Jake’s case is a case request from someone through Facebook. Thank you for suggesting this one!
Eight-month-old Jacob “Jake” Ryan Hedger, of Edmond, Oklahoma, died on March 9, 2011, from injuries he suffered while in the care of his babysitter, Traci Krasser Kramer. She is the wife of a longtime Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation criminalistics administrator. Critics of the investigation have believed the husband’s job and his known interaction with the Edmond Police Department led to a police cover-up.
The Murder of Jacob “Jake” Hedger
Edmond, Oklahoma, is a city within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in Oklahoma County with about 95,000 in population. Zane and Leah Hedger reside in Edmond, and in early 2011, they were a happy family of four that included their two sons, Sam, 5, and Jake, eight months old.
On March 8, 2011, the Hedgers dropped Seth and Jake off at Traci Krasser Kramer’s home at 2632 Richland Drive, Edmond, at 7:50 a.m. Also present at the Kramer residence was five-year-old Seth Leitch, who resided across the street from the Kramers at 2617 Richland Avenue.
Pay attention to Seth’s last name. It may be important. I’ll explain in TCD’s Thoughts.
At 3 p.m., Kramer, then 41, alleged that she went to wake Jake up, but he was unconscious and not breathing. So she called 911. Whatever happened between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. is NOT KNOWN to the public.
Police officers Jeff Morefield and Jason Roach of the Edmond Police Department (EPD) were called at 3:04 p.m. to assist the Edmond Fire Department at the Kramer home. When they arrived, paramedics were giving Jake CPR. Shortly after, Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) personnel arrived and assisted.
Meanwhile, Officer Morefield questioned Kramer. She said that Jake had been “fussy,” so she laid him down on the bed in the master bedroom at 2:30 p.m. Officer Roach noted in his report the area around where Jake was sleeping on the bed was “surrounded by pillows and bed sheets.”
At 3 p.m., Kramer went to the bedroom and discovered Jake was not breathing. She picked the baby up, thinking that would wake him up. When that failed to work, she called 911. Officer Morefield asked her who else had been in the home while Jake was sleeping, and she responded, “I, Seth, and Samuel.”
Officer Roach then notified Sgt. Bill Gilbert, Detective Misty Leitch, and crime scene technician Rockie Yardley.
Paramedics transported Jake to Baptist Hospital. Detective Leitch reported suspected physical abuse to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS), and child welfare specialist Julie Whitaker began her investigation. Whitaker had over ten years of experience as a social worker. Since 2010, she has been with the specialty unit at DHS that investigates child death, near death, and sexual abuse in children 12 years and under. (Hedger vs Kramer)
However, Leitch focused not on Kramer as it should have been but on the Hedgers. Whitaker met Leitch at Baptist Hospital, where they interviewed medical staff, Kramer, and the Hedgers.
The emergency room physician on duty at Baptist informed Detective Leitch that Jake had a skull fracture, but he was unable to determine if it was a new or old injury.
I just find that hard to believe.
“One of the doctors had likened it to breaking up a bag of ice,” Jake’s father, Zane Hedger, then 41, said of the fatal injury to The Daily Oklahoman.
Both the Hedgers and Kramer denied knowledge as to how the skull fracture occurred. Leah Hedger told Detective Leitch and Whitaker that March 8 was Jake’s first day back at the Kramer home because he was sick the previous week with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). She told them that a month and a half to two months previously, Jake, who was not crawling yet, had been treated for a fractured arm and shoulder. Two weeks before, he had a “very large bruise on his head” of unknown origin. Leah Hedger said she informed Kramer about both of those injuries. (Hedger vs. Kramer)
Again, Kramer and the Hedgers denied knowing how the injuries occurred.
Later that evening, Baptist Hospital transferred Jake to the University of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. Whitaker and Detective Leitch continue their investigation there and spoke with Dr. Christine Allen, the treating physician. She confirmed that Jake had suffered a skull fracture.
Detective Leitch said Dr. Allen could not tell if it was a new or an older fracture. However, court documents show that Dr. Allen told Whitaker on March 8 that she believed the babysitter, rather than the infant’s parents, injured Jake.
The Making of a Cover-up
Following Jake’s death, Whitaker and Detective Leitch petitioned the court to have Sam and Jake placed in protective custody during the investigation.
However, Whitaker did not place the Kramers’ children into protective custody; the detective stated in a 2015 lawsuit filed by the Hedgers: “Because the Hedgers disclosed that they are the ones who brought the attention of the injuries to Ms. Kramer. Ms. Kramer did not bring attention to the injuries to them.”
Leitch further said: “And also Kramer’s children are older. The Kramers’ children are old—school aged—older, school aged children that could tell somebody if they needed help or if something was wrong.”
Not if they feared their mother. Tell me you’re making flimsy excuses without telling me you’re making flimsy excuses. JFC.
By court order, Sam returned to his parents’ care on May 17, 2011, 60 days after the state forcefully took him away from his parents.
Edmonton PD: Protect and Cover-up
Two physicians at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center, where Jake died, reported they “believed that based on the nature of the injury and the time of contact to EMSA … it was an injury that occurred while he was in the care of the day care and not his parents,” according to a DHS report obtained by The Daily Oklahoman. However, Dr. Choi refused to narrow the time down that far.
Police then hired a new expert to try to pinpoint the time of the fatal injury. As far as I can tell, they never made the findings public.
Kramer’s husband, Kevin Lee Kramer, is the longtime criminalistics administrator at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) drug lab. He helped train Edmond police officers in 2004 and 2007, the OSBI said.
Per The Daily Oklahoman, “Three state legislators raised the issue of possible undue influence with OSBI Director Stan Florence. They notified the director that an OSBI employee had asked the medical examiner’s office in an email when the autopsy report would be completed.”
“There is a concern, I will tell you, that you’ve got a family here where somebody works for a really important law enforcement agency. It just makes you ask yourself a lot of questions,” said one of the legislators, state Rep. Jason Nelson, who has talked to the Hedgers.
“I don’t have a lot of answers for them yet,” said Nelson, R-Oklahoma City.
Nelson also said: “I’m not saying that I think somebody in the police department is doing anything inappropriate. I just want to make sure that people are looking at that, to make sure that is not happening.”
Months after Jake’s death, EPD and DHS still had not cleared the Hedgers of any wrongdoing in their son’s death despite no evidence suggesting they were responsible. Additionally, investigators NEVER charged Kramer with child abuse, even though Jake was fine before he went to her home that day.
Dr. Stuemky, the director of the Children’s Child Protection Team, stated that “if [Jake] presented to the Kramer household functioning as a normal child, i.e., eating, drinking, and playing, then the injuries that led to [his] death would have had to have occurred in the Kramer household.”
Detective Leitch later testified that “there was not enough evidence to—charge any one person due to the fact that the child was in the hands of so many caregivers.”
A woman named Tina MacArthur also occasionally took care of Jake. Interestingly, Tina relocated to Texas after Jake’s death.
“It’s ridiculous,” Leah Hedger told News 9 in November 2011. “A baby — my baby, our baby — has been murdered.
“We’re just waiting. It’s almost like, ‘The longer we let it go, you’ll just forget about it.’… Well, that’s not an option for us.”
Kramer denied hurting the boy. Her attorney, Gary James, said she “loved children. She has cared for children for a long period of time. … There has never been a question about her.”
Sure, buddy, we believe you, said no one.
DHS ordered Kramer to cease caring for children on March 9, 2011 because she ran her daycare without a license. Kramer has maintained her innocence in Jake’s murder.
Medical Opinions
In 2012, child abuse expert Dr. Robert Block, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, stated in a medical opinion of Jake’s injuries that “it was obvious” Jake had suffered new and violent injuries. (Ellis, Clay, & Trammell, 2012)
“It is my professional opinion that …[Jake] suffered these new injuries between the hours of approximately 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on March 8, 2011, while in the care of the babysitter.”
Block said he based his opinion on information from everyone interviewed that Jake had no injury symptoms when his parents dropped him off at the Kramer residence. Furthermore, Kramer reported injuries at 3 p.m. (Ellis, Clay & Trammell)
“His symptoms would have developed rapidly subsequent to the actual injury,” Block wrote.
Of course, Kramer’s lawyer, Gary James, countered, saying he interviewed two experts who concluded that Jake received his injuries earlier.
He claimed one was “one of the best doctors in the world on these kinds of stuff, and I’ll go with him, and these are older injuries.”
Unsurprisingly, James never named his experts. However, he deemed Block unreliable because Hedgers’s attorney had consulted with him. (Ellis, Clay, & Trammell)
Wow, these crooked professionals sure have some weak defense moves.
Conclusion of Grand Jury
Oklahoma prosecutors presented evidence in the case to a grand jury in January 2012.
The grand jury heard testimony from several witnesses in the case and reviewed medical records from multiple physicians and medical personnel, but it never handed down any indictments.
“This is a tragic and heartbreaking case and it is recommended that law enforcement and future grand juries continue to investigate this case,” the members stated in the report.
Parents File Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Frustrated by the severe injustice in their son’s murder case, the Hedgers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Kramer in March 2013, but it was moved to federal court.
Kramer countersued for libel and slander, stating the boy was already injured when he arrived at her home that day. She seemed to have forgotten what THREE experts said contradicting her.
Kramer also alleged the Hedgers are responsible for “sensational news stories and the creation of numerous websites blaming her for Jake’s injuries. “Such false statements were known to be false by … Zane and Leah Hedger,” her attorney, Gary James, said in the countersuit.
A judge tossed Kramer’s countersuit. And despite evidence proving Jake was killed in her care, Edmond PD a-holes NEVER charged her with a crime.
After a series of motions to dismiss and amendments to the complaint, the Hedgers filed their Second Amended Complaint on January 10, 2014.
Investigators refused to charge Kramer mainly because Dr. Choi refused to say that Jake’s fatal injury occurred while at the Kramers. The assistant medical examiner said “the injury could have been days before death.”
Give me a break.
But this is some bullsh*t. An ME can estimate a time injuries occurred, especially if they happened the day before death. So, it’s evident in this situation that Choi lied and became part of the conspiracy to protect Kramer.
What a fuc*ing sh*tshow.
“The frustration that Zane and Leah Hedger have is that the investigation into the death of their son is not being actively pursued by anyone,” the parents’ attorney, James A. Scimeca, told The Oklahoman in 2015.
Jake’s parents had hoped that Kramer would be forced because of the federal lawsuit to give them answers in a deposition about what happened to the boy. She refused in January 2015 to answer written questions about that day and pleaded the Fifth Amendment.
But she’s innocent. LOL
The video deposition that required Kramer to testify under oath had been scheduled for February 27. But the babysitter, filed for bankruptcy on February 20, which automatically put the Hedgers’ lawsuit against her on hold indefinitely.
What a loser. There is so much guilt here, and it’s ridiculous.
“While this legal maneuver delayed the deposition, we believe that delay is only temporary and we will continue to pursue this matter in the civil courts to get Zane and Leah Hedger the answers that they deserve,” their attorney, Scimeca, said.
The Hedgers also sued the city of Edmond, Detective Leitch, DHS, and two DHS workers, including Whittaker, alleging the police detective and DHS workers focused on them after Jake’s death. They further alleged Leitch and the DHS workers disregarded the hospital physicians and a hospital social worker who said the Hedgers were not to blame. (Hedger vs. Misty Leitch et al, 2018)
The Hedgers also complained that Sam was put in foster care for over 60 days because of this wrongdoing.
A judge dismissed the city of Edmond, DHS, and the police detective from the lawsuit (of course, shocking) but kept the DHS workers in it.
The Hedgers did not state in their lawsuit why police focused on them rather than Kramer. But it’s clear because of who her husband is.
From the Hedgers via Justice For Jake on Facebook:
“We were very hopeful early on when we were meeting with police, doing polygraphs, speaking with doctors, testifying to a grand jury, getting inquiries from the IRS, and fighting the state for our oldest child. But It’s been quite some time since we had any word from the police. We have offered them additional meeting/interviews but they have declined. A number of years ago I was able to grab the podium at a public “Getting Away With Murder” forum hosted by the Oklahoman. From there, we were able to get some direct face to face meetings with the district attorney and it appeared that we had a little bit of traction. There was supposed to be some additional meetings with doctors and witnesses, but unfortunately that never progressed, and that dialog went away.
“We also did file a civil suit against the babysitter, and also with the state for what they put our five year old through and our family. We were denied a trial and never got our day in court. I will never understand that. The closest we ever got was being able to question the babysitter in bankruptcy court. As a plaintiff in that hearing, we did receive a small (insignificant) payment from that ruling. But that is far from the justice that we need. It really seems nothing has ever happened in Jake’s case unless we pushed for it, so it falls on us to keep pushing. There has been some new information brought to us from random people over the years, so maybe some of it can contribute in some way in the future. We remain prayerfully hopeful.”
Despite numerous requests from multiple organizations, EPD refused to release the police incident report for years following Jake’s MURDER. Hmm, why? 😡
Life After Jake
Zane and Leah Hedger had another boy, Ryan, in 2013. A few years later, they almost lost Ryan when he unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest. He is fine now, but Zane shared a beautiful and unique story on his Facebook. It melted my heart.
TCD’s Thoughts
According to Oklahoma Legal Group, “Child abuse cases are among the most vigorously prosecuted crimes in Oklahoma.”
Yet, in the Hedger case, those who should be fighting for justice are suppressing it and using their job status and power to cover up for a murder. The Code of Silence is strong on this one.
Traci Krasser Kramer must be held accountable for what she did to Jake. What a POS she is, and those who protect her are fu*king pricks. If you want to harass, I mean visit her on Facebook, here ya go. Damn, I keep getting my words mixed up today lmao.
I want to know what went on at the Kramer home between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., other than Kramer beating the living shit out of a BABY. Oooh, you tough girl. I’d like to see you handle an adult. Pick on someone your own size, you vermin.
The Kramers, EPD, and DHS covered up Jake’s murder because of Kevin Kramer’s job. Get this shit. Detective Leitch (Is it pronounced Leech? Because that would be fitting.) was awarded Investigator of the Year in 2020. Wow, so they award crooked cops now? Nice.
And I will tell you another possible reason why EPD covered it up. One of the witnesses listed in the incident report is Seth Leitch, 2617 Richland Ave. When I searched that address, the result was Christy Dawn Lietch, born in 1973. So, it is misspelled on the police report and in online sources. I’m curious if Detective Misty LeItch is LIEtch and related to Seth. That is NOT a coincidence. It’s too close—Lietch vs. Leitch.
Christy is a medical professional at Mercy Hospital, OKC. But if Seth is related to “Misty,” that could be how the cover-up started. Misty and Traci Kramer are friends, OR Christy and Traci are friends. I don’t know. I did find a Misty Dawn Leitch/Spence in nearby Choctaw, but I do not know if it is the detective.
Sources
Clay, Nolan. “Edmond Parents’ Lawsuit Over Baby Son’s Death Hits Roadblock.” The Daily Oklahoman, March 9, 2015. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/columns/2015/03/09/edmond-parents-lawsuit-over-baby-sons-death-hits-roadblock/60761120007/
Clay, Nolan and Randy Ellis. “Grand Jury to Get Involved in Baby’s Death Investigation.” The Daily Oklahoman, January 13, 2012.
Clay, Nolan and Randy Ellis and Robbie Trammell. “Expert’s Report Narrows Time When Baby Jake Was Hurt.” The Daily Oklahoman, January 15, 2012.
Clay, Nolan and Randy Ellis and Robbie Trammell. “Mystery Surrounds Edmond Baby’s Homicide.” The Daily Oklahoman, March 9, 2015. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/nation-world/2011/11/27/mystery-surrounds-edmond-babys-homicide/61115729007/
Edmond Police Department. Incident Report 201101066. March 8, 2011.
Hedger v. Kramer (2016) Casetext. Available at: https://casetext.com/case/hedger-v-kramer 5 (Accessed: 2024).
Hdgere v. Misty Leitch, in her individual capacity; The City of Edmond, Oklahoma, a municipal corporation; Kevin Kramer, an individual, Defendants. (2018) Caselaw. Available at: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-10th-circuit/1920641.html (Accessed: 2024)
Images of the Hedger family and Jake: https://www.facebook.com/p/Justice-For-Jake-100063553067661/