A mother from Ohio went to a wildlife area with the intention of abandoning her 6-year-old son, but as she drove away, the boy tried to get back inside the car and got run over by his own parent. Taking three of her children with her, the woman, who has been identified as 29-year-old Brittany reportedly drove over to a park to leave her son behind.
Brittany’s older son and daughter then watched from the car as 6-year-old James desperately tried to get back inside the vehicle. But as the mother sped off, young James got dragged along with the vehicle and was left injured.
About 30 to 40 minutes later, Brittany reportedly returned to the park to find James lifeless in the parking lot with an injury on his head. With the other two children still in the car, the mother “picked the child up, put him back in the vehicle and drove back (to their home on Crawford Street) where she took the child in the house and placed him in an upstairs bedroom,” according to the criminal complaint filed by the police.
After waiting through a whole night, Brittany reportedly went to Ohio River the next day on February 28 to dump her son’s corpse with help from her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 42.
Trying to push it off as a missing case, the mother and her boyfriend then went and informed the Middletown police at around 10:15 in the morning to report that her son was missing. But as the couple was questioned about the boy, the details of their stories did not match and the police grew suspicious, calling the situation “unusual.”
“Sadly, upon further questioning of Brittany Gosney and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, they now say that James was killed in Preble County a few days ago. The child’s body was brought back to Middletown, where they live, and later put into the Ohio River,” said a statement from the police.
Since confessing to her child’s death, “the mother is not showing much remorse at this time,” said Middletown Police Chief David Birk.
“We’ll know more once James is recovered and the coroner is able to do an autopsy,” added the chief.
There were no details on what the mother intended to do with her other two children, who were found unharmed after the incident but still witnessed the suffering that their 6-year-old brother went through.
Chief Birk said about the incident, “This has really touched my soul and my heart. My kids are older, but my youngest is 16, but I’m just sitting there, you know, the poor six-year-old has no idea what’s going on and what’s happening, and for the other kids to go through this too. It’s just heartbreaking.”
Following the couple’s arrest, Brittany was charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence, and her bond was set at $1 million. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, was charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, while his bond was set at $100,000.