 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In any society, a mother's love for her child is thought to be sacred; but this month in an American court that most universal of instincts is called in question.
The child involved is 7- year old, Hannah Milbrandt, her mother 35-year old Teri Milbrandt.
The jury must decide if Teri Milbrandt violated the trust of her daughter and perpetuated a sadistic fraud
on a caring community.
Until March this year, Teri and Robert Milbrandt lived in this house in Urbana, Ohio
With their 7 old daughter, Hannah.
The Milbrandts lived directly across the street from us over here, and they hav- had lived there for the last couple years.
Of course until just recently
A typical blue collar family
Bob worked as a printer, Teri held a variety of jobs.
Both had children from other relationships
Only Hannah, their one child from their 9 year marriage, lived with them.
I liked them, and my children liked to over there and play
I- I thought Teri was a good mother, she seemed like she genuinely cared.
Teri, Bob, and Hannah tended the Faith Fellowship, one of Urbana's 24 churches
It was from this congregation, the Milbrandts took their closest friends
The pastor of the church, Dave Henry, and his wife Amy
I would say she was my best friend
I confided in her a lot and we had a lot in common, I felt, at the time
We laughed a lot and it was just a normal friendship.
The kids got along, uh- Hannah, she was Bailey's age.  Just seemed like the perfect- ya know
relationship, yeah
All the kids come up here
In April last year, the Milbrand's friends at church heard dome terrible news
Bob called on our answering machine, crying
Um, Amy and Dave, Hannah's had her doctors appointment today, because Hannah had been having headaches
Um- and they had made a doctor's appointment for her.
And um- he was crying, emotional.
Said we found out that Hannah has a tumor the size of a pea on the back of her brain stem.
Robert Milbrandt and his wife Teri then broke the same harrowing news to their daughter.
We told her there's a little spot there and we need to go to some doctors to remove it.
And uh- where it's at, well they can't do that by surgically removing it.
So, you know, you'll have to do some type of uh- s- some type of radiation
[Singing]
We prayed, day and night, people prayed.
Ah- we had prayer chains going everytime something bad happened with Hannah
For Hannah, life was beginning to change
Hannah wasn't allowed to come out and play anymore, um- with my children. She wasn't allowed to come in our house
Uh- saying that uh- she would catch something and it'd be fatal to her. (Woman, at the same time: She'd get sick)
We thought that Hannah was going to die. (Woman: Yes) I- I really did believe.
And- and I was preparing my daughter for it.
 (Woman: Yes)
The Milbrandt's friends noticed patches missing from Hannah's hair.
Teri Milbrandt asked her closest friend Amy, a hairdresser, for help.
She said 'Amy, can you please do something with her hair?'
We can't- it keeps falling out on her pillow and everytime we wash it it keeps falling out.
And I said, ' Teri what- do you want me to cut it all off? What do you want me to do?'
And Hannah started sobbing, she goes 'Please, don't cut all my hair off. Please.'
[Razor Buzzing]
And I cut it off and-
She looked- Hannah looked in the mirror and she said 'Mommy, I look like a boy'
And Teri said, 'but you look like a pretty boy, Hannah, and you can wear hats until your hair comes back in
it has to be this way.'
Couple times, Teresa shaved it to where it was real- you know, with maybe a- a facial razor or something like that.
[Razor Buzzing] [Water Spashing]
But most of the time
If anyone cut her hair they just did it with regular barber's clippers with the thing on it just to keep it even
By May, teachers at North Elementary Junior School  had made special provisions for their stricken pupil
Hannah's school mates were told about her illness, and a day was planned to make her feel less self-conscious
Miss. Richardson told me that
We're gonna have- sent- she's gonna send us home a paper that's says we're gonna have a-
There's a little girl named Hannah that has um- cancer in this school and we're gonna have Hat for Hannah Day
All 300 pupils were instructed to wear a hat for the day in solidarity with Hannah
Everybody in the school was wearing a hat and so- Hannah felt really happy that people were doing that just for her
Emily and Hannah would go on to become best friends
[Children Playing]
Often she would speak of her fears and worries
I felt bad for her, because of her hair and that she couldn't put it up in anything.
All she could do was put a hat on over it
She said that she wished she had hair, so she could put it up in ponytails.
[Children Playing]
Hannah would continue to wear her trademark hats to cover her shaved head, along with a surgical mask
She had two bandages and her back and neck, which were said to cover chemotherapy ports.
[Children Playing]
When Hannah's health seemed to worsen, her mother visited North Elementary School
to talk to the children about her daughter's illness
She warned them- that Hannah might have seizures
My teacher said that when she has seizures that- if she shakes or something and we see her-
and she- Miss. Prince doesn't see it then we're supposed to get her immediatly
and we have to go in a different room because it might be noisy for her.
I- I got really scared
Throughout all of this, Hannah Milbrandt still seemed to remain positive
We thought she was amazing- you know?
To be going through what she was going through but to still be- you know- very active
She was always coming up to and saying 'Hi.' Ask me how I was.
And- you know, I was- I thought was really peculiar because she's asking me how I am
and here she- she's the one with leukemia
As word of Hannah's illness spread though the community
Teri Milbrandt would talk ,in detail, about her daughter's worsening condition and her treatment
We would talk
We'd talk the whole time she was here and she would go into great detail
about what was going on with Hannah and that she had three tumors
One was at the base of her neck, one was- uh- in jaw and one was in her spine
And she said that they were running, like, chemo and that they were hoping that it was going to shrink it
By now, Teri reported that Hannah was enduring a hefty course of medication
Teri would explain that she drove her daughter to regular chemotherapy appointments in a nearby city
And latterly, she talked about a healthcare nurse called Beth
that would visit Hannah at home three times a week
There was a pill box and there was always this long chemo pill
Which Teri would say- you know- they would crush it up and put it in her applesauce
I can remember Bob and Teri telling Hannah, this one specific pill she had to chew
She had to chew it up because it had- like- the roof of her mouth had to absorb it
[Pills Clacking]
By May, news of Hannah's illness had also reached the fire department
Emily's father, Dave Curnutte, brought the story to his colleagues attention
And when they heard that the Milbrandt's didn't have medical insurance to cover Hannah's treatment
they donated 500 dollars from union funds
but it didn't stop there
Dave: Today's my cook day, I'll be cooking lunch and dinner for the 7 guys on shift
Lot of guys don't like uh-  my meals because I can't cook that well.
We have one good cook on our shift, and it's uh- Dave Vinski, back there
He's a really good cook
It struck everybody, I think, everybody has kids here at the station
and when everybody found out about it, it was unanimous, uh-  everyone wanted to give money
and do whatever we could to help them out.
Through this door right here
This is out fire gear room
We um- gave the family uh-  all expenses paid trip, for the whole family, to King's Island for a weekend
Uh, that was a uh- a special wish for uh- Hannah, that's what she wanted.
[Phone Ringing] Right here we have our rec room.
Uh, guys can come in here after hours, after 4 o'clock and play Foosball
get on the computer, uh- get on a little game here that we have, it's a fire engine
One of our Captain's actually gave them money out of his own pocket
to buy a puppy for Hannah, that Hannah had wanted for awhile
This is Fire Chief's office
Chief MacIntosh
[Laughs]
We went to a bake sale they had at North Elementary School and guys were buying
you know- 40, 30, 30, 40 dollars for a loaf of bread just to give her family money
and uh- that was some of the things we did
and you know, we told them that if there was anything else we could do, to call us.
And the Milbrandts were certainly appreciative of the firefighters generosity.
She tells everyone that the firemen helped her get her puppy and she thinks they are very cool guys
She's looking forward to coming to the fire station soon for a visit and bringing her puppy to show you
Hannah now has a MediPort in her lower neck to draw blood and recieve medication though
because her veins are getting so bad. She's lost weight, is now down to 33 pounds.
Well, may God continue to bless all of you, I think you are awesome guys.
Teri, Hannah, and Bob Milbrandt.
It wasn't just the Fire Department that were helping the Milbrandts
The whole community was pitching in
In America, charity's collect the ring pulls from soft drink cans, known as pop can tabs
The aluminum is recycled and the money donated to charity or to an individual's medical bills
Local school children were collecting them for Hannah Milbrandt
One of Hannah's helpers, even made the local news herself
Reporter: There was a girl, that saw this story on Channel 2
and sh- she can barely breath, she's in a wheelchair, and can barely breath.
I mean, she has to have a respirator to breath and she saves pop tabs
so she afford her medical bills
And she saw this story about Hannah and she gave up her hard-earned poptabs
to give to Hannah
[Stephanie Talking, Unclearly]
Mother Interprets: I've been collecting them since I was 8-years old
so that's 9 years
We- we could use the pop tab money to pay for things that Stephanie might need
but
we feel it's more important to give to others.
With help from friends, Teri Milbrandt would go door to door with homemade collecting tins
asking local businesses for financial assistance
I can't tell you how many times I reached into my own pocket.
and maybe had a couple of dollars and threw in this can and threw it that can
You know? It wasn't a big deal, I didn't care.
They were telling us that they were paying 500 dollars a week. That's 2000 dollars a month
For Hannah's chemo
Teri's Mom, Mary, helped by selling candles to raise money for her grandchild's treatment
There seemed no limit to Urbana's charity
Yup, this is- this is Grimes Honeywell here.
Employee's took up a donation here and the business met the donation amount
that was donated by the employees.
This is the church that the Milbrandts attended.
They- they did a considerable amount to assist them with their bills
We as a church, a small church, we- we raised uh-
a little over 7000 dollars
You know, there- there's a lot of places you can go and- and you'll- you'll get donations
You'll get donations this size but usually those cities are a much larger than this
these people, here, actually gave til it hurt.
By October, Teri Milbrandt was telling the community that Hannah's condition was worsening
Her mother told me she had 6 months to live
So, I told Emily, 'not much longer'
By November, Hannah was receiving counseling at her school
In an attempt to prepare her, for her possible death
Hannah asked Santa Claus for Christmas, if she could be spared
But by the time Christmas came, teachers at North Elementary had made a shocking discovery
and Hannah was in protective custody.
[Music Playing]
In November of last year, teachers at North Elementary School in Urbana, Ohio had become concerned
about one of their pupils
For over 6 months they had never thought to question the fact that 7-year old, Hannah Milbrandt had leukemia
But now, they were beginning to wonder.
