Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit, Emily Marris watched a ventilator keep her daughter Brooklyn alive at 17 months old. She searched her phone for evidence to send California health and food safety investigators.

Regulators considered the case a priority. Soon, a girl age 6 who drank milk from the same farm arrived at the same San Diego hospital with the same potentially fatal illness and needed blood transfusions.

The cases emerged as social media influencers and President Donald Trump’s White House promoted unproven raw milk benefits while minimizing its risks. Over the past two years, hundreds of people across nine states had become sick after consuming raw milk or products made from it.

California licenses farms selling raw milk for human consumption, inspects their sanitation and requires regular pathogen testing. Legally sold milk also must carry clear warnings, but Moonlight Ridge was unlicensed and sold unlabeled gallons outside that system.

Messages showed owner Courtney Baker knew Brooklyn was drinking the milk. After learning that the child had developed a serious foodborne infection that doctors attributed to the milk, Baker continued advertising raw goat milk from a clean, tested herd.

Selling raw milk for human consumption without a license violates California law and can bring fines up to $10,000 and as much as a year in jail. An undercover investigator contacted the farm on June 17, 2025, and was told goat milk was sold by the gallon.

Marris found the milk through a private Facebook group after her chiropractor, Chris Boman, shared a photograph of refrigerated gallons. She was trying to wean Brooklyn and wanted an alternative after formula additives alarmed her and store bought cow milk caused severe constipation.

Baker, then 23, handed Marris an unlabeled jug that was still warm. Marris explained that the milk was intended for Brooklyn, and she and her husband later visited the farm, inspected the herd and received assurances about cleanliness and testing.

Brooklyn drank the milk for six months without incident. On June 2, she vomited after swim lessons, beginning a rapid decline that included alarming bloodwork, kidney failure and transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit at Rady Children’s Hospital.

Doctors diagnosed hemolytic uremic syndrome, in which microscopic blood clots clog small vessels and damage vital organs. A stool sample confirmed E. coli O157:H7, and doctors identified the raw milk as the likely source.

Marris informed Baker from the hospital on June 5. Although Baker said her test results had shown nothing abnormal, subsequent messages revealed that she had not tested for E. coli and appeared not to know how to do so.

Brooklyn required ventilation and dialysis, and at one point her blood became so acidic that her heart struggled to deliver enough blood and oxygen to her brain. She eventually began improving, but another child was already becoming dangerously ill.

Iris and David Galindo, both Navy veterans, had collected their first jug from Moonlight Ridge on June 2 and told Baker it was for their young daughter, Victoria. After bloody diarrhea and lethargy, Victoria was admitted to Rady on June 13 with the same disorder caused by the same E. coli strain.

Despite Marris urging Baker to stop sales, Marris saw a Facebook response advertising fresh raw goat milk from a tested herd. Baker later said she had stopped selling while awaiting results and asked Marris to remove a public warning about Brooklyn’s illness.

State investigators visited Moonlight Ridge on June 20. Baker told them the milk was intended only for pets, a designation that allows unlicensed California farms to sell raw milk if it is properly labeled, even though investigators had messages showing she knew children would drink it.

Investigators issued a cease and desist order and a violation notice, neither carrying a penalty. They allowed Baker to provide a half gallon sample herself, and limited state testing conducted 11 days later found no E. coli or several other pathogens.

Regulators then helped Baker resume unlicensed sales by registering and labeling the milk as pet food. The California Department of Food and Agriculture closed the case on Aug. 1, finding that she had sold unapproved milk products without a license but imposing no penalty.

Officials said proving sales for human consumption would have been necessary for a potential criminal referral. Baker later moved to Arizona, reopened her farm and maintained that state and private tests had found no pathogens.