CHESTERFIELD, SC (WBTW) – In an emotional press conference Thursday morning, Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks explained, in detail, how deputies discovered the body of 11-month-old Harlee Lane Lewis. He also noted why the baby’s mother, Brianna Lewis, is not charged with murder despite being the “primary suspect” in the little girl’s death.
Sheriff Brooks explained how the investigation began for reportedly missing Harlee Lewis. The baby’s mother called police claiming she was attacked and her daughter ripped from her arms as she walked roughly half a mile to her mailbox to mail her rent payment.
Breanna Lewis, 19, was visibly injured and an “emotional wreck,” which made her story believable, at first, the sheriff described. The mother spent nearly an hour and a half in an ambulance and was “extremely agitated and extremely distraught,” the sheriff said.
An AMBER Alert was sent out for Harlee Lewis. “An AMBER Alert is a big deal. It requires a lot of man power to get that AMBER Alert up and going,” the sheriff said.
Once officials got the mother to calm down, they began interviewing Lewis, asking her to repeat her story again and again. Sheriff Brooks said each time Lewis retold the story of the man wearing all black jumping from a tan SUV and attacking her, the story changed.
After about 15 minutes of telling different versions of the same story, Lewis was confronted with a photo of a diaper box found 1,000 yards from her home. It was the box her daughter’s body was discovered in. Lewis then admitted she made up the attack and kidnapping story, the sheriff said.
Chesterfield County officials learned that the injuries she had – a black, swollen eye – did not come from an attacker, but were the result of a car wreck about a week prior. Sheriff Brooks said when Lewis ran her car off the side of the road and flipped it, she was at the scene screaming, “Where’s my baby? Where’s my baby?” State troopers who responded to the scene were able to contact Harlee Lewis’ babysitter, who was watching the child at the time Brenna crashed the car.
Sheriff Brooks noted Breanna Lewis’ behavior at the scene of the crash as one example of her “issues.”
Once the attack and kidnapping story unraveled, deputies shifted their search to Lewis’ home. A search warrant was obtained and the house on Daisy Lewis Drive was searched “from top to bottom,” but the baby wasn’t found. Deputies extended their search outside the home.
Sheriff Brooks said after about an hour of searching through thick briars, dead-fall trees, and high grass, two deputies saw a box lying along a tree line.
“It would take your clothes off walking through it,” Sheriff Brookes said of the wooded area. “In the thickest part of the field, at the edge of the tree line, two deputies noticed a diaper box. It had not been rained on or faded.”
The sheriff said the deputies walked over to the box and used an ink pen to gently lift the lid, revealing the body of Harlee Lewis, wrapped in a plastic bag, put in the box and left out in the woods.
Sheriff Brooks paused several times to fight back tears during the press conference. After describing how Harlee’s body was discovered, he paused.
“If we go with DSS to take a child into protective custody, it is against the policy of this department, to put their clothes in a garbage bag to take them to a foster home. How does it make a kid feel to put his clothes in a garbage bag?” the sheriff questioned. “The biggest part of this. The hardest part of this is how do you put a dead child in a garbage bag and just throw it away?”
While Lewis admits to lying about the attack and kidnapping, Sheriff Brooks said the mother claims to not remember anything about Harlee’s death or how the baby’s body got inside a plastic bag, into a box and deep in the woods outside her home.
Lewis told deputies she “blacks out” when traumatic things happen to her, the sheriff revealed.
Harlee Lewis’ body was autopsied and the sheriff says those results will likely not be revealed to the public unless a criminal warrant includes the details. Sheriff Brooks says the mother has not been charged with murder because officials are waiting on toxicology results of the autopsy, they are requesting a mental investigation for the mother, and they continue to investigate anyone who knows Brianna Lewis.
Breanna Lewis has been charged with filing a false police report, improper disposal of human remains, and destroying DNA evidence, which the sheriff noted stems from intentionally concealing the baby’s body in the diaper box.
Sheriff Brooks says to the department’s knowledge, Lewis had no previous involvement with DSS.
“Our next step is to have a judge order a mental evaluation to see what we’re working with,” Sheriff Brooks said in regard to Brianna Lewis.
He revealed that Lewis is in isolation and on suicide watch at the detention center.
Despite the severity of the case, bond was set for Lewis at $71,000 for all charges. When questioned as to whether there was concern Breanna Lewis would attempt to leave the county if she makes bail, Sheriff Brooks said investigators hope it won’t come to that.
The sheriff revealed that, in his opinion, Lewis’ family would have a hard time coming up with the bail money, so if detectives can get a judge to sign the mental evaluation order before she makes bail, Lewis will never leave police custody.
He said investigators spoke with Harlee Lewis’ maternal grandmother about preparing funeral arrangements for the baby, but the grandmother is torn between how to use her money.
“We have talked to the maternal grandmother and she has shown interest in taking at least responsibility for having the child burred, but she also said that she was torn between what money she had burying the child and trying to get her daughter out on bond.”
Sheriff Brooks began shaking his head, “People just…” and then his voice trailed off.
The sheriff noted that Harlee Lewis’ tragic death highlights the desperate need for foster parents in Chesterfield County and said there is only one couple in the entire county that is a certified foster parent home.
“The child (Harlee) needed help and did not get it,” the sheriff stated.
The sheriff said a prayer intervention team is being brought in for the deputies who discovered Harlee Lewis’ body. “Our guys are going to need it. I need it. When it’s a child, it’s just different.”
Harlee Lewis will be honored with a candlelight vigil Wednesday, June 6, at 6 p.m. at the courthouse on Main Street in Chesterfield County.
