CANADA • Iyanna TEEPLE, 19 months old / Accused: Tammy Bouvette ~ Cranbrook BC

Cranbrook babysitter charged with murder
October 25, 2011

A Cranbrook, B.C., woman has been charged in the death of a toddler who was found face down in a bathtub and not breathing last May.

Tammy Marion Bouvette, 28, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 19-month-old Iyanna Teeple on May 26.

According to police, the girl's grandmother dropped her off at Bouvette's home on the 2000 block of Second Street North in the southeastern Interior community of Cranbrook earlier in the day. Several hours later the girl was found face down in a bathtub in the house.

When ambulance attendants arrived they found the child not breathing and transported her to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital. She was put on life-support and flown to the Calgary Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on May 29.

RCMP say a forensic autopsy later confirmed that the girl had died from drowning, but emergency responders raised concerns about the incident, prompting police to investigate further, said Cpl. Chris Faulkner.

"The B.C. Ambulance Service and first responders from the Cranbrook Fire Department didn't really like the environment that the child was found in, so they were a little suspicious — like the details they were being told, with what they found at the scene," said Faulkner.

After investigators conducted several interviews with the babysitter, they determined they had enough evidence to suspect foul play in the toddler's death.

Faulkner said it appears the child was left with Bouvette on other occasions, but the home was not a licensed daycare.

"It was just an off and on thing, through acquaintances. The babysitter herself has four of her own children. It wasn't a licensed daycare, but it was kind of a situation where friends look after friends," said Faulkner.

RCMP say they are not releasing any more details about their investigation, but credited the efforts of the medical examiner in Alberta for pushing the investigation forward.

Bouvette is expected to appear in Cranbrook provincial court Monday, but will also need to appear in front of a Supreme Court justice for a bail hearing, said police.

Second-degree murder applies to homicides that were deliberate but not planned or linked to certain criminal activities.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/25/bc-cranbrook-girl-homicide.html

Sitter charged with second-degree murder in toddler’s death
October 26, 2011



Jason Teeple was studying at home in Cranbrook last May when he got a panicked call from his wife, Renee. Their 19-month-old-daughter, Iyanna, was hurt and he needed to get to the hospital.

He dropped what he was doing and ran. It was too late for Iyanna. After being flown from Cranbrook to Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, she was pronounced dead three days later. An autopsy confirmed she had drowned.

A police investigation determined Iyanna had been left with an adult babysitter in the morning and found, face-down in a bathtub, a few hours later. Now, five months after Mr. Teeple raced to the hospital, the babysitter – Tammy Bouvette, a woman who lived a few blocks away and often looked after his cherubic, blonde toddler – has been charged with second-degree murder.

For Mr. Teeple, the charge announced on Tuesday did not come as a complete surprise, because police had told the couple an investigation was under way. But his grief remains fresh and his daughter’s death a mystery.

“If you put all the times that we’d had [the accused] babysit in a row, it would probably be about three months’ worth,” Mr. Teeple said on Tuesday.

Mr. Teeple says his wife – whom he describes as “10 times more paranoid” than he was about Iyanna’s safety – met Ms. Bouvette at a mother-and-baby drop-in group.

The couple have had no contact with Ms. Bouvette since their daughter died.

The length of time between Iyanna’s death in May and when a charge was laid reflects an exhaustive review by Crown counsel of evidence in the case, Cranbrook RCMP spokesman Corporal Chris Faulkner said.

“Crown counsel went after it with a fine-tooth comb to compare the evidence that we had against what the appropriate charge would be,” Cpl. Faulkner said on Tuesday.

A report from Alberta’s Office of the Medical Examiner was key to the investigation, Cpl. Faulkner said, without providing details.

On that May morning in Cranbrook, fire and ambulance teams responded to a call about a child in medical distress and not breathing.

Once at the scene, they called police.

“All of them who attended thought the description of events didn’t match what they were seeing,” Cpl. Faulkner said.

Police interviewed Ms. Bouvette several times, and on June 24, forwarded the results of their investigation to crown counsel.

Both Mr. Teeple, 27, and his wife, 26, were working as well as taking courses.

That schedule meant the couple sometimes relied on babysitters, Mr. Teeple said, adding that he was a month away from finishing a course in medical transcription and being able to work from home instead of juggling jobs at a gas station and a security firm.

“With both me and my wife working and going to school so that we could be stay-at-home parents, we had used her quite a bit,” Mr. Teeple said.

Ms. Bouvette has four children, all under the age of 10. Provincial child care authorities have restricted her access to her children since May, Cpl. Faulkner said.

Along with the second-degree murder charge, Ms. Bouvette faces an assault charge relating to an incident in August. That incident is unrelated to Iyanna’s death and Ms. Bouvette does not have a criminal record, police say.

Iyanna would have turned two this month. After her death, her parents decided that her organs should be donated to save other children.

The couple has not yet decided if they would attend a trial if one takes place, Mr. Teeple said.

“We really don’t know,” he said. “There are some times when you’re sitting there angry and praying for justice – but at the same time, it’s been so long and we just want it to be over.”

Ms. Bouvette has been remanded in custody and is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 9.


http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/sitter-charged-with-second-degree-murder-in-toddlers-death/article2213111/?service=mobile

Cranbrook woman accused of killing toddler appears in court
November 09, 2011


19 month old Iyanna Teeple was found unconscious in a bathtub at her babysitter's Cranbrook home.


Tammy Marion Bouvette, the Cranbrook mother of four charged with killing a child in her care, appeared in court this morning.

On May 26th, Bouvette was babysitting 19 month old Iyanna Teeple at her home. She called 911 around noon and when paramedics arrived they found the toddler face down and unconscious in an upstairs bathtub. Teeple was rushed to East Kootenay Regional Hospital before being flown to Alberta's Childrens' Hospital in Calgary. She was taken off life support three days later, an autopsy determining she had drowned.

After a lengthy RCMP investigation, 28 year old Tammy Bouvette was charged with second degree murder in Teeple's death late last month.
A bail hearing has been scheduled for next Monday. Bouvette has been ordered to remain in custody until her next court appearance.

http://www.globaltvbc.com/cranbrook+woman+accused+of+killing+toddler+appears+in+court/6442518347/story.html

Babysitter released on bail
Woman charged with murder of two-year-old she was babysitting under house arrest pending trial
November 15, 2011

A woman charged with the murder of a 19-month-old girl has been released on bail.

Tammy Bouvette, 28, appeared via video link from Surrey Pre-Trial Centre for a bail hearing in Supreme Court on Monday.

She is facing charges of second-degree murder over the drowning death of Iyanna Teeple in May.

In court on November 14, Justice Thomas Melnick agreed to release Bouvette from custody under several conditions.

Bouvette is essentially under house arrest and she cannot have unsupervised contact with children under the age of 12. She is allowed out of her residence for short periods three days a week, and she must take any prescribed medication, among other conditions. Her release is on her own recognizance of $5,000 without a deposit.

Bouvette will be transferred by sheriff services to Cranbrook this week then released and must immediately report to a probation officer.

A publication ban covers evidence heard at the bail hearing.

http://www.dailytownsman.com/article/20111115/CRANBROOK0101/311159996/-1/cranbrook/babysitter-released-on-bail