"My Heartbreaking Loss: My Baby Niece's Tragic Fate at the Hands of My Brother’s Jealous Partner - She Celebrated Just One Christmas"

RACHEL Bond smiled as she wrapped the last Christmas present for her 20-month-old great-niece Annie.

She and her husband Thomas, both 59, had picked out the gifts in the Black Friday sales and were counting down to , excited to spoil the bright toddler they loved “like a daughter”.

Rachel, pictured with her great-niece AnnieCredit: True Life Stories Annie, pictured on a previous ChristmasCredit: True Life Stories

Annie had already stolen their hearts. She lived with Rachel’s brother, her grandfather, who asked not to be named, in , and his partner Shayla Boniello, 35, after her biological parents were unable to care for her.

Rachel, from Houston, Texas, believed Annie was finally safe. Then everything changed when in December 2018, Annie died.

Heartbreaking call

Rachel remembers the devastating phone call from her brother. “His voice was wobbling so I could barely understand him,” she says. “Then I heard him say, ‘Sis, I need you to come home. Annie died.’

“My heart broke. Annie would never open her presents. She would never see Christmas Day again. She had not even turned two.”

Rachel and Thomas jumped into their car and began the long drive towards Annie’s home. But when they stopped at a petrol station, Rachel received a message that chilled her to the bone.

It read: “Shayla did it.”

Rachel, who works in transportation, says Annie had a difficult start in life. Born in 2017, Annie’s biological parents were unable to look after her and she was taken into care. “Annie’s parents had personal issues and were deemed unfit,” Rachel says. “They could not give her the stability she needed.

“I was desperate to meet her, but she was placed in a foster home.”

Rachel’s parents already had custody of Annie’s older sister, who was seven at the time, so they could not take another child.

Instead, Rachel’s brother stepped in and applied for custody.

“It felt right,” Rachel says. “He was Annie’s grandfather. If he had been rejected, Thomas and I were going to apply next.”

In May 2018, Annie’s grandfather was granted custody. Rachel and Thomas made the journey to see her every month. “I was so happy Annie was finally in my life,” Rachel says. “She was the sweetest little girl. My parents would bring her sister and they would play together. Annie absolutely adored her.”

Just one month after Annie moved in, Rachel’s brother met a woman online dating. “The next time we visited, we met Shayla,” Rachel says. “She seemed nice and was pretty good with Annie.”

But three months later, Shayla had moved into the family home. “It was really shocking,” Rachel says. “Everything happened so fast. Something did not feel right.”

Rachel, pictured with her husband ThomasCredit: True Life Stories Shayla Boniello was convicted of little Annie’s murderCredit: True Life Stories

In November 2018, during a family meal, Rachel noticed something else that worried her: a bruise under Annie’s eye.

“I questioned it straight away,” Rachel says. “Shayla said Annie had fallen on a toy. My brother backed her up. But my gut told me something was wrong.”

One month later, Rachel received the call that would change her life forever. At a police station near her brother’s home, Rachel learned the full horror of what had happened.

“They said Shayla used a soft toy teddy bear to show what she did,” Rachel says. “She squeezed it to demonstrate how she squeezed Annie. She punched her, slapped her, shook her and squeezed her for at least three minutes.”

‘I was hysterical’

Rachel and Thomas were inconsolable.

“I was hysterical. So was Thomas,” she says. “We felt sick with guilt. We wished we had listened to our instincts about Shayla.”

Shayla later admitted she was angry, jealous and overwhelmed. “She said she hated how much attention Annie got,” Rachel says. “She was jealous of a baby.”

The post-mortem revealed the extent of Annie’s injuries. She had a badly bruised torso, multiple broken bones in her arm and a crushed rib cage. “I wanted to be sick when I saw the photographs,” Rachel says. “The autopsy showed Annie had been beaten for months before she died. “She died from blunt force trauma to the head. It was slow and painful.”

Rachel says the family’s biggest regret was not acting sooner.

“We saw that bruise the month before,” she says. “We will have to live with that guilt for the rest of our lives. It haunts us.”

She later learned her parents had tried to take Annie to a Christmas parade shortly before her death. “Shayla told them Annie was sick,” Rachel says. “Now we know it was because she was black and blue and covered in bruises.”

Completely broken

Rachel’s brother was left broken by the loss of his granddaughter. “He could not cope,” Rachel says.

Rachel and Thomas stepped in and arranged Annie’s funeral. “It should have been the most beautiful time of the year,” Rachel says. “Instead, we spent Christmas in tears. We lost everything.”

In November 2020, Shayla Boniello pleaded guilty to murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at Milam County Court in Texas.

“We fought hard for the death penalty and were devastated when it did not happen,” Rachel says.

But years later, the family received another call. “In September 2023, Thomas and I were told Shayla had taken her own life in prison,” Rachel says. “It was a relief.”

Remembering Annie

But Rachel is still traumatised. “The photos, the autopsy and the confession video I saw in court will never leave me,” Rachel says.

Now, she wants Annie to be remembered for how she lived. “She was bubbly and kind,” Rachel says. “She brought so much love into our lives. She loved dancing, playing with her sister and she adored her ‘Paw Paw’, my dad.”

There is an angel ornament for Annie on the family tree and a Christmas angel in the living room.

“Annie only had one Christmas in her life,” Rachel says. “That breaks my heart. She will be 20 months old forever.”

Rachel, pictured nowCredit: True Life Stories Little Annie had no chanceCredit: True Life Stories