MILWAUKEE, Wisc. (WHDH) — A woman in Wisconsin is accused of killing her four-year-old son by setting him on fire in a bathtub.
Amelia DiStasio, 23, is charged with first degree intentional homicide in the death of her son Antonio, Fox News reports.
According to the criminal complaint, the Milwaukee Fire Department was dispatched to a report of smoke at a home around 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 28.
When firefighters entered the apartment, they observed smoke from the stove as well as a from pile of clothing in the bathtub.
That’s when firefighters found the lifeless child with his hands bound behind his back with several belts and a garbage bag over his head.
“The majority of his body was burned,” the complaint stated.
Investigators said it appeared the victim’s body had been set on fire with the use of some kind of accelerant.
As they went through the home, they found a pet guinea pig drowned in its cage next to the tub, along with a bottle of cooking oil on top of the bathroom sink. Investigators noted the apartment’s smoke detector had been removed and submergd in water.
According to Fox 6 Milwaukee, a witness who lives in the same apartment building told officers the mother and her young boy moved in two months prior to his death, noting Amelia “wasn’t friendly and kept to herself.”
The neighbor also told investigators that, one day before the child died, she heard the young boy say, “Please Mommy, stop! I won’t do it again,” to which she heard the mother yell back, “Shut up.”
Another witness told officers she saw a woman jump from the windowsill of the apartment building the same day firefighters responded to the scene.
Police apprehended Amelia DiStasio later that same day after an officer spotted her. If convicted, she faces life in prison.
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