Babysitter faces trial 6 years after baby’s death in military housing

Nearly six years after the death of a 7-month-old baby in military housing in Hawaii, the child’s babysitter, a Navy wife, is set to go to trial Monday on manslaughter charges in the civilian Hawaii court system.

Dixie Denise Villa was arrested July 20, 2019, in connection with the death of Abigail Lobisch, who was found dead on Feb. 24, 2019, at Villa’s house at Aliamanu Military Reservation in Hawaii.

Villa pleaded not guilty in August 2019.

The trial has been postponed at least 13 times, according to court documents.

“It has been a painful, long and exhausting wait,” Anna Lobisch, Abigail’s mother, told Military Times. “But we are ready to finally move forward and hopefully get justice for Abi.”

Abigail’s father, James Lobisch, is a member of the Army National Guard.

An overdose of antihistamine was the cause of Abigail Lobisch’s death, according to court documents.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the medical examiner’s report determined that the baby’s blood tested positive for diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl and other similar medications, at a level of 2,400 nanograms per milliliter. That’s nearly twice the 1,400 nanograms per milliliter concentration that is the average reported in infant fatal overdoses, according to the affidavit.

In September 2019, in the wake of the baby’s death, the Defense Department’s personnel chief called for officials to investigate reports of unauthorized daycare operations on installations. James Stewart, then-acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said officials should take appropriate steps to shut down these unauthorized operations.

To operate a family day care home on a military installation, providers must be authorized and go through a process of vetting and training and meet requirements related to safety inspections, curriculum, nutrition and a variety of other regulations.

Because of Abigail Lobisch’s death, Army Hawaii launched an investigation into unauthorized child care on its bases. Investigators found a disjointed system of different agencies’ response to the reports of alleged violations and a lack of clear procedures for dealing with the violations, according to an investigation report obtained by Military Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

A number of factors contributed to the prevalence of unauthorized child care providers, the report said, including the lack of available child care. More than 500 Army children were on wait lists for child care in Hawaii in 2018.