Found Dead

Police Arrest Mom of Boy Found Dead in Car in Waterford

Waterford police have arrested the mother of a 5-year-old boy who was reported missing and was pronounced dead after being found in a vehicle at the family’s home in May.

Police said Monday that 31-year-old Whitney Bosselman, of Quaker Hill, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and risk of injury to a minor.

The police investigation started at 2:28 p.m. on May 3, when Bosselman called 911 and said her 5-year-old son was missing, police said.

The little boy had been home with his mother and had last been seen around 12:30 p.m., according to police. Bosselman later told police that her son, known to his parents as CK, was Autistic and non-verbal and had a history of leaving the house and wandering.

Officers responded to the family’s Maple Avenue home, searched inside and outside and found the boy minutes later buckled in a car seat in the back seat of a car that was parked on the property, police said. He was unconscious and had no pulse.

Firefighters and EMS responded and tried to resuscitate the child, but they were not able to and the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

During a news conference posted on Facebook Monday, police said they had determined that the conditions of the home were detrimental to the health and safety of other children who lived in the home and the state Department of Children and Families responded.

According to the arrest warrant, officers saw used diapers, bags of trash and moldy food on the floor of the home and the inside of the house smelled like urine and excrement.

Officers also noted how there were stains that appeared to be excrement on two mattresses and on the carpet in one bedroom. In a second bedroom, police found moldy yogurt, cereal and pretzels on the floor with clothes and toys. They said the bed sheets were all stained. Some stains appeared to be food-type stains while others were possibly bodily fluids, they said.

In the basement, an old mattress was found set up in a corner with no linens. Officers said they found a blanket, pillow and a used diaper next to the mattress on the cement floor.

Police noted that the door knobs to one bedroom and to the basement were missing.

When investigators went through Bosselman's phone, they said they found multiple concerning Google searches from March and April including "do people cry when they're dying," "teen dies in minivan" and "autistic children and reincarnation."

Investigators also found texts that they said Bosselman had sent about the child to her husband, Christopher, in the days before the child's death. In one instance, Bosselman texted Christopher that the child had broke a light in his room. Christopher responded, "Christ he is a [expletive] animal," and Bosselman responded "wish it were legal to put him in a cage when we couldn't watch him." In another instance, Christopher texted Bosselman "ya ck was about to ge [sic] murdered fir [sic] getting into stuff but he's being decent now." Another time, he texted Bosselman, "I hate that ducking kid won't do [expletive] right."

On May 7, Waterford Police received an anonymous tip on their website saying, "Whitney Bosselman is a gamer with noise cancelling headphones. Please look at her WoW (World of Warcraft) account/computer for active play around the time of her son's death in case she was gaming and not actually napping," according to the arrest warrant.

Investigators went through Bosselman's computers and found that a story about a father who confessed to killing his five-year-old Autistic son was visited several times in April. They also found that Bosselman's WoW account had been logged into 83 times between April 20 and May 3. The account had approximately 23 hours and 51 minutes of being actively logged into within that time. Investigators also found Bosselman's account sent 273 chat messages between May 2 at 10:53 p.m. and May 3 at 6:03 a.m.

Within her chat logs, police said Bosselman sent messages including "also would like a bunk bed that i could make into a cage thing for him at night," "seriously depressing though to have everything destroyed," and "just tired of poop and scribbles and pee."

Bosselman turned herself in to police Monday, with her attorney present. She appeared in New London Superior Court and pleaded not guilty.

The case was transferred and the next court date is Nov. 6.

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