Police were called to the apartment of a 28-year-old mother after a report it smelled as if someone was dead inside — but when questioned about what they found, her answers kept shifting and getting stranger.
Warning: This story contains disturbing details of an infant death.
A mother in Wisconsin is now awaiting the results of a mental health evaluation after she was charged with hiding the corpse of a child inside her apartment. From first contact to interviews with detectives, her unsettling responses grew stranger and stranger, with no clear answers about any of it.
Police were called to the apartment building after receiving a report from another resident that the suspect’s apartment smelled as if someone was dead inside. The responding officers made contact with Shyanna Brothers, 28, at the door of her apartment and confirmed there was a foul smell emanating from within.
Initially, the defendant claimed that there was old food inside her apartment, the officers wrote in a criminal complaint, received by Law&Crime.
When she was informed that her neighbors had told police she was going around and telling people that her baby was gone, Brothers replied, Yeah people lose kids. I lost a child. She then claimed she was telling people that because she was going through a lot.
She then told the officers that he was in on it and she could not tell what he did, but [she] knew that one day ‘I’ll get caught for what he did to our kid. She explained that he was the child’s father, claiming that he had killed their daughter weeks ago.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Brothers said that her baby died inside the apartment and that the baby’s father threatened her that if anyone found out about it, they would both go to prison. The defendant said ‘the skull’ and then made a throwing motion as if someone threw a baby, officers wrote, adding that she told them, “He hurt her and makes people hurt her.
Inside Brothers’ Apartment
When the officers asked if they could search her apartment for her daughter, according to the affidavit, Brothers said that they could, telling them that “he has me hiding her in there. At that, she pointed to a locked bedroom door, per the complaint. Officers detected a strong odor of decomposition coming from inside the locked room, per the report.
One of the officers forced his way into the bedroom and observed the room was empty except for a large cardboard box in the center of the floor. The complaint also notes the floor was covered with hundreds of dead flies. Inside the box, the officer found the body of a deceased infant in an advanced state of decomposition.
After the discovery, the responding officers made contact with City of Milwaukee Police Detective Arttavius Bradford, who described the scene. A three-bedroom apartment, Bradford wrote that it had no furniture in it, save for an air mattress and television in one room.
The body in the cardboard box was described as beyond recognition, with the detective further noting in the court document that there were maggots on the body, and that bodily fluids from [the baby’s] body were soaking the bottom of the cardboard box.
Medical records for the deceased showed her having been born on October 8, 2024. Her last wellness check was April 21, 2025, where she weighed 19 pounds, 12.1 ounces and was reported in good health. An autopsy of the infant’s remains revealed a left frontal-parietal skull fracture consistent with blunt force trauma to the head.
Despite Brothers’ story about an abusive relationship with the father, Bradford was not able to find any male clothing or documentation for any other occupant of the apartment.
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