Death of Candace Newmaker

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Candace Newmaker was a 10-year-old girl from North Carolina who died during a controversial form of therapy in Colorado in April 2000. The therapy, called attachment therapy, was intended to treat her supposed Reactive Attachment Disorder and included a “rebirthing” script. Candace was wrapped in a flannel sheet to simulate a womb and was told to fight her way out while four adults pressed on her body, suffocating her.

Candace was born on November 19, 1989, in Lincolnton, North Carolina. After a difficult early life and time in foster care, she was adopted by Jeane Elizabeth Newmaker, a nurse practitioner. Jeane took Candace to Evergreen, Colorado, for a two-week intensive attachment therapy at a cost of about $7,000, on a referral from a licensed psychologist in North Carolina.

During the fatal session, Candace’s birth-rebirth exercise was performed by Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, who were not licensed therapists, along with Candace’s foster parents, Brita St. Clair and Jack McDaniel, and Jeane Newmaker. Candace was wrapped in a sheet and covered with pillows to form a “birth canal.” The adults used their hands and feet to push down on her body as Candace tried to free herself. She asked for air and help repeatedly, and at one point she was told to die “for real” if she could. About 40 minutes into the session, Candace was asked if she wanted to be reborn, and she replied “no.” Shortly after, she became motionless and unbreathing. She died soon after, with brain death declared the next day. The entire session and earlier ones had been videotaped.

In 2001, Watkins and Ponder were convicted of reckless child abuse resulting in death and received 16-year prison sentences. The foster parents pleaded guilty to criminally negligent child abuse and received 10 years’ probation and 1,000 hours of community service. Jeane Newmaker pleaded guilty to neglect and abuse and received a four-year suspended sentence, which was later expunged. Watkins was paroled in 2008 after serving about seven years, under strict supervision and with conditions on contact with children.

The case led to changes in the law. Candace’s Law, enacted in Colorado and North Carolina, bans dangerous re-enactments of birth experiences. The U.S. Congress also passed resolutions urging similar action in other states.