A toddler’s drowning, jailed baby sitter and grandmother’s hope

Shari Murphy loves her granddaughter, Briana Delbridge, but knows the 18-year-old is right where she needs to be.

“I’m her grandmother and I don’t want her to be in jail, but I know it can save her life,” said Murphy, a Centerville, Tenn., resident.

Delbridge has been jailed for almost two months now, accused of endangering a child after a 3-year-old boy she was supposed to be baby-sitting wandered off from his Hood County home and drowned in Lake Granbury.

She was also charged with possession of a controlled substance after a search of the home — where Delbridge had been staying — uncovered methamphetamine in her bedroom.

Murphy said her granddaughter has struggled with drug addiction since her early teens. But she said her granddaughter insists she was not under the influence of any drugs — but rather asleep — when Aaryan Thacker and his 2-year-old sister wandered away from home the morning of May 15.

“She said, ‘I’ve done drugs but not that day, Nana,’” Murphy said. “She said, ‘I didn’t do them that day, Nana. I wasn’t bad. I was sleeping.’”

A Child Protective Service affidavit, recently obtained by the Star-Telegram, shows Delbridge made that same claim to investigators.

The teen told Hood County investigator Robert Young that the children’s mother, Azaria Thacker, had woken her up before leaving for work, but she fell back asleep. When she woke again, the front door and the home’s gate were open and the children were gone, she told investigators.

Delbridge acknowledged using meth the day before, but told the investigator that she had not taken anything the day of the drowning.

Azaria Thacker told investigators she had previously walked in on Delbridge using meth, but did not feel her children were in jeopardy being left in her care.

Thacker was also arrested May 15 on possession of a controlled substance after investigators also found meth inside her room.

CPS filed the affidavit to seek the emergency removal of Thacker’s two other children, the 2-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son. Those children remain in foster care, according to a CPS spokeswoman.

Azaria Thacker did not respond to a message seeking an interview.

Delbridge faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of endangering a child.

Murphy said she knows her granddaughter has to pay for what happened but doesn’t believe the teen deserves a long prison sentence for what she calls an accident.

“I don’t think she intentionally meant for this to happen. She didn’t murder that child. She was negligent, being asleep,” Murphy said.

“Everyday parents go to sleep and children wake up and walk out the door.”

Morning of drowning

According to the affidavit, Delbridge had been staying with Thacker for a couple of weeks before the drowning and was watching Thacker’s children while the mother of three worked.

“Ms. Delbridge admitted to Mr. Young that of all of the times that Ms. Thacker woke her up to watch the children, she fell asleep every time with the exception of two occasions,” the affidavit states.

Azaria Thacker told investigators that when she left the house about 6:50 a.m. May 15, her 6-year-old son had already boarded the bus for school. She said her two youngest children were in the living room, watching television and eating Lunchables.

“She stated that when she woke Ms. Delbridge up, she sat up in bed and her eyes were open,” the affidavit states. “She stated that Ms. Delbridge’s bedroom door was open and when she left the home, she locked the bottom lock but not the dead bolt.”

The affidavit states when Delbridge woke and discovered the children gone, she sent a Facebook message to Thacker, inquiring about the children, the affidavit states.

Thacker told investigators that she had received a Facebook message from Delbridge at about 10:20 a.m. that morning, inquiring about the children and informing her that the door and gate were open. The affidavit does not state what Thacker did upon receiving the message.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said neither Delbridge nor Thacker called 911.

He said his office was notified about 9:46 a.m. after an area resident found the 2-year-old girl on the side of a road in Sandy Beach, a subdivision in unincorporated Hood County.

The resident took the girl back to her home. After Delbridge told authorities that Aaryan was still missing, authorities scoured the area for about an hour before Aaryan was found face-down in the lake near a boat dock. A bicycle with training wheels, believed to belong to Aaryan, was found nearby.

The child was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Lake Granbury Medical Center.

Previous drug use

Delbridge admitted to investigators that she had used methamphetamine the day before the drowning, but said she did not do so at the children’s home, according to the affidavit.

Thacker told investigators that she knew Delbridge used methamphetamine “as she had walked into her room one day and she had caught her smoking methamphetamine out of a light bulb.”

“Ms. Thacker said she didn’t really talk about it with Ms. Delbridge and she allowed her to continue watching her children,” the affidavit states.

Thacker told investigators she didn’t feel her her children were in jeopardy.

Thacker also admitted to investigators that she had not warned Delbridge that Aaryan could unlock the home’s door and get out.

When asked if Thacker believed Delbridge did anything wrong, Thacker began crying and stated, “It’s all my fault,” the affidavit states.

Thacker initially denied using meth herself, telling investigators she had a couple of years ago, but in recent months only smoked marijuana a couple of times a week. She admitted smoking marijuana in the bedroom that she shared with her 2-year-old daughter while the young girl was present.

But after investigators found meth in her room, Thacker admitted using meth to investigators, the affidavit states. A marijuana pipe was also found inside the home, the affidavit states.

CPS had previously investigated and found reason to believe that Azaria Thacker was not giving her children adequate supervision after a report was made in February 2014, saying that her oldest son, then 5, and Aaryan, then 2, were found down the street at a neighbor’s home.

The affidavit states Azaria Thacker had not locked her door and the children got out while attempting to run after their leaving grandmother.

An effort to getDelbridge help

Murphy said she had raised her granddaughter off and on since Delbridge was an infant.

The teen has struggled with drug addiction for years, including, at one time, heroin.

“She wasn’t raised like that,” Murphy said. “She got off into drugs and the drugs consumed her.”

Murphy said the family had tried to place Delbridge into drug rehab when she was 17 with help from the state of Tennessee, but the girl ran away from the Memphis facility within a couple of weeks of arriving.

Murphy said the teen then fled to Texas to be closer to her mother.

Here, her problems continued.

She temporarily stayed with an aunt, where she was doing well, but later left to be with her boyfriend. The boyfriend’s sister, whom the couple lived with for a time, later kicked Delbridge out after catching her using drugs, Murphy said.

“We were doing everything we could to save her. It just didn’t pan out the way it should have. I don’t know why,” Murphy said. “Maybe this is the only thing that’s going to stop her. I can’t question God.”

Murphy said she was devastated to learn of Aaryan’s death but believes the child’s mother shares in some of the responsibility.

Murphy said she’s had frequent phone calls with her granddaughter since her incarceration, and got to visit Delbridge last week.

“She said, ‘Nana. I don’t ever want to do that stuff ever again,’” Murphy said. “She said ‘I’m way past that. I see looking back what it’s done to me. I would never do it again.’ She said, ‘I’ve got to forgive myself for what happened to that baby.’ She’s sick about it. She’s very remorseful.”

Murphy said her granddaughter has asked the family if they’ll post her $10,000 bail so she can get out.

The answer, Murphy said, is always “no.”

“I told her, ‘No, because you’re not strong enough yet. I do not trust your judgment right now. Her daddy feels the same way. We love her, but this is her timeout. She didn’t have to be where she is right now. She made the decision to go to Texas and run away from the help we were trying to provide her,” Murphy said.

Murphy said she believes her granddaughter should serve some time in a state jail and be placed in drug treatment, but said she believes the teen can be saved.

“Some people are not salvageable. There are some people who are,” Murphy said. “I think my Briana is salvageable. I honestly do. I think she can be a productive adult.”

“I know she can come above this. I don’t think putting her in prison 20 years is going to solve a thing. Instead of just taking the little boy’s life, it’s going to take hers, too.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 3:29 PM with the headline "A toddler’s drowning, jailed baby sitter and grandmother’s hope."