An Ohio mother was indicted on 16 counts, including murder and abandonment, for the death of her 6-year-old son, who police say has been dumped on the Ohio River and has not yet been found.
Butler County prosecutors charged Brittany Gosney, 29, on Friday with a charge of murder, manslaughter and tampering with evidence, five counts of endangering children, three counts of kidnapping and abduction and two counts of gross abuse of a corpse.
Her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 42, was also indicted on three counts of kidnapping, kidnapping, danger to children, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
James Hutchinson, 6, died while his mother allegedly tried to leave him with his two brothers at Rush Run Park in Preble County, Ohio, on February 26, police said.
Hutchinson held the car while Gosney reportedly pulled away and was dragged away, according to court documents obtained by Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO. Hamilton reportedly pressured Gosney to abandon the children, according to a report by the Preble County Sheriff’s Office obtained by the WCPO.
Gosney reportedly brought his body back to his hometown, Middletown, Ohio, along with the other two children, who left unscathed, police said. Then, the following night, she and Hamilton drove at least an hour to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, to allegedly dump the body in the Ohio River, police said.
Hutchinson’s body has not yet been recovered. The treacherous conditions on the river hampered the search efforts, which are due to resume on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Police said they will not know all the circumstances of Hutchinson’s death until they receive the coroner’s report.
Gosney’s two surviving children, a boy and a girl in second grade, were removed from the home and placed in an orphanage, police said.
Court records do not list a lawyer for Gosney or Hamilton.
Gosney and Hamilton first reported Hutchinson as missing to Middletown police on February 28, Chief David Birk said during a police interview earlier this week.
A police alert said the 6-year-old boy was last seen wearing a red shirt and blue and red Batman pajama pants. The volunteers helped with the search efforts. Later that day, the police released an update that Hutchinson had indeed been killed.
The case was “unusual” from the start, said Birk, noting that Gosney and Hamilton went to the police the day after they allegedly said he had disappeared.
“When they come to the police lobby to report the disappearance of a child who has been missing for more than 12 hours or so, it was strange from the beginning,” said Birk.
There were also discrepancies between when Gosney and Hamilton allegedly said they last saw Hutchinson, he said.
“The whole situation was just a warning sign,” said the chief.
During the investigation, Gosney allegedly confessed to killing Hutchinson and that they “got rid of him” on the Ohio River, said Birk.
“The mother is not showing much remorse at the moment,” said the boss on Monday.
Police initially accused Gosney of murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, and Hamilton of corpse abuse and tampering with evidence.
Gosney has a fourth child who, prior to this incident, was placed in foster care and adopted, according to Birk, who noted that the family had been in contact with children and family services in the past.
The murder shook the Middletown community, which held a memorial on Tuesday for Hutchinson and established a memorial fund to support his two brothers.
Marlon Styles, superintendent of the Hutchinson’s Middletown school district, remembers the first grader as a “boy who likes to have fun” who “came running to the front of the school building with a giant smile on his face”.
“That was James on a daily basis,” Styles said during Monday’s briefing.
Hutchinson’s father told the WCPO that he “brought joy to everyone”.
“He always liked to hug people and everything,” Lewis Hutchinson told the station. “He was a great boy.”