Father of baby who was buried in backyard by cheerleader Skylar Richardson mourns her death at a candlelight vigil after her mother’s acquittal on murder charges
- Trey Johnson was the father of the baby Skylar Richardson buried in 2017
- He had no idea she was pregnant and they stopped speaking long before she gave birth
- He found out the baby was his after she was arrested for burying it in her yard
- The baby’s remains were held by police until Skylar’s acquittal last month
- They were then released to her family and they held a funeral for her
- Johnson and his relatives gathered on Sunday for a candlelit vigil
- His mother Traci spoke at the trial to lament being left out by the Richardsons
The family of the teenage father of the baby buried by cheerleader Brooke Skylar Richardson held a vigil for the infant this week two years after her death and after Skylar’s acquittal on murder charges.
Skylar was 18 when she gave birth to a baby girl she called Annabelle in her parents’ home in the middle of the night in May 2017. She had not told anyone she was pregnant and she buried the infant in her backyard in Carlisle, Ohio, afterwards.
It was only when she went to the gynecologist two months later that she confessed to what she had done.
The baby’s father was Trey Johnson, a teenager who she had a fling with in the summer of 2016.
He found out he was the father on Facebook about Skylar’s arrest and for two years, watched from the sidelines as the case played out in court.
Both he and his mother testified at court about how he had nothing to do with the pregnancy.
On Sunday night, Johnson and his mother Tracy gathered for a candlelit vigil with other members of the community to big farewell to Annabelle.
Trey Johnson at the vigil he held for his late daughter, Annabelle, on Sunday. He has never spoken publicly about the case but testified at Skylar Richardson’s trial
Skylar is shown in a recent CBS documentary about the case. She was acquitted of murder last month and was convicted of gross abuse of a corpse
It is unclear if they attended a private funeral that the Richardson family held for the baby after Skylar’s acquittal.
They were given the baby’s remains following the acquittal and a judge ordered them to give the Johnson family access to Annabelle’s grave site.
At the vigil on Sunday night, Tracy Johnson – who wept at the trial – said she was grateful for the support she had received.
She also used the vigil to lament being kept out of the loop by the Richardson family.
‘We have found out everything though Facebook.
‘We found out about the paternity on Facebook, although it was a rumor at the time,’ Traci said.
Trey’s mother Traci is pictured at the vigil on Sunday night reading a statement to thank friends and family for their support
Prosecutors showed the jury this photograph of the infant’s skeletal remains after they were dug up from the family’s yard
Skylar was acquitted on Thursday September 12 only three hours after the jury began deliberating
Kim and Scott Richardson said they suffered through ‘purgatory’ for two years
Trey’s mother Traci said she would have raised the baby as her own but that Skylar never gave her the chance
At the trial, she said she would have raised the baby herself if she had been given the option.
Trey did not speak but he attended the vigil.
He stood next to his mother and held up a candle for his daughter.
At the trial, Johnson told how Skylar cut off all communication with him in the summer of 2016 after they had sex.
He said he had no idea she was pregnant.
Pregnant at prom: Skylar gave birth two days after this photo was taken. Despite having a baby bump, no one in her family or group of friends knew she was pregnant. They said she often went up and down in weight
She was dating someone else when she gave birth to the baby, and that boy insisted he did not know she was pregnant either.
Her own parents, Kim and Scott, also said they had no knowledge of the pregnancy.
They merely thought their daughter, who had a long history of eating disorders, was gaining weight.
Prosecutors accused Skylar of killing the baby and then burying her because she thought being a mother would interfere with her lifestyle.
She was acquitted of murder and manslaughter but was convicted of gross abuse of a corpse.
Now, she is working for her attorneys’ law firm and hopes to attend college later in the year.