SHE DID NOTHING WRONG. SHE WAS ARRESTED ANYWAY

In 2020, Breeanna Bascombe was detained on a murder-related charge. She was released, but her life will never be the same

- Eternity Martis

BREEANNA BASCOMBE HAD BEEN UP ALL NIGHT.

Tiana*, her six-month-old daughter with big brown eyes and a light-brown complexion-a spitting image of Breeanna's ex-boyfriend Dayne Sitladeen-wouldn't stop crying. She tried everything. It was one of those nights when the last thread of patience snaps and so does a sleep-deprived parent: Breeanna yelled at Tiana.

It didn't work, of course. It just made Breeanna feel worse. She continued rocking and shushing Tiana until the baby eventually gave in to sleep.

The past few months hadn't been easy on Breeanna. Ten months prior, in May 2019, Sitladeen, a Toronto rapper known as Yung Lava, disappeared when he became wanted for the first-degree murder of 26-year-old Blain Grindley. Two of the men also wanted for the murder had surrendered, but Sitladeen left Breeanna without any clue about where he was headed or what he had done. At the time, Breeanna was pregnant with Tiana, the couple's second child.

She wasn't upset that Sitladeen was gone. They had broken up months earlier because of Sitladeen's lying and cheating and run-ins with the law. They met in 2014, when Breeanna, then 21 years old, was working at Conair, a hair-product manufacturer, to support her dream of being an actress. She saw a light shining over him, as if God had selected him for her. She was head over heels. But that feeling was long gone. Now, when Breeanna saw his face on the evening news as she nursed her newborn and tried to move on with her life, she was, frankly, over it.