True Crime with Rachel Shannon
A 4 Year Old's DESPERATE Cries for Help Ignored by EVERYONE: The Tragic Case of Octavia Aquino
25 May 2025
The tragic story of Octavia Aquino is a heartbreaking case of a child whose cries for help were ignored by EVERYONE. This 4-year-old was failed by her mother, her abuser, and the roommates who knew what was happening and did nothing to help. Go watch my other episodes on Spotify: The Disturbing Case of Stephanie ParzeShe Tried to Warn Them About her Son, Then he was MURDERED. THE CASE OF GUNNAR SCHUMACHER7 Year old’s Strange Death Reveals Mom’s DISGUSTING Secret: Did She Starve her for Attention?!
Full Episode
Today's case is one that I've been following since it very first happened. On the surface, it appears to be yet another case of a mother who allowed her boyfriend to abuse her daughter, leading to a horrifying tragic end. But this case is so much more than that. Today we are going to discuss the devastating consequences of the bystander effect.
So many people in Octavia's life could have stepped in, but no one did. And when you hear about the numerous chances the adult in her life had to step in but didn't, you will be just as furious as I am about this case. Octavia Aspen Aquino was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Mother's Day, May 10, 2020, to Brandon Aquino and Destiny Rhodes.
Octavia was described as the sweetest, kindest, most full-of-life little girl you could ever meet. She was a spunky girl who always had a huge smile on her face. She loved going to the zoo and getting ice cream. She also loved coloring and drawing, and her favorite shows to watch were Paw Patrol, Jurassic Park, and the Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony, and Cocomelon.
Now, as much as I tried digging, I couldn't find that much information about Octavia's living situation or background around her family. Some sources say that she was living with her mother, Destiny. However, in later interviews, Octavia's paternal grandmother, Linda Alvarez, said that she would see Octavia almost every day at her home in Fort Wayne.
The longest she had ever gone without seeing Octavia was when her father Brandon would take her down to Evansville about a five-hour drive south to visit her mother. So I don't know if they shared custody or if she lived mostly with her father. We do know that Destiny had only been living in Evansville for a few months and it was more of a temporary thing.
So maybe Octavia was living with Destiny before then in Fort Wayne but moved in with her father after Destiny moved. Maybe after she moved, Brandon and her switched off caring for Octavia every week or so. I don't for sure know what the living situation was, so if you know more about her living arrangements, please do let me know in the comments.
with that being said by june of 2024 brandon drove four-year-old little octavia down to evansville to stay with her mother destiny for a few days now destiny lived in an apartment with a bunch of other people the two individuals who actually rented the apartment sisters carly and sydney allowed destiny to stay with them for a few months the
Then there was another girl, Megan, who had also been staying with them for about a week at that time. Also living with them at the time was Destiny's boyfriend, who I will discuss in just a minute. Like I said, this was an arrangement that Octavia's father and grandmother were expecting to go well. She would be with her mother, who she loved.
She had all these other women around her who I believe, at least most of them, they had met in the past and seemed like good people. But when Linda and Brandon found out what was really going on within that apartment and what happened to Octavia as a result, they were heartbroken. By 8.50 a.m.
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