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Documents detail turbulent, disgusting home life of couple wanted for child's murder

Posted at 6:14 PM, Jan 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-08 19:21:32-05

The 7 Investigators are learning this isn't the first time Gabby Barrett’s mother and her boyfriend have been accused of serious crimes.

Candice Diaz and Brad Fields were no strangers to local police, from weapons charges to claims of interfering with a police investigation. 

But records from a call to police from two years ago give us the best sense of what went on inside the family's troubled home.

In May of 2016, police were called to the Rawsonville Woods neighborhood for a case of domestic assault. Police records say when they arrived, officers found a dog that had been shot, bleeding from its hindquarter. 

Candice Diaz told police that her boyfriend, Brad Fields, had “punched her several time(s) in the head” and smashed her cell phone so she couldn’t call the police.

She said he’d also shot her dog and himself in the leg and shouted at her: “see if you can outrun these bullets.”

However, Diaz says her boyfriend did not shoot at her.

Once inside the house, police reported that the house smelled foul, saying they found old garbage, decaying food and dog urine inside, that there was dog feces in the children’s room and flies throughout the house.

Police also found multiple crack pipes and a gas mask, several knives, ammunition and multiple firearms. 

Later on, Candice Diaz would tell police that the weapons were hers and that she tried to file down one of the gun’s serial numbers, which is a felony.

Diaz was charged and was ultimately sentenced to probation.

In response to the 2016 call to police, Candice Diaz told police that her boyfriend suffered from schizophrenia and did not take all of his medications.

Despite convictions for both Diaz and Fields, and the filthy and dangerous conditions of the home, there were no Child Protective Services cases open against either of them.

Now, in response to this case, a CPS investigation has been opened involving the couple's one-year-old child.

Incident report 1 by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd

Incident report 2 by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd