Six-year-old Dies Grabbing Back of Mom’s Speeding Car as She Tried to Abandon Him in a Park: Police

A six-year-old Ohio boy was killed trying to get back into his mom’s car as she abandoned him at a park, police have claimed.

James Hutchinson had been reported missing by his mother Brittany Gosney; but upon further questioning by police she admitted he had been killed days earlier, and his body had been dumped in a river.

Middletown Police issued an alert on Sunday morning looking for the missing boy, 3’ft tall, weighing 42 lbs, last seen wearing a red shirt with blue and red Batman pajama pants. The alert prompted a huge response as organized search teams began scouring the area.

But less than 24 hours later, police canceled the search with an update: “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.”

According to court documents, Gosney told investigators she took James to Rush Run Park with the intention of leaving him there.

But as she sped off, the boy attempted to get back in the car, but got dragged behind it, NBC4i reported.

Gosney said she drove off, and returned to the park 30 or 40 minutes later, where she found James lying in the parking lot with a head injury. She said she believed he was dead, so she took the body back to her house on Crawford Street and stashed it in an upstairs bedroom.

After her other children were asleep, she and Hamilton drove more than an hour with the body to a bridge over the Ohio river, and dumped it in. The body has still not been recovered.

“We will be working with trained searchers in an attempt to recover James’s body” Middletown PD said in its update. “The river is very high and treacherous, so we will not be disclosing the exact location in hopes of avoiding another tragic incident.”

At a press conference, a visibly upset Chief of Police David Birk said the mother had not yet given a motive.

“She’s not showing much remorse at this time, but she has confessed,” he said.

He said the initial missing child report had “red flags all over”, as the mother and boyfriend’s stories contradicted each other.

“No six year old deserves this,” he added.

Among Gosney’s many Facebook profiles is one where she describes her employment as “take care of my kids at Full Time Mommy! :)”

She is facing charges of murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. Hamilton is charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

The two other children in the household have been removed from the home. Gosney has a fourth child, whom she does not have custody of.

Middletown City Schools Superintendent Marlon Styles, who described James as “a wonderful student, he was a fun-loving kid,” said a celebration of his short life will be held on Tuesday evening.