A British Au Pair Was Convicted of Murdering an 8-Month-Old. A Shocking Twist Led Her to Leave Prison Days Later By Virginia Chamlee

The nation was riveted by the case of a teenage au pair who, in 1997, was charged and convicted on charges of murder after an infant in her care died of brain injuries attorneys would later argue she had caused. But while a jury convicted her of second-degree murder, a judge overturned the verdict, reducing the charge to manslaughter and sentencing the then-19-year-old to the time she had already served while awaiting trial: 279 days.

Judge Hiller Zobel made the fateful decision to reduce the charges, writing that he was convinced that she had injured the baby out of “confusion” and “immaturity” rather than malice.

PEOPLE detailed Zobel’s carefully crafted 16-page opinion, in which he wrote that any evidence Woodward had maliciously killed or gravely injured the child were unconvincing.

“Frustrated by her inability to quiet the crying child, she was a ‘little rough with him,'” wrote Zobel, quoting the au pair’s own testimony and writing, “under circumstances where another, perhaps wiser, person would have sought to restrain the physical impulse.”

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The case was a tragic one from the start and began on February 4, 1997, when au pair Louise Woodward — who had been caring for 8-month-old Matthew Eappen and his two-year-old brother during a gap year after high school — called 911 in Newton, Massachusetts, to report a baby who was “barely breathing.”

Matthew was taken to Boston’s Children’s Hospital, where doctors deduced his injuries included a skull fracture, subdural hematoma, and retinal hemorrhaging. Woodward was arrested just one day later — on February 5, 1997 — and accused of violently shaking the child.

Unresponsive, Matthew was taken off life support on February 9. Woodward was charged with first-degree murder in March.

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The trial divided those who believed Woodward’s actions had been intentional and those who were swayed by her attorney’s arguments that Matthew had died after an accidental injury aggravated an early, unexplained skull fracture.

The defense’s medical experts maintained that baby Matthew’s brain showed older blood clots, as well as a two-week-old broken wrist, arguing the injury had been sustained weeks prior to the 911 call.

Per a CNN article at the time, Woodward herself had maintained that the baby was struggling to breathe upon waking from a nap, and that she had shaken him gently to try to wake him, but had not otherwise abused him. In her testimony, she also said Matthew may have hit his head the day prior to being taken to the hospital, after falling near his playroom.

But those arguments did little to sway the jury, who were convinced by the prosecution’s claims that Woodward preferred late nights to childcare duties, and that she had acted with malicious intent.

On October 30, 1997, a grand jury delivered its verdict: Woodward had been found guilty of second-degree murder, which would mean a mandatory life sentence, with parole only possible after 15 years served.

Less than two weeks later — on November 10, 1997 — Judge Zobel reduced that conviction to involuntary manslaughter.

A November 1997 PEOPLE cover story detailed how the case and ensuing convictions left many divided: Louise Woodward, the 18-year-old au pair, was British, with many of her supporters rallying for her from England throughout the trial.

In America, though, the overturning of the conviction was a second shock to a community already stunned by the child’s death.

As Wilma Spellman, Matthew’s maternal grandmother, told PEOPLE: “We all could have fallen off our chairs. We thought the truth would be brought forward and justice would be served, but that just didn’t happen here.”

Woodward, meanwhile, has consistently maintained her innocence, offering a rare interview to The Mail in 2007.

“I know there are some people out there just waiting for me to have a baby so they can say nasty things,” she said at the time, per ABC News. “That upsets me, but that is not going to stop me leading my life. I am innocent. I have done nothing wrong. I am entitled to enjoy my life. I am not going to apologize for being happy.”

Per ABC News, she went on to work as a salsa dance teacher and got married to the operator of a truck rental company and the two had a baby in 2014.