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The mother of a child who died in the care of a babysitter testifies in a manslaughter trial

Online Niel November 8, 2024

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The mother of a child who died while in the care of a babysitter on the Aliamanu Military Reservation in 2019 took the stand Thursday morning.

Anna Lobisch waited more than five years to confront the woman accused in the drug overdose death of her 7-month-old daughter, Abigail, breaking down in tears several times.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry your daughter didn’t make it and we did everything we could but it was too far. She’s gone too far,’” Lobisch said in tearful testimony, recounting how he first learned Abigail had died from a first responder outside Dixie Denise Villa’s home on Feb. 24, 2019.

Lobisch testified that Villa had been caring for Abigail and her 2-year-old son, Zach, since November 2018 while working and attending school full-time.

She said she hired Villa to watch them overnight on Feb. 23, 2019, so she could study, take a Honolulu Police Department officer exam and take care of herself. She said she was in the middle of a difficult divorce from her children’s father, who was in the US Army Reserve.

When asked why she needed a babysitter that weekend, Lobisch said, “I was at school. I had exams and needed a break.”

HPD Detective Ryan Kyle, who responded to the scene, said Villa reenacted what happened, showing how she slept with Lobisch’s children and her own two children in the same bed and found Abigail face down not responding the next morning.

Villa performed CPR on Abigail, but the child was pronounced dead just before 9am

“She was calm and showed little emotion,” Kyle said.

Dr. Jon Gates, a forensic pathologist who performed Abigail’s autopsy, said she died of diphenhydramine toxicity, more than double the amount proven fatal in infants found in blood and urine.

Commonly sold as Benadryl, the drug is also found in medications such as Tylenol PM.

Villa’s attorney sought to question when and how Abigail ingested the drug, suggesting it could have been through breast milk or administered before the baby was in Villa’s care.

The doctor denied these claims.

“I can say with certainty that it was not Tylenol PM, which also contains acetaminophen, that would have been present in my toxicology test,” he said.

“Diphenhydramine is cleared from the body 24 to 40 hours after administration,” he said. “Whatever dose led to this level of 2.4 milligrams per liter was not administered days ago.”

The trial resumes at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 12.