"If we can't protect the little ones then we as humans are failing God by not allowing plans to come to fruition," says Robert Thompson, the father of 5-month-old Jeremiah Eli Thompson whose death was ruled a homicide due to blunt-force trauma to the head. Baby Jeremiah, as Robert and his wife Melissa still like to call him, was a healthy, vibrant infant, when, along with his twin, Zachariah, was taken to the daycare facility approximately 7am on February 17, 2019. Less than two hours later, his mother, Melissa, would receive the phone call no parent wants to get .... her Baby Jeremiah was being taken to the hospital.

In this episode of The Offshoot podcast and aggregate, parents Robert and Melissa Thompson tell their story. They talk of their great loss, their Baby Jeremiah, and they talk of the trauma that still exists. There has been no accountability ... no one has yet to serve any prison time, despite a trail of the perpetrator who faces no repercussions. To Robert's heartbreak, he had to come to accept that systemic racism was also on trail in this small, rural South Carolina town of Dillon. It was an older Caucasian woman who was to face the consequences of her actions ... telling Robert and Melissa unvaried statements as to what happened; telling them of Jeremiah's alleged cough; shaking Jeremiah; the delay in calling Melissa; and the delay in taking Baby Jeremiah to the hospital.

Robert and Melissa are only now able to tell their story, to tell of the life and love of Baby Jeremiah because the gag order put on them by the government no longer has standing. They want no parent to experience their kind of loss. "Our focus is to get the story out and have laws changed on the federal level for daycares," says Robert. "Such as ... fines for not following protocols, cameras in all daycares, better pay." A deeply spiritual family, Robert and Melissa say they only want justice for Jeremiah.

What Robert and Melissa reveal in this episode of The Offshoot, what they reveal about missing evidence and not having an advocate, brings to the forefront disturbing accounts of systemic and racial disparities in rural South Carolina. Though neither Robert or Melissa wanted their story, the homicide of Baby Jeremiah, to be about race, they reveal a number of missteps by the law enforcement investigators, the confusing gap in the timeline for sequence of events, and the lack of work to hold anyone accountable as results of systemic racism. Their conclusion is that there were concerted efforts to keep a Caucasian woman out of prison ... she was and is still being protected. Despite that, Robert finds solace in this Biblical quote from Jeremiah 29:11 ... "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."