When a Florida mom hired a nanny to help care for her son, she never thought the decision would make her a grandma. After realizing the nanny had given birth to her 11-year-old’s baby, the distraught mother says she “threw up.” Five years later, the young father decided to speak out.
Chris McBride was only 11 years old when his family’s live-in nanny changed the Florida boy’s life forever. Marissa Mowry, then 22, was hired by Chris’s mom Nadean Campbell to care for the child in their Hillsborough County home. Instead, the Port Richey woman sexually assaulted the 11-year-old boy and even gave birth to his baby.
Mowry was recommended by Nadean’s sister-in-law, who had also employed her. Mowry moved in with the family, and Nadean came to think of her as a daughter. But, behind closed doors, Mowry was grooming young Chris. “It was a game called ‘are you nervous,’ and the object of that game was she’d place her hands somewhere on my body and I’d say if I was nervous or not and things escalated from there,” a 17-year-old Chris told Inside Edition.
The Abuse:
After the sexual abuse began, Chris said it continued to happen almost every night. It didn’t stop until he was 14 years old, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “She said that she loved me. She said that she wanted to date, but she couldn’t let anyone know because it was obviously wrong,” Chris explained. “You have to lie or else I’m gonna have to go away,” he said Mowry told him. Then came the news that she was pregnant. “I was a little bit freaked because I was confused,” Chris recalled.
Mowry gave birth to a baby boy named Bentley as she continued to live with the family, telling Chris’s mother that another man — her boyfriend — was her child’s father. Chris eventually surmised the courage to tell his mother the truth, and Nadean notified the authorities. A DNA test confirmed that Chris was Bentley’s father. “When the results came back, I went and threw up,” Nadean admitted, saying she felt like a failure. “How did I let this woman manipulate me and my family in such a way that she could do this and I was blind to it?”
Nearly three years after giving birth to the boy’s child, Marissa Mowry was arrested outside the Busch Gardens theme park, where she was working as a food attendant, according to NY Post. She was charged with multiple counts of sexual battery and faced life in prison. Initially, she told detectives Chris McBride had forced himself on her. But, in a phone call with the boy, which investigators recorded, she admitted that wasn’t true.
With the evidence stacked against her, Marissa Mowry took a plea deal. At 28 years old, five years after giving birth to Chris’s baby, she was sentenced. A 17-year-old Chris sat in a courtroom to watch as she was handed 20 years in prison for what she did to him, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Upon her release, she will have to complete 10 years of probation and will need to register as a sex offender, meaning she will spend the rest of her life adhering to a series of strict conditions.
Mowry — Victim vs. Predator:
According to court records, Marissa Mowry now has three children. In court, her public defender pointed to the former nanny’s troubled past, which included an abusive childhood, absent parents, being homeless, and only receiving her high school diploma while in jail, but Nadean Campbell said it was no excuse for the damage she caused, changing the course of Chris McBride’s entire life.
Chris’s mom says Mowry is a predator who manipulated her family and stole Chris’s innocence. “We’re talking about a child that was 11,” Nadean said. “Not even a teenager. Eleven.” Nadean is now urging other parents to be vigilant, to start digging when something doesn’t seem right, and not to assume that women won’t victimize children, particularly those entrusted with protecting them. “We don’t think about females being predators, usually,” Nadean explained. “I didn’t — and it cost me.” And, it cost Chris too — but it wasn’t all bad.
Chris McBride’s Life As A 17-Year-Old Dad With A 5-Year-Old Son:
Nadean remembers the child her son once was and her memories of a boy in a kiddie pool, riding dirt bikes, and playing with Lego blocks. Chris is now a teenager raising a 5-year-old son. He takes Bentley to school every morning, then goes to school himself. Rather than hanging out with friends, he plays with his son in their backyard when he gets home. “Who wants to date a 17-year-old who has a 5-year-old?” Nadean asked, pointing out one of many obstacles Chris faces. “It has not ruined his life, but it’s changed his life.”
Although being a father has put limits on what Chris can do, he’s trying to be the best dad he can be. The 17-year-old father has the support of his mother, and 5-year-old Bently says he has “the best daddy!” Nadean agrees, saying, Chris “has turned into one of the most amazing dads you’ll ever meet.” Chris admits it’s not easy being a teen dad and missing out on his own childhood, but he’s determined to turn something so negative into something positive by being there for and enjoying his son. Regardless of his circumstances, he’s a success story.
