Ran threw Oakley to the ground because she was crying. The toddler hit her head and a red bump rose above her right eye. Madison tried to cover it with makeup. She would later tell police that Ran was like this all the time.
He flew into rages over small things — a fork held the wrong way, a wet diaper. He hit Oakley regularly. Sometimes he squeezed her neck until she went limp. And whenever Madison tried to step in, he turned on her too.
Oakley was only 22 months old. Madison was 22, living with 25-year-old Ran Waters in Cromwell, Oklahoma. She had two children: Oakley and a baby boy, CS, who was just three months old. The children’s father, Zachary Snow, had his own place in town.
Madison and Zachary were no longer together. Ran had been out of prison less than a year. He’d served almost four years in Indiana for a burglary conviction. He moved in with Madison and her kids.
On October 26, 2022, Madison called the Sheriff’s Office to report that Ran had hit Oakley in the face during a fight the day before. When she tried to protect her daughter, he struck her in the head. Deputies went to Ran’s house. He answered the door, asked if they had a warrant, and slammed it in their faces.
He yelled at them to leave. When they turned back to their patrol cars, Madison pulled up in a blue SUV with both kids. Ran came outside and screamed so loudly the deputies couldn’t hear her. He turned on loud music to drown out their conversation.
Madison said everything was fine, so the deputies left. Later that day, Zachary called to say Madison wanted to file a formal report. Deputies met her at Zachary’s father’s home. She lifted Oakley’s lip to show the cut inside her mouth.
Deputies photographed the bruising around Madison’s left eye and cheek. Charges were filed against Ran for battery in the presence of a minor. A warrant was issued in November. On January 19, 2023, Madison and Ran picked up Oakley and CS from Zachary’s home and drove off without his permission.
Zachary reported the kids missing. They were entered into the National Crime Information Center database. Investigators found out the couple had crossed state lines into Indiana. They were staying at a house on Albany Street in Indianapolis, owned by Ran’s mother, BP.
She bought formula and other supplies for the kids. Another man, Chad, lived there off and on. He said Ran and Madison were heavy drug users who snorted heroin and nodded off for long periods. They didn’t pay much attention to the kids and left them in front of the TV all day.
He never saw them show any love or care. He noticed bruises on Oakley’s leg. Ran’s sister, KW, also saw bruises on Oakley’s legs when they first arrived. She asked about them.
The couple got angry and forced her to leave. On the morning of February 9, 2023, Madison and Ran were woken up by Oakley crying. Ran threw her to the ground. Her head hit hard enough to leave a bump.
Madison tried to hide the bruise with makeup. Chad came home that day and picked up Oakley. He saw makeup on her eyes and mouth — something he’d never seen before. It looked like an adult had put it on her.
He also saw a bruise running from her bottom lip to her chin. He left the house. Madison was in the kitchen when she heard Ran shouting at Oakley in the living room. He was telling her to keep bouncing on her hopper ball.
Madison stepped in and saw Ran towering over the little girl, who was too small for the ball. Madison went back to the kitchen. Moments later, she heard Ran panicking and yelling Oakley’s name. She ran out.
Ran was standing in the hallway holding Oakley in his arms. She was limp and unresponsive. Ran kept repeating that he hadn’t done anything and it wasn’t his fault. He wouldn’t let Madison take Oakley to the hospital.
He started undressing the child. Madison saw Oakley’s chest expanding as she struggled to breathe. Bloody saliva dripped from her mouth with each breath. Madison tried to call 911.
Ran hit her hard enough to knock the phone away and disconnect the call. She called Chad and asked him to come home. He later said he knew he should never have left. Ran tried to revive Oakley in a cold bath.
It didn’t work. He wrapped her in a pink and black blanket with hearts on it and put her in the backseat of his Dodge Durango. A neighbor saw them leave with something that looked like a child wrapped in a blanket. The child wasn’t moving.
By the time they got in the car, Oakley had stopped breathing. Her lips were blue. She had no heartbeat. Her skin was cold.
Madison climbed into the back seat and held her daughter’s hand one last time. Then she moved to the front with Ran, who drove them out of Indianapolis toward Martinsville. They took winding roads to a run-down building on a hill. Ran parked on a gravel road, carried Oakley inside through a window, and told Madison to wait in the car.
Madison asked Ran to take Oakley to the hospital. He told her that if they went, she would go to prison. While Ran was inside with the body, Madison did two lines of fentanyl. Ran came back with only the blanket.
He drove home. He told her he’d left Oakley inside or under a dresser. When she asked where, he said Martinsville was all she needed to know. Ran told her he didn’t need to kill her now, since he was sure she wouldn’t tell anybody what happened.
They agreed to tell everyone they’d left Oakley at the hospital. Later that day, Ran sent a text to his older brother, BW, saying he needed him. BW didn’t respond. Chad went to see him directly.
BW got a call from their mother later that day. She sounded really upset. BW snapped back that he didn’t know what Ran was doing, but they all needed to handle it themselves. He hung up.
CS, the baby, was found abandoned in the house on Albany Street. Chad called BP and told her the couple had left CS with him. She picked him up and asked KW to take care of him. KW asked why CS was left behind.
Chad told her Oakley was hurt while bouncing on a ball and they had to rush her to the hospital. KW went hospital to hospital looking for Oakley. No facility had any record of her. Worried for CS’s safety, KW asked her husband to come pick them up.
About 15 minutes later, he arrived. Ran and Madison returned to the house at the same time. KW didn’t see Oakley. She didn’t speak to Ran or Madison.
She left with CS. That night, KW contacted child services and told them the story about the hospital. She said she didn’t believe Ran and Madison could have taken Oakley to the nearest hospital and gotten back that fast. They had told her they’d decided to give Oakley up in Indianapolis.
They said they “handled the situation” but wouldn’t explain what happened or where. KW was deeply worried about Oakley’s well-being. Chad returned to the house that night. Ran and Madison were there.
Neither of the children was around. Both of them were so high they could barely function. Madison and Ran went to Colorado. KW saw Madison one last time on March 3, when she showed up at her home and asked to stay.
KW said she’d only let her stay if she told her where Oakley was. Madison refused and left on foot. That same day, police in Greenwood Village, Colorado, arrested Ran on the outstanding warrant from November. They responded to a complaint at a Best Western Hotel.
Madison wasn’t there. There were no signs of children in the room. Police questioned Ran about the missing kids. He said he and Madison took them from Oklahoma to Indianapolis.
He admitted they brought the children to a trap house to use drugs. He said they left CS behind and left Oakley somewhere in Indiana. He refused to share specifics. While Ran waited to be sent back to Oklahoma, Detective Craig Tangan reviewed his recorded calls.
Ran spoke often with his mother, BP. On those calls, he admitted he had lied to police. He had really been there when the kids were abandoned. He said he’d helped Madison leave Oakley somewhere.
He didn’t say where. BP told Ran that Madison had his cell phone. Madison planned to change her name. She asked BP for advice and they decided that Ran’s older brother and his wife would travel to Colorado to bring Madison back to Indianapolis.
BP said she agreed to help Madison because she didn’t think Madison had anyone else. In reality, she was keeping Madison from getting caught and Ran from going back to prison. Oakley was still missing. Her father, Zachary, told reporters he couldn’t imagine wanting this to happen to anyone, even the person he hated most.
He spent every day and night on his phone, reaching out to anyone who might know where Oakley was. On March 6, investigators reached out to the FBI office in Indianapolis for help locating Oakley and Madison. The next day, officers executed a search warrant at the Albany Street house. They found baby items — clothes, toys, a playpen, a rocker, unused diapers.
Forensic technicians found no clear evidence of a crime scene. A neighbor recalled a cleaning or work crew coming to the house in February. They painted and moved things out, including a roll of carpet. They worked late into the night.
The neighbor said if they were looking for evidence, it was probably gone. On March 8, a warrant was granted to seize and search Ran’s Dodge Durango. Police recovered it from outside BW’s house. BW’s wife, DW, told them she’d cleaned out the inside the day before because it smelled strongly of animal feces.
The next day, a cadaver dog signaled that human remains might have been inside. Crime lab technicians found what looked like dried blood in the back compartment. They cut out the cushion material and took it for evidence. DW told investigators she and her husband had flown to Colorado to bring back the Durango.
BP paid for the flights. When they arrived, they took an Uber to the Best Western and met Madison. She handed over the keys. All three drove back to Indianapolis.
Shortly after they left, DW saw Madison throw her phone out the window. Madison told DW she never really wanted Oakley. She tried to explain how hard it was being a mom. She planned to go to North Carolina to be with someone named Nick.
When they got back to Indianapolis, BW dropped Madison off near Troy Avenue. Days later, he picked her up and took her to the Greyhound bus station. He paid about $180 in cash for a one-way ticket to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Madison had dyed her hair black.
She carried only a couple of bags. On March 13, Zachary called with new information. Madison had taken a bus to Fayetteville. Searching her three Facebook profiles, investigators found a mutual friend who lived near there.
The FBI identified the friend’s name and possible address in Bladenboro, North Carolina. On March 16, the court issued a warrant for Madison’s arrest for neglect of a dependent. Investigators went to the friend’s home. The friend was evasive and denied recent contact with Madison or knowing where Oakley was.
On March 23, FBI agents found Madison at the friend’s residence in Bun Level, North Carolina. She was arrested and read her rights. She signed a waiver form. Oakley’s location was still unknown.
Investigators believed she was dead and her body had been disposed of. Ran’s sister, KW, told police she feared the same. On April 20, Madison was booked into the Marion County Jail on two counts of neglect of a dependent. There, she eventually admitted what had happened.
On April 21, crying and shaking, she led officers to an empty house near Martinsville, Indiana, about 25 miles from Indianapolis. Investigators noticed ruts in the paved road where something heavy had been dragged. The house was rotting wood with trash piled inside. As they searched, they smelled the sour odor of decomposition — strongest near a wooden dresser against the living room wall.
Indiana State Police crime scene investigator Eric Russell took pictures. He checked the dresser. He found the decomposing remains of a small child in the bottom drawer. Part of the dresser had to be removed to avoid disturbing the remains.
It was a young girl with blonde hair in a ponytail. Her left leg was broken and folded over her chest. A blue and white sock was still on her foot. The coroner supervised as they transported the drawer with the body still inside.
On May 12, DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Oakley with a 99. 9% match. On June 14, the coroner officially ruled that Oakley had died by unspecified means. By April 26, both Ran and Madison faced charges connected to Oakley’s death.
Ran was charged with murder, neglect, and battery resulting in injury to a victim under 14. Madison was charged with the same neglect counts, plus assisting a criminal. The case never went to trial. On May 1, 2025, Madison pleaded guilty to the neglect charges.
She agreed to testify against Ran. As part of the plea agreement, she was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. On May 28, Ran pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death and two lesser neglect charges. His murder charge was dropped as part of the deal.
On June 13, 2025, Ran was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Oakley’s father, Zachary, posted on Facebook: “Today was a real stressful, heart-wrenching day. I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was to sit in front of the two people that killed my beautiful daughter and not act a fool. I literally felt my heart beating in my eyes.
This woman I’ve got by my side is so awesome, understanding, and supportive. I don’t know what I would do without you, Alyssa. You made the best out of one of the worst days of my life. ”
Prosecutor Ryan Mirs called the case deeply unsettling.
He said it broke his heart because the people who were supposed to care for and protect this child ended up failing her completely. He talked about how her body was thrown away without care — it showed none of the respect every person deserves, especially a small child. A close family friend shared a message with reporters. Everyone was heartbroken.
They felt numb and couldn’t find the right words. The pain was impossible to explain. They promised to always keep Oakley in their hearts. She didn’t deserve what happened.
They were fighting for justice. They asked for continued prayers for her family, calling it a nightmare they sadly couldn’t wake up from.
