What to Know
Holly Sheppard advertised herself on Facebook as a trustworthy and loving caregiver who looked forward to caring for kids and helping out parents. Both families who hired her to care for their kids found her in the same way, through a social media post that passed through their timeline. Unfortunately, both those families lost their babies. Now, after years of investigations, court proceedings, and two separate convictions, Sheppard has been sentenced to life in prison for the second time.
Sheppard’s first victim died in 2018.
Willow Rose Shelton’s family found Sheppard on social media and hired her to babysit their newborn. Willow Rose was only 22 days old when she arrived at an Oklahoma City emergency room with severe injuries on January 25, 2018, according to News 9. She died just seven days later.
“We know there are several people along the way that took care of this child,” said Oklahoma City Police Department Master Sergeant Gary Knight at the time. “What they are trying to do is narrow down exactly who was watching the baby when the injury took place. Obviously, that person is the person they want to talk to.”
Despite the urgency of that investigation, it still took seven years to build the case. Prosecutors ultimately charged Sheppard with murder, but by that time, another family had already trusted her with their child.
A second baby was injured five years later.
Sheppard was watching Korra Burdick, a two-month-old baby, at a home in Ponca City, Oklahoma, when Korra arrived at an Oklahoma City emergency room on July 14, 2023, with a severe injury.
According to the Daily Mail, Korra presented with internal bleeding, two skull fractures that required a very invasive procedure. At the time, Sheppard denied any involvement before saying she dropped the child after tripping on a toy. But doctors said her injuries weren’t matching that story.
A court convicted her of child abuse regardless, and she began serving a life sentence. It was only then that investigators were able to connect her to Willow Rose’s death years earlier — a connection that might have saved Korra if it had been made sooner.
Both families found her the same way.
Both Willow Rose and Korra’s parents found Sheppard on Facebook. Joe Dorman, CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, told KOCO this simply isn’t a safe practice.
“I would be wary of searching for any individual to be a babysitter on the internet,” he explained. “If you go through a professional service, that’s one thing, but don’t just post to people who might be a connection on Facebook, ‘I need a babysitter,’ because how well do you truly know them?”
A judge handed down a second life sentence.
On May 27, 2026, an Oklahoma judge sentenced Sheppard, now 28, to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 35 years. At a minimum, she’ll be 63 years old before she sees the outside of a prison. Willow Rose never made it to her first birthday. Korra Burdick was two months old.
