“We used to go there and play on our bikes,” Tressa later revealed in a moving television interview. “One minute he was absolutely fine, and the next, everything was different.”
In the weeks following the assault, Tressa’s changing body did not go unnoticed by her peers. A close friend was the first to voice the unthinkable, persuading her to take a pregnancy test purchased by the friend’s father. The morning the test turned positive, a terrified Tressa sought refuge at her mother’s house, setting off a chaotic scene where relatives panicked and her mother ran into the street wrapped in a bath towel, desperate to comprehend the news.
Despite her extreme youth, Tressa refused to consider terminating the pregnancy, citing her deeply held personal beliefs against abortion even as a child. In 2006, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Annie.
The Loss of Annie and the Descent into Darkness
The birth of her daughter did not bring a fairytale ending. Instead, it exposed a 12-year-old child to the crushing weight of motherhood while she herself remained in desperate need of parenting.
Saturated by relentless press intrusion and battling severe post-natal depression, Tressa turned to alcohol and tobacco to numb her pain. Two years after Annie was born, child protective services intervened, determining that Tressa was incapable of providing a safe environment. Annie was placed into the foster system and eventually put up for open adoption.
For six months, Tressa was allowed brief daily visits, but the day finally came when contact was severed entirely. The final farewell took place at a local crèche—a memory that would haunt Tressa for decades.
