Man Severed Spine of Ex-Girlfriend’s 2-Year-Old Daughter Just Days After She Broke Up with Him

A Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison after he severed the spine of a 2-year-old girl in his care, causing her to die a week after her mother broke up with him. 

After the jury deliberated for nearly two hours, they found 27-year-old Travis Ray Thompson guilty of first-degree murder for killing 2-year-old Jacklyn Schwingel, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said in a statement.  

On May 2, 2022, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office received reports of child abuse when a 2-year-old was rushed to the emergency room in critical condition. Doctors attempted life-saving measures but Jacklyn couldn’t be saved and was pronounced dead, according to the attorney’s office statement. 

Jacklyn’s mother had left her daughter in the care of Thompson that morning, and headed off to work. 25 minutes after leaving for work, she got a call from Thompson who said that there was something wrong with the toddler, the sheriff’s office said.

The mother told the sheriff’s office that when she arrived, “Jacklyn was lifeless, with a shallow pulse and a distended abdomen.” Both the mother and Thompson got into a vehicle and took Jacklyn to a nearby hospital when she stopped breathing. 

The mother told Thompson to call 911, and an ambulance showed up at a nearby business to transport the 2-year-old for medical treatment, the attorney’s office statement said. 

When the medical team at the hospital suspected the child was suffering from internal bleeding, they notified the sheriff’s office and the Department of Children and Families. 

In an interview with detectives, Thompson claims he was in a different room when he heard a loud noise and found Jacklyn unresponsive and not breathing. “Despite being the only person left with the victim, Thompson claimed he did not know how the victim became injured,” the attorney’s office said in their statement. 

On Sept. 1, 2022, the Medical Examiner’s Officer determined that Jacklyn’s cause of death was traumatic injuries to her torso, including a severing of her spine and internal bleeding in her abdomen. 

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The Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Thompson had to apply significant gradual force to Jacklyn’s upper and lower body, bending her backward beyond her “natural range of motion” until her back broke, they wrote in a statement. 

“This monster stole the life of an innocent child, and today, the justice system made sure he will never walk free again,” Bill Gladson, State Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit said. “Life in prison is too good for this kind of evil.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.