Holly Sheppard, Oklahoma City babysitter previously convicted of Ponca City child abuse in 2024 now faces murder charges related to an infant’s death in 2018. Case had remained unsolved until investigative sleuths pieced together eerily similar chain of events.
An Oklahoma City woman who answered a Facebook ad for a babysitter in July of 2023 only to leave the child with critical injuries has now been charged with an infant’s murder from an eerily similar case stemming back to 2018.
Holly Sheppard who was already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to child abuse in May 2024, was on Monday charged with one count of murder.
In January 2018, Oklahoma City Police investigators say a 22-day-old infant went to St. Anthony’s Hospital with non-accidental abusive head trauma.
Serial child abuser
The infant died a few days later. Investigators say the infant died of blunt force trauma to the head.
The infant’s mother said she found Sheppard on Facebook offering babysitting services. The mother left the infant in the care of Sheppard for four days when the incident occurred, according to court documents cited by KTUL.
The lead investigator said he interviewed several witnesses, but couldn’t get any additional information about who was taking care of the infant when they were injured. After several years, the investigator hoped to get more evidence, but said he was unsuccessful.
A break in the case came some five years later, when a 3-month-old went to a hospital in Ponca City with non-accidental abusive head injuries. The infant’s mother found Sheppard on Facebook advertising babysitting services. The mother had left the infant in Sheppard’s care for a few days when the incident occurred, according to court documents.
Investigators going over the case were able to piece together eerie similarities between that case and the one that took place in 2018. In both instances, the children victims had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, either by being struck with something or by their heads striking something.
In December 2024, Sheppard entered a blind plea of no contest to child abuse in Kay County and was sentenced to life in prison, with the potential for release after 25 years. In April 2025, a warrant was issued for her arrest in Oklahoma City.
Sheppard is currently being held in the Oklahoma County Detention Center without bond.
