The Tragic Case of Candace Newmaker

2023-01-05 01:50:27 Written by Nikki Youni

Beautiful little 10-year-old Candace Elizabeth Newmaker had a difficult childhood right from the beginning. She came from a family that not only struggled with poverty but she and her siblings would be taken away from their parents due to neglect. Everything was supposed to get better when she was adopted by a woman named Jeane Elizabeth Newmaker. But according to Jeane, Candace wasn’t the child she thought she was adopting. She claimed Candace was defiant and mischievous and completely distant from her. Instead of getting her any kind of real help, Jeane thought the new mother and daughter would best be connected through a rebirthing ceremony. Only the ceremony didn’t go as planned, and 10-year-old Candace wouldn’t walk out of it alive.

 

Before she was Candace Elizabeth Newmaker, she was actually named Candace Tiara Elmore. She was born on November 19th, 1989 to her parents Ngela and Todd Elmore in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Unfortunately, her parents were extremely neglectful and abusive towards her and her siblings. She would have experienced a lot of pain and violence in her early formative years, so as you can imagine she carried a lot of trauma with her. When she was five years old, her parents lost custody of her and her siblings so they were all sent to live at a foster home. Over the course of the next year, she would be bounced around from foster home to foster home until she was finally adopted at six years old by a single woman named Jeane Elizabeth Newmaker.

 

Jeane was working as a pediatric nurse at the time of the adoption and was unmarried. She wanted a child to love and to love her back. Candace seemed like she would be the perfect fit in Jeane’s life, with her curly brown, big blue eyes and adorable freckles. When the adoption was finalized, Jeane changed Candace’s full name from “Candace Tiara Elmore” to “Candance Elizabeth Newmaker”, meaning Candace would take both Jeane’s middle and last name.

 

Unfortunately, it seems as if Jeane had a completely different idea of what things were going to be like. She envisioned the whole process being a happy occasion that would leave her feeling fulfilled. However, she didn’t take into account the fact that she was adopting a little girl who had experienced violence and trauma for the majority of her short life. She had been ripped away from her siblings, who she used to rely on for emotional support, and she has been bounced around from home to come with absolutely no continuity,

 

Candace had a difficult time adjusting to her new home. She appeared to be angry just about all of the time. She would break things and throw things. She refused to hug or show affection towards her new adopted mother.

 

Jeane would note a few specific situations that finally brought her to her breaking point. She claimed that over the years Candace would show abusive behaviour towards other children. She also said that started a fire in the family home — and that she had killed their pet goldfish. Jeane would take her to see several different doctors and psychologists who would prescribe different therapy treatments and medications, but according to Jeane none of this seemed to make any difference. It should be noted here, that none of Candace’s teachers, neighbours or family friends would say that they witnessed the same behavior out of Candace. That’s not to say that it didn’t happen — she may have only been like that at home with her mother.

 

In 1996, when Candace was seven, she was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with Reactive Attachment Disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, “reactive attachment disorder is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn’t establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers. Reactive attachment disorder may develop if the child’s basic needs for comfort, affection and nurturing aren’t met and loving, caring, stable attachments with others are not established.”

 

Some of the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder are behaviour problems, fear and sadness, and failure to seek comfort or support from others.

 

It’s not far-fetched to see why Candace would get this kind of diagnosis, even if it is a rare condition. There is proof that she grew up in a household where she was neglected. She didn’t have her basic needs met — and beyond that, she was physically abused by parents that were supposed to love her. This is probably a common diagnosis among kids who grow up in foster care. They need therapy and help trusting other people and building those foundations when new caregivers.

 

Even though adoptive mom Jeane was a nurse and would have been somewhat familiar with the kinds of resources she could access to help Candace, she decided to look into a bizarre and controversial type of therapy.

 

Technically it’s a kind of “attachment therapy”, but according to psychologytoday.com, there are legitimate forms of attachment-based therapy that actually work to strengthen the bond and connection between people. However, they should not be confused with the kind of therapy that Jeane wanted to try, which is unconventional and harmful — and has since been rejected by mainstream psychology. Jeane wanted to try what is known as a “re-birthing” ceremony. And I cannot understand how anyone would think this is a good idea.

 

She would attend a national attachment therapy conference in Washinton, D.C. While she was there, she met an Attachment Therapist. She was hoping that he would take her on as a patient because he was widely known for his treatment programs. She filled out a questionnaire at his booth, checking off the boxes of all of the issues her newly adopted daughter was having. While Bill Goble labelled Candace’s symptoms as being fairly severe, he didn’t have any availability in his schedule so he referred Jeane and Candace to two other therapists located in Colorado.

 

In 2000, Jeane made plans to visit the therapists in Colorado who specialized in something called “rebirthing”. They claimed that it was a form of attachment therapy — but again, as I mentioned PsychologyToday says that most medical professionals are completely against it and think it’s abusive. Jeane would have to pay $7,000 to have Candace attend this treatment located over 1,000 miles away from where they lived. She really thought this was the solution to her problems with connecting with Candace, so she loaded her daughter in the car and they travelled across the country for a rebirthing ceremony.

 

Candace would be seen and treated by two supposed attachment therapists, Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder. Watkins was unlicensed at the time while Julie was a licensed marriage and family therapist from California — but she was not licensed in the state she was practicing. There would be several other people who would assist with the ceremony, but none of them were licensed. The only licensed individual in the whole room of people performing this treatment was Julie Ponder. They would operate their practice out of the basement of Connell Watkin’s home.

 

According to Jeane, the first week of Candace’s unorthodox treatment went well and it appeared like her daughter was getting better. All of the sessions so far had been building up to the rebirthing ceremony that was going to culminate the whole treatment. But it would end in tragedy.

 

On April 8, 2000, Candace was going to experience her re-birthing ceremony. The whole thing would be recorded on videotape, that so that Jeane and Candace could watch it later if they wanted to. The idea of the rebirthing ceremony is to mentally bring the person back to when they were actually born into this world through their birth mother. This is supposedly achieved by putting the patient into a situation that mimics birth — this means they feel the tight space and squeeze that simulates going through the birth canal. It makes the patient feel almost helpless and when they finally break free of the womb they are supposed to attach themselves to their new mother. If it sounds strange to you — it sounds strange to me too, you’re not alone.

 

Connell Watkins, the unlicensed therapist, along with two other adults then walk into the room and basically put the weight of their bodies on her. They tell Candace to “fight to live”, to squirm her way out of this cocoon they have her in. Her adoptive mother Jeane is watching nearby as all of this is done to Candace. She doesn’t intervene at any time. It isn’t long into the rebirthing ceremony that Candace becomes distressed. She cries and says that she can’t do it and she can’t breathe. She tells the adults lying on top of her that she feels like she is going to throw up. But the adults just yell back that she needs to escape on her own, that she needs to fight to live because she’s not a quitter.

 

This carries on for a full 70 minutes as Candace is very slowly smothered and squished to death. She would vomit and defecate while being held down inside that sheet. Near the end of the ceremony, she becomes very quiet except for a few quiet whimpers — and then absolutely no sounds come from her for 20 minutes as the adults continue to lie on top of her.

Eventually, they take notice that Candace is no longer moving or making any sounds. It is Julie Ponder who unwraps her and finds that she has no pulse. She begins to perform CPR on the child as her adoptive mother Jeane finally runs over screaming, “She’s dead!” Someone on the video yells out to call 911 and the video ends.

 

Candace Newmaker would be airlifted to the hospital, but ultimately would pass away the following morning. Her cause of death was asphyxiation — and her slow and agonizing murder was all captured on video. This disturbing video would be played for the courts later and as you can imagine it was very difficult for the jury to watch.

 

As a mother, it’s really difficult for me to imagine putting my child through something like this. I can understand how a mother might feel like they are at their witts end as they need professional help — but these children are clearly in pain, and mentally and physically violating them like this is not going to make them a better person.

 

Connell Watkins was charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death. Therapist Julie Ponder, who was the only licensed professional in the room and yet did nothing to stop this — was also charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death. The pair received 16-year prison sentences. Every bit of evidence that was needed to secure a conviction was right there in the video they recorded themselves. There were two other unnamed individuals who were seen in the video participating in the ceremony by holding pillows down on top of Candace — they were given 10 years probation for criminally negligent child abuse.

 

As for Jeane Newmarker, the adoptive mother who was supposed to give this traumatized child a better life, she was charged with negligent child abuse leading to death. She was given a four-year suspended sentence, and eventually, the charges were expunged from her record.

 

I truly don’t believe that Jeane meant to harm her daughter. She was struggling with Candace’s severe behavioural issues — issues that really should be expected from a child who has experienced so much trauma in their life. She was so much at a loss of what to do that she paid $7,000 for this controversial therapy treatment and travelled across the country to do it. She’s not innocent though — not by a long shot. She was a registered nurse, so even if she wasn’t familiar with psychological treatments, she should have known that wrapping a child tightly in a blanket, putting pillows on top of her and then having four adults use their body weight to hold the child down is dangerous and could result in death.

And yet — she was convinced by these two therapists that they had a treatment that was going to work. Of course, rebirthing is not recognized at all by mental healthcare professionals — but the two women who were in charge of the ceremony told her of the other five previous successful sessions they had with clients. What they failed to mention is those other give rebirthing ceremonies only lasted around six minutes long, while Candace’s lasted a whole 70 minutes before anyone realized anything was wrong.

 

Just about the only good thing to come out of this was a new law in Colorado and North Carolina, called “Candace’s Law” — where they have banned these dangerous re-birthing ceremonies. There have also been similar laws passed in other states so that other children just like Candace do not have to go through this barbaric treatment. But attachment therapy and rebirthing ceremonies are still practiced throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world.

 

There were so many people who failed Candace, starting with her parents who didn’t pull it together and give this little girl a safe and secure environment to thrive in. The foster system failed her because she was pulled away from her siblings and bounced from house to house. Her adoptive mother Jeane Newmaker failed her by not addressing her trauma in a safe and effective manner. Every single adult in that room while Candace was slowly being suffocated completely failed her. And then ultimately, the system failed her — because they didn’t provide adequate support and oversight in ensuring Candace went to a safe and nurturing home.

 

This never should have happened to Candace. She was not a bad or difficult child. She was a traumatized child that needed real help from professionals and a loving home to thrive in. Not another single person should ever have to experience what she did in her short time on earth.