True Crime with Rachel Shannon
EVIL Woman Fostered Baby so she Could Torture & Murder her. The CRUEL Case of Laila Daniel
Fri, 04 Apr 2025
Laila Daniel was born to a family who neglected her, so she was taken into the foster care system. That was until one woman, Jennifer Rosenbaum, reached out to her case manager, offering to take her in. Those around Laila thought that Jennifer was an angel sent from God: Someone who was willing to care for a little girl in need. However, it turned out that Jennifer had other intentions to beat, torture, and murder the little girl. What are your thoughts on Laila's case? Let's discuss in the comments. Thank you guys for watching, hope to see you next time!
Chapter 1: What happened to Laila Daniel?
We hear way too many stories about children who are failed by the system. Children who are born to abusive, neglectful parents who prove time and time again that the children are in danger under their care, yet they are not removed from the home and nothing is done until it's far too late. That's usually how it goes, but not in this case. This case is even more disturbing than that.
This case involves a child born into a family unfit to raise her. She is sent to a loving foster home, but soon after, a monster disguised as a woman steps in and insists on caring for the little girl. And almost immediately, she is murdered. Why? How did this happen? How did the system miss so many red flags?
We may have some of those answers as we progress throughout this case, but no matter how you spin this story, you will be left with even more questions than answers. It's heartbreaking, it's tragic, and simply unbelievable. But before we get into the case, just a quick note. I know I sound stuffy and congested. I've been fighting a cold the past week. I feel fine. Honestly, I felt fine.
I thought it was allergies, but because of how long it's lasted, I'm pretty sure it's a cold. But I just have a lot of congestion up in my nose. Makes me sound a little bit different, but otherwise I feel fine. So I do apologize in advance for how my voice sounds, but there's really nothing I can do about it. But without any further delay, let's get into the case.
Today we will be discussing the horrific case of Layla Daniel. Layla Marie Daniel was born on July 18, 2013, to parents Tessa Clendending and Anthony Daniel in Hampton, Georgia, and she had an older sister named Millie. Layla was known as being the sweetest little girl with a big, loving smile. She loved everyone and would always tell people around her that she's a big girl.
She loved eating chicken nuggets, playing with her toy kitchen, and watching the show Yo Gabba Gabba. But Layla was no stranger to chaos in her very short life. At first, Layla and her sister Millie lived with their mother Tessa. However, Tessa was known to struggle with drug abuse from the time that she was a teenager. Tessa was known, to put it bluntly, as being a neglectful mother.
She would leave her young daughters unsupervised at times when they weren't home alone and They were being moved from house to house, living with different family members for short periods of time while she went out and did drugs, mostly meth. Other times, Tessa would even leave the girls with people she had only known for a short period of time.
And obviously, that is very dangerous, leaving your children with someone that you hardly know, you don't know what their intentions are, or if they could be bad people who want to harm your children. Meanwhile, Anthony Daniel was in and out of jail, never really being a part of his daughter's lives. Their lives were unstable, unpredictable, and chaotic.
Meanwhile, DCFS was on Tessa's tail for a long time. But each time they would receive a complaint and would show up to Tessa's residence, she would slam the door in their faces. Rather than following up and forcing Tessa to cooperate, they would just close the case. Another time when they opened a case, Tessa moved to North Carolina, not leaving a forwarding address.
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Chapter 2: Why was Laila taken from her parents?
After her case was tried, she spent three months in jail. Then, finally, by April of 2015, the Department of Family and Child Services stepped in and removed Layla and Millie from the care of their mother, and from there, they were placed into foster care. At the time, Layla was 21 months old, so almost two, and Millie was four years old.
At first, the girls were placed with a couple named Patricia and Dexter Lamber, who were foster parents working with the system. They were experienced, competent foster parents by all accounts, but they were strangers to the girls and Tessa. Now, as a child, Tessa had been in the foster care system herself. As a child, she had briefly lived with another girl, Jennifer Rosenbaum.
Jennifer was a third-year law student interning at the juvenile court in Henry County, which shared the courts with DCFS cases. Well, while working there, she found out that Tessa's two girls were taken and put into the foster system. She talked to Tessa's grandmother, the girl's great-grandmother, briefly, and the interaction just stuck with her.
Those little girls were in need of help, so she decided she wanted to step in. Although her and Tessa were never the best of friends, she did spend a bit of time with her growing up, and she knew that she could provide better care for those girls than foster parents could. Knowing what the system was like, she didn't want those little girls to suffer like she did.
So, by May of 2015, 26-year-old Jennifer Rosenbaum sent Tessa a Facebook message offering to take Layla and Millie into her care. She explained how she found out about the situation to begin with, saying that her girls were just so beautiful. They looked just like their mom. Now, when she messaged Tessa, it went to the request box because they weren't actually friends on Facebook yet.
But Tessa found out from the girl's case manager, Samantha White, that Jennifer was interested in taking the girls. Jennifer had expressed to Samantha that she had empathy for what Tessa was going through, and she knew how tough the situation was. So, after finding out that there was a potential interest in the girls, Tessa went on Facebook and found the message so she could send a message back.
Now, at the time, Tessa didn't necessarily remember Jennifer all that well. Again, they had lived together briefly, but they were never like best friends or sisters or anything like that. But she took a look at Jennifer's Facebook photos and what she saw was a put-together woman. She was married, dressed well, and had a home and a dog.
She felt that if Jennifer remembered her and wanted to help, then she must be a good person. It felt almost like a message from God that someone wanted to help her and cared enough to take her babies in.
even though tessa did have a very rough past and did not take care of her children the way they deserved tessa still cared about her girls and still wanted what was best for them and by all accounts what tessa saw on facebook was true jennifer was put together in high school she was a part of the georgia national guard and then was accepted into clayton state university for undergrad
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Chapter 3: Who was Jennifer Rosenbaum?
Meanwhile, Jennifer's husband, Joseph, who worked as a corrections officer, was born with a severe and fatal genetic disease called cystic fibrosis. This is a condition that is caused by a genetic defect that causes the mucus in the respiratory system to become thick and sticky. This causes incredible difficulty to breathe and requires lifelong treatments to manage.
Because of this, even though Joseph and Jennifer had always wanted to raise a family, they didn't want children of their own. They didn't necessarily want to pass on this disease to a child. Not that they would definitely get it, but obviously there was a pretty big chance that the child would get cystic fibrosis. But again, they wanted children and throughout Joseph's time battling this disease,
Jennifer was always right by his side, always taking care of him, doing everything she needed to be a supportive, loving partner. She was mother material. By all accounts, it seemed like Layla and Millie would be lucky to be in the care of the Rosenbaums.
So, Layla and Millie's case managers, Samantha White and Tamara Warner, started the process of getting the girls into the care of the Rosenbaums. First, they ran background checks, which came back giving positive reviews of both Jennifer and Joseph. No red flags. So, they were approved for having Layla and Millie going into their home for a trial.
Now, I want to note that Jennifer and Joseph were not applying to be foster parents for Layla and Millie. They were approved by the system as being fictive kin. In Georgia, fictive kin means someone who is not related to the child by marriage or blood, but has a substantial positive relationship with the child and is willing to take care of them.
So maybe like your best friend who you've known for years and has been a big part of the child's life for years and is willing to take your child if, you know, something were to happen and you died or, you know, you also couldn't take care of your children like in Tessa's situation and
you know that the care they're going to get under that friend is going to have a positive impact on their lives because they had already started growing up around this person and knows and loves them. Being a fictive kin home also has a lot less requirements than being a foster home. it's much easier to get approved because the background checks are not as intensive.
But given the definition, it's not actually really known why the Rosenbaums were being considered for fictive kin. Because again, Tessa didn't really know Jennifer. She had just briefly interacted with her as a child and the girls had never met her. She was a stranger to those girls. So we don't really know why they were considered for that.
I think maybe Tessa put the okay on it and was like, I guess I knew her well enough as a child that I trust her. That could have been why. But otherwise, the Rosenbaums weren't really a part of the children's lives before taking them in. So again, we don't really know exactly why they were approved for this.
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Chapter 4: What were the red flags in Laila's foster care?
So they lived with the Lamberts, but would just spend the night with the Rosenbaums like every other day or for a couple days in a row, and then would go back to the Lamberts. During these overnight stays, though, Patricia Lambert expressed to DCFS that they were concerned that the Rosenbaums were not watching the girls closely enough.
Patricia told DCFS about a bruise she found on Layla's leg, but Jennifer explained how she got the bruise, saying that it was from when Layla got into a fight with another little girl at daycare.
Jennifer was informed of the complaint against her and Jennifer promised that she would take their advice and would be sure to watch the girls more closely while in their care again Jennifer she did not have a child of her own she had never had a child so this was something that was new to her so this wasn't a huge red flag it was more of just like hey she tripped and fell or
Something happened, you need to keep a closer eye on her, but that was really it. There was no other, like, major red flags. The process continued, and although Leila would sometimes show up with minor bruises, none of them were reported in incident reports because they didn't seem very serious.
They were usually caused by fights between Leila and other children at daycare, which honestly made sense. Leila would sometimes act out because of how unstable her life was. She had thrown tantrums and pulled her sister's hair in front of caseworkers, so they knew that she was prone to behavioral issues.
Samantha and Tamara even contacted the school to confirm the stories, and they confirmed that Layla sometimes got into altercations. So, despite the minor worry from the Lamberts, everything seemed to be going relatively smooth with the Rosenbaums. So, by late July of 2015, Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum were officially approved to take the girls in as fictive kin.
For the months that followed, as Layla and Millie's caseworkers continued to follow up in monthly visits, they found no issues. They wrote in their reports that Layla and Millie seemed happy. Jennifer and Joseph are reliable and stable and greatly love the children. The two girls shared a bunk bed in the home where they lived in a nice, quiet neighborhood.
They were even helping the girls with their school and learning. Reports from the caseworkers say that Layla has already come a long way even after only a few months. She can count better thanks to help from Jennifer. She appeared happy and comfortable. She felt safe in her new environment.
Once again, Layla was continuing to act out at school, so she would have some bruises here and there, but kids get bruises sometimes. It happens. As a mandated reporter myself, there are specific places that we're supposed to be looking out for to see if there's bruises. And having a leg bruise isn't all that big of a deal, especially when the child is known to have behavioral problems.
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Chapter 5: How did Laila die?
I just kept trying to push and everything. You're fine. You're doing a good job. Like I said, I got help on the way to you. OK. Yeah, we're just monitoring breathing right now. She is breathing.
She just said that she breathed again. She's breathing on that same little schedule.
OK. Yeah, she's doing fine. Like I said, we got them on the way.
She just breathed again. OK.
Yeah, she's doing fine. What do you know what she was choking on?
I'm coming.
Said she is asleep.
Yes, but her eyes are rolled back.
She is breathing. We make sure she keeps telling me.
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Chapter 6: What did the autopsy reveal?
She had been examined by hospital staff post-mortem, who found extensive external bruising. But of course, her cause of death needed to be further investigated, so after pronouncing her as dead, by November 18th, her body was sent off to the medical examiner for an autopsy. And what they found is absolutely phenomenal. horrific.
At this point in the case, I do want to give you all a warning that what this little girl went through is beyond comprehension. It's honestly making my stomach hurt now knowing what I'm about to tell you. It's very difficult to hear because it would be putting it very lightly to say that her injuries were devastating.
they were horrible and honestly when I saw what these injuries were and what this little girl went through I had never heard anything like it before I had never heard of such horrible injuries being suffered by anybody, let alone a two-year-old child. So just take that as your warning.
The medical examiner found that there were numerous bruises all over her body, spanning all the way from her head down to her legs, with the most prominent bruising being on her back. She had a massive bruise on her back that extended from her neck all the way down to her bottom. They found a total of 22 injuries on her head and neck alone. She also had a fractured leg, which we know from earlier.
The fracture was on her tibia, very close to her knee though, which is very unusual for a child her age. She was also found to have a fracture to her ulna bone in her arm that was in the process of healing. Specifically, it was referred to as a nightstick fracture. This term is coined from back when law enforcement would carry nightsticks.
This fracture happens when someone puts their arms up in front of their face in defense when someone is attacking them. Your ulna bone is the closest bone to your pinky, so when you hold your arms up, this is the first bone that will take the blow. This type of fracture is almost always caused by somebody being hit. This is the fracture that paramedics noticed when they first arrived to the scene.
It caused her arm to look deformed, which makes sense because if she had a fracture in her arm and it was never taken care of, there was never casting done, then the way it's going to heal is how it was broken. So if the bone is sticking out like this or going in,
and it's never put back in place, it's never put in a cast or anything to promote healing, then it's just going to heal like that, and it's never going to straighten back out. So again, this just shows that she had a fracture that was not being taken care of. In addition to that, Layla had several broken ribs on the posterior side of her rib cage, not in the front like you'd expect from CPR.
They also found several injuries to her internal organs. They found that Layla's pancreas had ruptured so bad that it was transected in half. She also had a laceration to her liver, which would have been incredibly painful for Layla and would have caused internal bleeding. That kind of injury is caused by a significant blow to the abdomen, which is a lot lower than where you would perform CPR.
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Chapter 7: What were the consequences for Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum?
So, after this horrific death, an investigation was also done into DCFS and how this whole thing happened in the first place. First, they uncovered more about Jennifer's background that should have prevented her from getting guardianship to begin with. Now, like I said, when Layla and Millie's caseworkers were looking into Jennifer, they knew that she had grown up in the system.
Apparently, this wasn't looked farther into because at the surface, like I said, Jennifer looked like a young woman who picked herself back up after a tough life and was determined to succeed. She was a pillar in her community. But it turned out that Jennifer and Joseph had actually applied to be foster parents two times before getting Layla and Millie into their care.
Both times they were denied because of Jennifer's background. Yes, she was a child of the foster care system and they knew that and it turns out that it was due to her parents being homeless. But she also had been physically abused as a child. And when growing up, she also showed concerning behaviors such as anger outbursts and violence against other children.
Those things automatically disqualified her from being a foster mom. but of course when she was looked into for fictive kin they didn't look that deep into her history and thus she was approved they actually only ran the background check on her married name they did not run it for her maiden name which is what they did previously when she applied to be a foster mom
So that is how she got denied because in her maiden name, they found out this more extensive history that does not show up when you only look into her married name. So she never should have even been considered for kinship in the first place. But okay, that red flag was missed. I guess it happens. But after that, there were even more glaring red flags that were ignored.
Millie suffered a black eye, or as stated in some reports, a bruise under her eye. There was a story to explain it away, but Samantha never looked further into it. What, do you expect the adult to come right out and be like, yeah, I hit my kid and caused her to have a black eye? That black eye should have been reported and she should have pulled Millie into another room and asked her separately.
Millie was old enough to talk and to explain what happened, so Samantha should have at least asked her to see if she would confirm the story about the faucet being responsible for her black eye. Then, when it came to Millie's broken leg, Once again, there was a story to explain it away. Yes, Samantha followed up with the doctor.
And yes, the doctor also seemed to miss the red flag of the broken leg being in an unusual place. In the report, Samantha said that there was concern from the parent given that she was taken to the hospital for treatment for the broken leg. However, it turned out that Jennifer actually waited two days to get care for Layla's leg.
Not only that, but when following up with the gymnastics gym, it turned out that neither Layla or Millie had ever even taken classes there. Millie had been signed up and I believe maybe they went to the gym at some point, but she never actually took classes. And Layla herself was never even signed up. So no, she did not break her leg at gymnastics and that was confirmed.
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