REMEMBERING ANAKIN

Anakin Leroy-Michael Wiest was only 59 days old.

He had not even been given two full months of life.

Anakin was born small, weighing approximately six pounds.

During the weeks that followed, he should have been gaining weight and growing stronger.

Instead, the opposite happened.

Anakin became smaller.

By the time he died, he weighed less than he had when he was born.

He was an infant entirely dependent upon the adults around him for every basic need.

He could not prepare a bottle.

He could not find water.

He could not tell someone that he was hungry.

He could only cry and depend upon someone to respond.

Anakin died because his most basic needs for food and hydration were not met.

ANAKIN’S STORY

Anakin lived with his mother, Brittany Marie Wiest, in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Brittany’s boyfriend, Michael Withers, was also living in the home. Contemporary police reporting specifically noted that Michael was not Anakin’s biological father.

During the first weeks of Anakin’s life, he failed to gain the weight a growing infant should.

Instead, his weight fell.

Anakin had been born weighing around six pounds.

Over the course of only 59 days, he dropped to less than five pounds.

On the morning of April 8, 2014, Brittany and Michael found Anakin unresponsive in the apartment.

Michael called 911.

When emergency responders arrived, Anakin was already dead.

His severely underweight condition was immediately apparent.

But investigators could not determine the full circumstances of his death that morning.

Brittany told police that she did not know what had happened to her baby.

Investigators waited for medical and forensic testing.

The autopsy eventually provided the answer.

Anakin had died from starvation and dehydration.

His death was ruled a homicide.

Investigators spent months building the criminal case.

Nearly ten months after Anakin died, the case was presented to a Rutherford County grand jury.

Brittany was indicted and arrested in February 2015.

She was charged with felony murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect.

SYSTEM FAILURES

Anakin’s death did not occur in a family completely unknown to child welfare authorities.

Before Anakin was born, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services had already received concerns involving Brittany and the welfare of her older daughter.

That child was two years old by the time Brittany was arrested following Anakin’s death and was in state custody.

The prior involvement raises serious questions because Anakin was born into a family in which child welfare concerns had already been reported.

However, the surviving public record does not clearly establish what the Department of Children’s Services knew about Anakin specifically during his 59 days of life, whether workers had seen him, or whether an active case involving him existed before his death.

What is clear is that a newborn baby deteriorated dramatically during those 59 days.

He went from approximately six pounds at birth to less than five pounds at death.

By the time authorities saw Anakin, it was too late.

WARNING SIGNS

For a newborn infant, weight gain is an important indication that basic nutritional needs are being met.

Anakin did not gain weight.

He lost it.

In less than two months, he fell below his already small birth weight.

The process of starvation and dehydration that ultimately killed him did not occur in a single moment.

His body was deteriorating.

At 59 days old, Anakin could not understand why his needs were not being met.

He could not seek medical care.

He could not tell another adult what was happening inside his home.

His shrinking body was the warning sign.

He needed someone to see it and act before there was no time left.

JUSTICE FOR ANAKIN

Anakin died on April 8, 2014, but Brittany Wiest was not immediately arrested.

Police waited for the results of the autopsy, toxicology testing and additional forensic investigation.

After investigators determined that Anakin had died from starvation and dehydration and his death was classified as a homicide, the case was presented to a Rutherford County grand jury.

In February 2015, Brittany was indicted and arrested.

She was charged with felony murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect.

The surviving publicly accessible reporting I have been able to verify documents those charges, but not a reliable final conviction, acquittal, dismissal or sentence.

For that reason, Abuse Angels will not present an unresolved charge as though it were a conviction.

Brittany Marie Wiest

Relationship to Anakin: Mother

Charges: Felony murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect

Final outcome: Not sufficiently verified for inclusion

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Fifty nine days.

That was all the time Anakin Leroy-Michael Wiest was given.

There should have been thousands more.

There should have been a first smile.

A first tooth.

A first birthday.

First steps.

First words.

School pictures.

Friends.

A childhood.

Instead, Anakin became smaller during the weeks when he should have been growing.

By the end of his life, this tiny baby weighed less than he had when he entered the world.

Starvation and dehydration are clinical words.

Behind them was a baby experiencing hunger and thirst without the ability to understand why no one was meeting his needs.

Anakin deserved to be fed when he was hungry.

He deserved comfort when he cried.

He deserved medical attention when he failed to grow.

He deserved to become bigger and stronger with every passing month.

Most of all, he deserved far more than 59 days.

Abuse Angels remembers Anakin Leroy-Michael Wiest.

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.