On this day, Jan. 10, in 1997, 3-year-old Shelby Lynne Barrackman was strangled to death by her grandfather because she licked the icing off of cupcakes.
David Andrew Douglas, 49, had just returned to his daughter’s Houston apartment to baby-sit Shelby. Instead, he began drinking a bottle of brandy. He described himself as a “closet alcoholic” and claimed to have blacked out.
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When he found that Shelby had eaten the icing that she found in the kitchen, Douglas went into a drunken rage. The little girl began crying, and Douglas grabbed her neck and squeezed the life out of her.
He reported to police that she must have wandered away while he was sleeping. Her body, clad in a sweatshirt and a disposable diaper, was found that day in a field behind the apartment complex.
A paper bag with a fingerprint of Douglas’ and containing an empty brandy bottle was found near the girl’s body, buried in leaves.
Douglas was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
– Scott McCabe
