The nanny of an 8-year-old boy with autism, who died after being forced to sleep in a garage amid frigid temperatures, is speaking out for the first time since the child's shocking death on January 17. Amanda Wildman appeared on the Dr. Oz Show in an episode airing Wednesday afternoon, and in a preview for the segment, she discusses the abuse Thomas Valva suffered at the hands of his father, New York Police Department Officer Michael Valva, 40, and his 42-year-old fiancée, Angelina Pollina. According to Wildman, young Thomas was both physically and verbally abused inside his father's Long Island, New York, home — even though the family presented themselves like "the Brady Bunch."
Thomas' death last month left neighbors stunned and police initially baffled as to what might have occurred.
When authorities responded to a 911 call at the Valvas' Suffolk County home, they found Michael in the basement, performing CPR on his son, according to the Washington Post. At the time, Michael told police that his son fell in the driveway while waiting for the school bus and lost consciousness.
Police quickly rushed Thomas to the hospital, where he was declared dead. But investigators eventually learned that when he arrived at the hospital, the 8-year-old's body temperature was dangerously low, at only 76 degrees.
Shortly after, Michael Valva's story started to quickly unravel.
It would soon become apparent that Thomas' death was no accident — Valva and Pollina had intentionally left Thomas inside their freezing cold garage all night.
"Thomas Valva was subjected to freezing temperatures in the home’s unheated garage overnight, when the outside temperature was 19 degrees," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said during a news conference that took place January 24.
A medical examiner added that hypothermia was a major factor in Thomas' death.
Police also determined that injuries to the boy’s face and head were “inconsistent” with the timeline Thomas' father had given them.
That same day, both Michael Valva and Pollina were taken into police custody.
The couple were charged with second-degree murder and have been accused of engaging in conduct that “created a grave risk of death to this child," Hart said.
Both parties pleaded not guilty but are being held in prison without bail. In addition, Valva has been suspended without pay from his job in the transit department.
Wildman's interview may shed some light on an ongoing question many people may have: Was there ongoing abuse inside the family home?
The question particularly important because Thomas was not the only child who lived under the Valvas' roof.
In fact, on the night of Thomas's death, five other children were in the home as well — Michael Valva's 6- and 10-year-old sons and Pollina's 6-year-old daughter and 11-year-old twin girls.
The children have since been removed from the home and placed in a "safe environment," according to Hart.
“We are still investigating the extent of the abuse and if it extended to all the children," she said. “These arrests are not the end of the investigation."
Wildman, the family nanny, claims all of the children were verbally and physically abused.
The nanny claims that Pollina was actually more abusive than her fiancé, punishing the kids for little things such as not finishing their food.
At moments like these, the kids would be forced to sit on the couch and remain there — even if they had to use the bathroom.
"She told them, 'I don't care if you have to go to the bathroom, you're to remain on that couch until said otherwise,'" Wildman told Dr. Oz in the clip, before adding that she saw the kids physically hurt at the hands of their parents during her time in the home.
Wildman also claimed the boys were specifically brainwashed against their biological mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva.
"I witnessed Thomas telling me a story saying that Justyna’s grandfather had bitten him," the nanny recalled. "I’d seen the bite mark and now that I look back to the videos and everything that everybody's posting, you see it — you could hear Mike in the car chanting, 'We love daddy. We love Angela.' Ya know, 'We hate mommy.'
"So it's like whatever was beaten into their head was beaten so bad that they were telling me like graphic stories," she said.
Three years before Thomas' death, in 2017, his father won a heated custody battle, which is when the boys began living with him full time.
Justyna continued to fight for custody, however, and even warned Wildman that Pollina was abusive.
"And I met Justyna. She's a wonderful lady," Wildman explained in the clip. "It’s so — I wish we could have connected before all of this happened. I wish somehow I knew she was fighting [for custody]."
Wildman also warned people not to believe Pollina, who is trying to shift the blame and paint herself as innocent.
Wildman accused Pollina of trying to pin most of the abuse on Valva, when that couldn't be further from the truth.
"When I was there it was almost the opposite," she said. "And you know it's funny because she's trying to portray herself as like this victim of Mike. Meanwhile, she was the runner of it all.
"Anything she said to do, Mike followed in her footsteps," Wildman said.
In the months before Thomas' death, Wildman says there were signs that something was wrong.
Teachers at his school called the state abuse hotline nearly 20 times reporting that he and one of his brothers had arrived at school hungry and with signs of physical abuse. In one instance, the boys arrived at school with backpacks soaked with urine.
On a GoFundMe page created in Thomas' honor, Justyna shared that she was grateful for the outpouring of public support following her son's death.
"I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who donated to Go Fund me campaign in honor of my little angel Thomas," she wrote on the campaign page, which has raised over $70,000 so far. "Words cannot describe the amount of love, kindness, and support you have been provided to my family in this extremely difficult time of mourning. May God's blessings be with you today and always."
