“Give me the baby! Give me the baby!”
Those words are burned into Monica Nash’s memory.
She had just crawled out of the back window of her crumpled and totaled car, holding her 3-day-old daughter, when a man ran from the vehicle that hit her and demanded her baby.
That man fled in a waiting vehicle after witnesses stopped and before Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputies arrived.
“I’m just sitting here in my head, praying to God, because this is just like the worst nightmare,” Nash said.
The hit-and-run crash happened on January 17, 2020.
Four years later, Nash is still fighting to solve the mystery of what happened to her on the side of Interstate 94, just west of American Family Field.
No one was ever arrested.
And that’s despite the suspect’s totaled vehicle being left at the scene, a stack of traffic cameras overlooking the area, and multiple witnesses identifying the owner and seeing the man try to grab the baby.
“This guy is basically a ghost,” Monica told TMJ4. “He’s not charged. He’s not held accountable. He’s not held responsible at all.”
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office declined multiple interview requests made over the past 12 weeks.
But TMJ4 has spent months investigating the crash and how MCSO handled the case.
Through open record requests and from other sources, the news station obtained the sheriff’s office’s crash report, internal correspondence, witness recordings, dash camera video, misconduct files, and other documents.
The evidence exposes a botched investigation that’s filled with missing evidence, incompetence, and misconduct.
It also reveals how officials violated Nash’s legal rights as a crime victim.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office also did not respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors quickly turned down the case and declined to pursue it further because MCSO said no witnesses saw who was driving the other car at the time of the crash, records show.
At the time of that decision, TMJ4 discovered prosecutors did not know about the allegations surrounding the baby or that Nash believed the crash was intentional.
Since, neither MCSO nor the district attorney’s office has re-opened the investigation.
“I hope that somehow or someway something will prick their heart and come forth and just tell the truth about what happened that day,” said Nash, who’s a former military law enforcement officer and former civilian officer with the Milwaukee Police Department. “I didn’t deserve it. My daughter didn’t deserve it. It was just very unfortunate.”
Chapter One: The Mystery
Ghosted is a three-part broadcast investigation. In the sections below, TMJ4 is including the video report for each chapter along with a key document related to the story.
Monica Nash’s hit-and-run crash is filled with questions. Why was no one charged? Was the crash intentional or just an accident?
Why did the man from the other car demand her baby? How did traffic camera footage from the area go missing?
Watch Chapter One of Ghosted: The Mystery
TMJ4 is not yet naming the suspect in the crash because the station has not been able to find him for comment and he hasn’t been charged due to the lack of evidence in MCSO’s investigation.
Read the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office’s crash report:
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office’s crash report by TMJ4 News on Scribd
Chapter Two: The Misconduct
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Bacich mishandled the hit-and-run crash investigation, records show.
He failed to document key witness information. He didn’t document or investigate the allegations about a man trying to take Monica Nash’s baby. He also lost traffic camera footage from that night.
Those issues were confirmed in an internal investigation that was launched after Nash filed an official complaint. Bacich was suspended for five days. The punishment adds to his record of misconduct, which includes at least 10 disciplinary actions and four other suspensions.
In one incident, Bacich was disciplined for yelling “racially inflammatory remarks” at Black people while drunk and off-duty.
Watch Ghosted: Chapter Two: The Misconduct
TMJ4 requested Deputy Bacich’s misconduct file through an open records request. Read a copy of his disciplinary records provided by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office:
Bacich Misconduct File by TMJ4 News on Scribd
Chapter Three: The Mistreatment
Monica Nash is a former military law enforcement officer and former civilian officer with the Milwaukee Police Department. After the crash investigation fell apart, she refused to stop pushing for answers.
Not only did she force an internal investigation into the deputy, Nash also prompted a state victim rights investigation into the sheriff’s office.
The Wisconsin Crime Victim Rights Board concluded that MCSO violated Nash’s rights in multiple ways. The state transportation department also improperly sent Nash a $6,000 bill to repair a damaged guardrail from the crash.
Watch Ghosted: Chapter Three: The Mistreatment:
Read the Wisconsin Crime Victim Rights Board investigation:
Crime Victim Rights Board by TMJ4 News on Scribd
Editor’s note: Dave Biscobing is the Chief Investigative Reporter for KNXV-TV (TMJ4’s sister station) in Phoenix, AZ and serves as a corporate trainer for Scripps investigative news teams. For this story, he can be reached at David.Biscobing@TMJ4.com.
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