2018. Six months later, they started looking for child care. Brier says they took Harper Rose to Stacy Vealoncourt’s home daycare, and on the third day, they got this text: “Baby not breathing, go straight to the hospital.” Harper died that day at 6 months old. 2 months later, Brier says they found out why: Harper was given a high dose of Benadryl.

“As a parent, we can’t fix this,”

he says, but he will fight for justice.

“Strict guidelines for every single state, you know? I mean, if I could talk to the president or someone like that, I mean, just to show them how important this is. Since 2017, I found 22 cases. I don’t want to see another child die from this.”

Harper’s family was not finished making sure her name was heard. After Harper died, her family created the “Justice for Harper Rose” community presence. The page became a place to share case updates, honor Harper, and keep public attention on the fight for accountability. After the conviction, the family acknowledged a painful truth: the court had done what it could, but no verdict could create real justice for a family that had lost a child.

Their advocacy later grew into the Harper Rose Brier Foundation. The foundation focuses on child safety and awareness about the dangers of using medication to make children sleep. Harper’s grandmother has spoken publicly against the belief that it is acceptable to give babies Benadryl as a sleep aid.

The family also pursued accountability beyond the criminal prosecution. Harper’s parents and her estate alleged that Vermont’s Department for Children and Families failed to properly investigate earlier complaints involving the daycare. In 2024, the state agreed to pay Harper’s estate $195,000 to resolve the lawsuit without admitting wrongdoing.

Harper was 6 months old. She should have grown up surrounded by her parents, grandparents, siblings, and family. She should have had birthdays, school photographs, friendships, and a future. Instead, her family has had to find ways to carry her with them. On what would have been Harper’s second birthday, they wore pink and shared a pink birthday cake with Harper’s little brother. It was a celebration of love and remembrance, but it was also a reminder of who should have been there. They released pink balloons into the sky and lit Chinese lanterns, watching them slowly rise into the darkness. It was their way of celebrating her life and a beautiful but heartbreaking tribute to the child they still missed every single day. If Harper were alive today, this is how her family imagines she might have looked: growing into a beautiful little girl, sharing her father’s smile and her mother’s eyes.