APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – An Appleton mother has been sentenced in connection with the death of her 13-year-old daughter.
Nicole Gussert, 39, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, less two of time served, and 10 years extended supervision. Gussert got an extra four years in prison for selling her prescription Adderall to friends.
Police say what they saw at Gussert’s home on May 29, 2017 shocked them.
“It’s the thing of nightmares,” said Officer Tom Zieman of the Appleton Police Department. “It’s a smell that you don’t really forget – the garbage, the refuse, the rotten food and then the odor of human death.”
Appleton PD Lieutenant Carlos Del Plaine described it as a “God-awful, filthy place.”
Brianna Gussert’s body was found curled up in bed and rotting, with an empty feeding tube wrapped around her neck.
“Brianna had been dead for quite a while,” Del Plaine explained.
As Zieman gave his account of how Brianna looked, it’d prove to be too much for Brianna’s father Greg Gussert and other family members in court Thursday, who stormed out of the courtroom halfway through Zieman’s testimony.
“Brianna’s condition was horrendous – she was yellow, powdered and had already really started to decay; it was clear that this hadn’t happened this morning,” Zieman recounted.
“Her physical appearance was…I would describe it as only comparable to something you’d see in a lesson about the Holocaust.”
A rare birth condition left Brianna unable to speak or walk.
Gussert didn’t remember the last time she fed Brianna, according to court documents.
“But yet, can feed the dog water every two hours to make sure the dog is hydrated, and to make sure that the dog has food!” said Outagamie County district attorney Melinda Tempelis.
Or, when her daughter’s diaper had been changed.
“It looked like her diaper weighed more than she did, at this point,” Zieman said.
Police think Brianna was alone in her bedroom for days.
“Brianna’s death was a long, drawn-out, suffering death,” said Tempelis.
Fighting tears, Dean Schroepfer Nicole Gussert’s father said, “Brianna was my special granddaughter from the day she was born.”
Gussert’s parents blamed their daughter’s medication for mental illness.
“She didn’t know what time or day it was,” Schroepfer said. “She was not aware of this side effect.”
And a system that failed.
“Nicole, Brianna and all of us here today were let down by a system that was set up to protect Brianna,” he said.
Tempelis said by Gussert ensuring her dog was cared for, along with other actions preceding her daughter’s death, it was clear she was capable of understanding the needs of others.
“She is able to care for another living creature, but doesn’t have the decency that weekend, at all, to walk upstairs and check on her daughter. I can’t imagine anything more appalling!”
Tempelis says this case isn’t about the system, it’s about a young girl, who loved the Packers and the Brewers, dependent on a mother who’s going to prison for child neglect.
