BETSY HESTER
The Little Rascals Day Care Scandal
North Carolina's longest and most expensive criminal trial.
In 1989, the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton, North Carolina, was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. One day, the owner's husband disciplined a boy at naptime, and soon an angry mother suggested that it was more than just a slap. Rumors quickly morphed into charges of unimaginable crimes against dozens of little children. Panic consumed the town, as the police, therapists, and parents relentlessly pressured the children who attended the day care to name their teachers responsible for multiple allegations of abuse.
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Eerily reminiscent of the hysteria that gripped Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials of the seventeenth century, the Little Rascals case ultimately became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in North Carolina history.
Little Rascals Day Care | Edenton, NC
The Edenton Seven were caught up in the accusations, including nineteen-year-old teacher Robin Boles Byrum. She spent nearly a year in jail under an enormous bond meant to pressure her to "tell the truth" while she had a new baby at home.
This is her story.
Robin's Story
Wrongfully accused. Falsely Imprisoned.
Robin moved to Edenton when she was 11 with her mother, Lou Boles, who adopted her as an infant. Robin's first job after high school was taking care of the two and three year-olds at Little Rascals Day Care. She was pregnant with her first child during the period when the alleged abuse occurred.
Robin was 19 when she was arrested in January of 1990, leaving her 7 month-old baby, Anthony, with her husband, Kevin, also 19. Her bond had been set at half a million dollars.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
19 year-old Robin with her baby .
Robin spent nearly a year under the $500,000 bond awaiting a trial that never happened. She was released in December 1990, when her bond was reduced to $200,000. Charges against her were dropped six years later, on December 16, 1996, after the day care owner's convictions were overturned.
Robin received hundreds of letters in the mail during her time in prison.
“They thought I would tell on the others.”
Three decades later, Betsy Hester met Robin and together, they joined forces to tell the truth in Twenty-One Boxes. Intertwined with the case history is Robin's never-before-told story of her harrowing journey through the court system.
Robin now with her family in North Carolina.
Innocence Lost – The Frontline Series
This PBS documentary remains the most comprehensive single source for reporting on the Little Rascals Day Care case. Below are video records of those broadcasts.
Click below to watch Parts 1 - IV:​
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May 07, 1991: “Innocence Lost”
July 20, 1993: “Innocence Lost: The Verdict Part One”
July 21, 1993: “Innocence Lost: The Verdict Part Two”
May 27, 1997: “Innocence Lost: The Plea”
Ofra Bikel was an Israeli-American documentary filmmaker and television producer. Innocence Lost began Ofra's career as an advocate for the wrongly accused. Ofra would go on to be a mainstay of the acclaimed PBS series Frontline, producing over 25 award-winning documentaries, ranging from foreign affairs to critiques of the U.S. criminal justice system.
Publication Date: July 27, 2024
Ofra Bikel was one of FRONTLINE’s most prolific and consequential producers.
THE INNOCENCE PROJECT
Retired Journalist, Lew Powell, exoneree Bob Kelly, his attorney, Mark Montgomery, as well as Jennifer Behrens from the Duke Law Library, spoke about the Little Rascals case that shook North Carolina with ultimately unsubstantiated accusations of toddlers and preschoolers being molested while at the daycare.
It was one of multiple cases involving false allegations of child sexual abuse and Satanic rituals performed by daycare providers that swept the nation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The Little Rascals Daycare Case Papers are now in the permanent collection of the J. Michael Goodson Law Library.
"Twenty-One Boxes tells the inspirational story of an eighteen-year-old girl caught in the satanic child abuse hysteria that consumed Edenton, North Carolina, in the late 80’s. Robin Couto faced an agonizing moral choice: lie to save herself or tell the truth and lose everything. In a time when moral courage and steadfast principles are in short supply, Robin’s courageous decision to follow her moral compass when so many others cast theirs aside should inspire us all."
Mike Spivey | Defense Attorney
State of North Carolina v Robert Kelly
