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In the quiet corners of North Carolina, a young girl named Candace Tiara Elmore was born into a challenging family environment. Her early life was marked by domestic struggles, leading to her adoption at the age of 5 by Jeane Newmaker, a nurse who sought to provide her with a better life. With this new beginning, Candace became Candace Elizabeth Newmaker, carrying hopes for a brighter future.

However, life in her new home wasn't without its difficulties. Candace faced emotional and behavioral challenges, prompting Jeane to seek various medical and psychological treatments. Their journey for a solution led them to a radical and unorthodox psychotherapy known as "rebirthing," aimed at treating attachment disorders. This therapy was conducted in Evergreen, Colorado, by therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, who were not licensed.

The therapy session involved a simulated rebirth process, where Candace was wrapped in a flannel sheet to mimic a womb and was subjected to significant physical pressure by the therapists and assistants. Tragically, the session resulted in Candace's suffocation and death, a heart-wrenching outcome that shook the community and raised questions about the practices of such therapies.

The aftermath saw criminal charges laid against Jeane Newmaker, Watkins, Ponder, and their assistants. They faced serious consequences for their roles in the therapy that led to Candace's untimely demise. This tragic story highlights the complexities of adoption, the challenges in treating psychological disorders in children, and the dangers of unregulated therapeutic practices.

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Here's the transcript:

The abridged transcript of 10-year old Candace Newmaker’s last session with attachment therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder (aided by Candace’s foster mother Jeane) is public record.

The two therapists, who operated out of Watkins’ Evergreen, Colorado, home, labeled their treatment of Candace as “rebirthing,” though it was in actuality merely a script to be used in a holding session typical of Attachment Therapy.

All of the following, unless a different name is given, was said by Candace.

THE ABRIDGED TRANSCRIPT

00:00 — Julie Ponder tells Candace to lie down on the navy blue flannel sheet and get into the fetal position.

Ponder: So imagine yourself as a teeny little baby inside your mother’s womb and what it felt like. Warm. It felt tight because her stomach was all around you.

[Candace is bound in the sheet, the ends twisted above her head and held by Ponder, who grasped them in both fists as one would grasp the top of a bag he’s trying to hold shut. She is covered by pillows and four adults, with a combined weight of 673 pounds, who begin pressing on the 10-year old, 70-pound girl.]

01:25 — Ponder: What do you think you thought about when you where in there?

I thought I was gonna die.

Ponder: You thought you were gonna die in there?

Yeah.

Jeane Newmaker: I’m so excited. I’m going to have a brand new baby. I hope it’s a girl. I’m going to love her, to hold her and tell her stories… I’m going to keep her very safe… Every day we’ll be together and she’ll be with me forever.

(Candace is asked if she believes what her mother is saying.)

Uh huh.

(Candace is asked how that makes her feel.)

Happy.

Watkins: If the baby doesn’t decide to be born, she will die. [This must be what the therapists had in mind when they later said that they took “cues” from what Candace said. She said that she felt like she was going to die, and they took that as a cue that overcoming this is the challenge they should give her.] When the baby decides to be born it’s a wonderful thing.

Ponder: So little baby, are you ready to be reborn?

Uh huh.

Ponder: Come out head first. You have to push really hard with your feet. If you stay in there you’re going to die and your mommy’s going to die.

08:42 — Who’s sitting on me? I can’t do it.

08:53 — I can’t do it! [Crying]. My hands come out first?

Watkins: Sometimes it takes 18 hours to be born.

09:36 — [Screaming] I can’t do it. I can’t do it! I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe!

10:16 — Whoever is pushing on my head it’s not helping. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t breathe. It’s too dark under here. Please quit pushing on my head. I can’t do it. Somebody’s sitting on top of me.

10:50 — [Moaning] Somebody’s on top of me. Where am I supposed to come out? Right here? Where my finger is?

11:26 — I can’t do it. [Screams] I’m gonna die.

Ponder: Do you want to be reborn or do you want to stay in there and die?

11:40 — Quit pushing on me. Please. [Moaning] Quit squishing my legs. I’m gonna die now. [Screams]

Ponder: Do you want to die?

No, but I’m about to.

Therapist: That’s the way the baby feels. You want to die?

[Desperately] Yes

Therapist: For real?

Yes.

Therapist: Go ahead and die.

12:10 — Please, please I can’t breathe.

12:30 — I can’t do it anymore.

12:40 — Please quit pushing on me.

13:12 — I need some help. Help! Help me please.

Watkins: Are you feeling the contractions, mom?

Newmaker: I am.

(The NCAHF website says, “After instructing her to try to come out of her flannel ‘womb,’ the adults did everything they could to frustrate her efforts to comply: blocking her movements, retying the ends of the sheet, shifting their weight, and ignoring her cries for help. As Candace literally struggled and screamed for her life, they answered with taunts such as, ‘Go ahead and die.’”)

13:43 — Where am I to go? Right here? Right here? I’m supposed to go right here? Please. Please. [Screams] OK I’m dying. OK, I’m dying. I’m sorry.

14:31 — OK, I’m dying.

14:38 — I’m going to die.

15:30 — I want to die.

16:08 — Can you let me have some oxygen? You mean, like you want me to die for real?

Ponder: Uh huh.

Die right now and go to heaven?

Ponder: Go ahead and die right now. For real. For real.

OK, I’m dead.

Watkins: It’s not always easy to live. You have to be really strong to live a life, a human life.

17:07 — [Labored breathing] Get off. I’m sick. Get off. Where am I supposed to come out? Where? But how can I get there?

Watkins: Just go ahead and die. It’s easier… It takes a lot of courage to be born.

18:26 — You said you would give me oxygen.

Watkins: You gotta fight for it.

19:50 — [Candace vomits] OK, I’m throwing up. I just threw up. [Vomiting] I gotta poop. I gotta poop.

21:24 — Uh, I’m going in my pants.

Ponder: Go ahead.

Watkins: Stay in there with the poop and vomit.

23:22 — Help! I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. It’s hot. I can’t breathe.

Newmaker: I’m so excited to have this baby… I’m waiting for you, to love you and hold you…

Ponder: Scream, Candace.

No.

Newmaker: Baby, I love you already. I’ll hold you and love you and keep you safe forever… Don’t give up on your life before you have it…

32:25 – 33:44 — (Jack McDaniel repositions himself on a pillow over Candace’s head.)

Ponder: Candace? [No response] [Takes another pillow from Newmaker. Ponder repositions her body and pushes on Candace with her hands and body, grunting twice.] She needs more pressure over here so she can’t… so she really needs to fight. [McDaniel repositions himself on the pillow over Candace’s head, and she whimpers.]

Watkins: Getting pretty tight in here.

Ponder: Yep… less and less air all the time.

35:39 – 40:00 — (Ponder and McDaniel reposition themselves again.)

Ponder: She gets to be stuck in her own puke and poop.

Watkins: Uh huh. It’s her own life. Quitter.

40:01: Newmaker: Baby, do you want to be born?

[Weakly responds] No. [This is Candace’s last word.]

McDaniel: Mama got you this far, now it’s up to you.

Watkins: Candace is used to making her life everybody else’s problem. She’s not used to living her own life.

Ponder: Quitter, quitter, quitter, quitter, quit, quit, quit, quit. She’s a quitter.

(Watkins leaves, Newmaker leaves. McDaniel takes Watkins’ place. Watkins returns.)

McDaniel: This baby doesn’t want to live. She’s a quitter.

(Watkins tells McDaniel and St. Clair to take a break.)

(Ponder and Watkins discuss someone who is stressed, then chitchat about their dream homes and a million-dollar property nearby that is being remodeled.)

Watkins: Let’s talk to the twerp.

(They unwrap Candace.)

01:09:53 — Watkins: Oh, there she is sleeping in her vomit.

The photos of the people involved with the case are lined up as follow

1-Candace
2-Candace (w/ birth mother)
3-Candace
4-Candace (4th Grade)
5-Jeane Newmaker
6-Connell Watkins
7-Julie Ponder
8-Jack McDaniels & Brita St. Clair

[advancedcorpsetumor]

topics of interest and research

[smackem]

I have to say, that really got to me.
God bless little Candace.

[Faline]

very good work and good post

just wow.

[skullsoup432]

Fucking idiots.

I have only contempt for these dumb ass alternate therapies.

Same as the idiots who let their children die because their religion doesn't allow modern medicine.

[mellymoo234]

wow!!! thank you for this post what a horrible story this is as i see it all because poor little Candace wasn't perfect enough? as far as i can make out there wasn't anything majorly wrong with her she needed security and unconditional love and to be told how much she was loved. I was adopted and i have to say i was a cow when i was growing up evil mare i was my sis is 4 years older than me and i would pin her to the ground and give her chinese burns looking back i was evil to my sis but after a lot of talking fomr my mum and dad i got better however i was told a few years ago that i had depression at the age of 4 and i went to playschool sat on a cushion there and wet myself :( so i suppose i can understand this poor little girl's mind and feelings i was lucky i knew i was adopted and very proud to be so i would tell anyone who wanted to know because i was "chosen" for my brown hair and white teeth lol my heart will be with Candace always sweet dreams little one (love)

[Operior]

This is just one story of the many

[The2Halves]

They need to be made to suffer.