A South Carolina boy is safe and his family’s dog became a hero after the dog alerted the boy’s parents to an abusive babysitter. New parents Benjamin and Hope Jordan were very thorough in their search for a babysitter for their young son, Finn. After a positive background check on Alexis Khan, 22, the Jordans thought they had found a responsible person to care for her baby while they were at work.
Little did they know that the reality was the exact opposite, that Khan would verbally and physically abuse her 7-month-old son for nearly five months before she was caught. Thanks to the family dog, Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd mix Killian, Khan is now behind bars where she belongs.
Killian, the loyal dog, was the only witness to Finn’s abuse at the hands of his nanny, and the loyal pup wasn’t afraid his owners would know how he felt about Alexis Khan. Every time Khan entered Jordan’s house, Killian would growl and get between her and little Finn, apparently defending the baby from her babysitter. Benjamin and Hope were stunned.
“About five months into being our babysitter, we started noticing that our dog was very protective of our son when he walked in the door,” Benjamin tells her. “He was very aggressive towards her and sometimes we had to physically stop our dog from going from her to her.” Benjamin and Hope couldn’t believe that his dog, who acted so warm and friendly towards everyone else he had ever met, would behave in such an unusual way towards the nanny. Killian had repeatedly tried to warn Finn’s parents about the babysitter’s abusive behavior. Finally, Benjamin and Hope could no longer ignore what Killian was trying so desperately to convey. Hope suggested to her husband that they hide an iPhone under her sofa one day, hoping to record what was going on in her house.
With the phone out of sight, ready to capture the day’s events, Benjamin and Hope headed to work. They wondered if perhaps Khan yelled at Killian in his absence, which would have been unacceptable. But the Jordans weren’t prepared to find out that the woman they had trusted was acting violently toward his baby, and that’s exactly what they heard on the secret cellphone recording.
“I start with bad words,” explains Benjamin. “Then you hear slapping noises and his cry changes from a cry of anguish to a cry of pain. I just wanted to reach through the audio tape, go back in time and just grab my baby.”
Concerned parents even heard what they believed to be the sounds of Khan shaking Finn on the recording, something that could have easily killed or permanently disabled their son. “Knowing that for five months I had given my son to a monster, not knowing what was going on in my house that day,” Benjamin says in disbelief. Khan has pleaded guilty to assault and battery in a Charleston court. He now must serve 1 to 3 years in prison for abusing Finn. She will be on parole in 1 year, but she must remain on a child abuse registry upon her release.
Benjamin believes that if it weren’t for Killian, Finn might have lost his young life at the hands of his violent babysitter.
“If our dog hadn’t alerted us to the problems, if my wife’s instincts hadn’t told us to do something, it could have been Finn who was killed by the nanny,” says Benjamin. “You never know.”
Benjamin hopes his family’s story gives other parents a warning and encourages them not to ignore any signs that their children might be in danger, especially if those signs come from a faithful family pet.
“He’s a very nice dog, so showing aggression towards anyone is a sign that something is wrong,” Benjamin tells Fox News of hero dog Killian. “We hope that other parents … can learn from our lesson.”
