Episode Details

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Samiah Downing with me today.
In December 2012, four-year-old Samiah Christine Cornell Downing died in Adelanto, California, after prolonged abuse by her father, Ronald Dean Greer, and his girlfriend, Bianca Annie Mae Stanch. Prosecutors said Stanch resented Samiah and, with Greer’s participation, subjected her to repeated beatings, whipping, deprivation, and torture in the apartment where they lived.

In the days before her death, Samiah was whipped with a belt and electrical cords and suffered scald burns after boiling water was poured on her. She had been deprived of water for two or three days, was malnourished and significantly underweight, and was locked alone in her bedroom while Greer and Stanch left the home. An autopsy determined that she died from dehydration, with extensive injuries across her body consistent with being whipped and abused.

After finding Samiah dead, Greer decided to conceal the death. He and Bianca Stanch, with assistance from Stanch’s brother Rayshawn, wrapped Samiah’s body in a sleeping bag, drove it to a remote desert area near Baker, California, and buried her in a shallow grave. Authorities located her body in late December 2012 after receiving a tip and interviewing Greer and Stanch.

A jury convicted Greer and Stanch in October 2020 of first-degree murder, torture, and child abuse causing death. On March 12, 2021, each received a sentence of 32 years to life in state prison, 25 years to life for murder plus a consecutive seven-years-to-life term for torture. The California Court of Appeal later upheld the convictions and sentences.