AIDAN EDWARD BOSSINGHAM - 13 yo (2014)/ Charged: Mother; Jessica Jensen - Minot ND

Mom Charged With Murder For Allegedly Starving 21-Pound Son

AP | by KEVIN BURBACH
Posted: 05/01/2014 3:25 pm EDT
Updated: 05/01/2014 6:59 pm EDT Print Article

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota woman whose 13-year-old son died weighing just 21 pounds sometimes locked the boy in a dirty bedroom filled with trash, a detective testified Thursday during a hearing where a judge determined she would stand trial on murder and other charges.

Judge Gary Lee heard testimony and arguments from attorneys in Minot before deciding the state had more than met the burden of proof necessary to try the 35-year-old Jessica Jensen, of Kenmare, for one count of murder, one count of neglect or abuse of a child and one count of failure to report the death of a child. Jensen has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

State Medical Examiner William Massello said in his autopsy that Jensen's son died from chronic starvation due to untreated juvenile appetite disorder. He listed the manner of death as homicide.

Jensen's attorney, Bob Martin, argued that she neglected her son's untreated medical condition but did not deliberately starve him and should not be charged with murder.

For more than an hour, prosecutor Kelly Dillon interviewed Detective Laura Forbes, an investigator whose answers painted a detailed picture of the living conditions in some areas of Jensen's house and the alleged mistreatment of her middle child. Forbes said Jensen told the detective that she had at times locked her son in a bedroom on the second floor of her home.

Forbes testified that both windows in the bedroom were covered in black plastic and were boarded up with plywood. She said the room was filled with trash, that the room smelled of feces and urine and that food was splattered across the walls.

Court documents show Jensen had homeschooled her children since 2009. Forbes said investigators found few educational materials in the home; everything they found fit in one paper grocery bag full of books.

Forbes said they also found a Kindle reading device that had several books about child abuse on it.

Forbes said Jensen's mother told detectives that she believed Jensen did not want her son. She also said that after Jensen's son had died, Jensen allegedly told her mother that "she was at ease."

Jensen is charged with failing to report the death because authorities contend she waited more than two hours to call police. By the time police arrived, the boy's body was stiff.

Forbes said that when she saw the body in the hospital on the night the boy died, she didn't realize at first that he was in the bed. He was "very thin, only bones with skin on them," she said.

Jensen told investigators her son had a hormonal growth problem and that his pituitary gland did not function properly. She said her son would eat and then throw up.

Forbes said medical records show he had not seen a doctor for several years.

Forbes testified that there was plenty of food in the house and it didn't appear the family was tight on money.

Jensen didn't testify Thursday, but sat silent, often looking down at her attorney's notes.

Martin requested more time to file motions before the trial, citing his busy schedule. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for September.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/01/jessica-jensen-murder-son_n_5248830.html

N.D. mom starved 13-year-old son, who weighed 21 pounds at death: authorities
Jessica Lee Jensen, 35, refused to give her son medical treatment for a growth problem, authorities say, and wouldn't feed the boy, who starved to death in January. The teen weighed at death what a 2- or 3-year-old toddler should weigh.

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 9:05 PM

A North Dakota woman is charged with murdering her 13-year-old son, who weighed only 21 pounds when he died of starvation in January.

Tiny and frail Aidan Edward Bossingham was found dead in his mother’s garbage-strewn Kenmare home, which authorities said was unkempt and reeked of feces.

Jessica Lee Jensen, 35, called police last month to tell them the teen had “passed on,” the Grand Forks Herald reported.

Rigor mortis had already set in on the boy’s body — which was the size of a small toddler’s — meaning he had likely been dead for some time, a medical examiner determined.

Nothing was found in the boy’s stomach, though his mother claimed she’d fed him breakfast and then homemade “Pedialyte” just before his death.

She told officers the tiny teen would eat and then throw up, though a medical examiner found no evidence of her claim.

“Due to the age of the child, it’s extremely tragic,” Capt. Bob Barnard of the Ward County Sheriff’s Office told the Herald.

The teen hadn’t been to a doctor since 2008, despite being diagnosed with a human growth hormone deficiency that required regular treatments. At a doctors appointment in 2006, the boy weighed 29 pounds — eight pounds more than he weighed at the time of his death some eight years later.

The abused teen was described as “gaunt, with bones and joints visible under the skin,” with “bruises and contusions on various parts of his body.”

Jensen told investigators she didn’t take the kids to a doctor because she could “solve the problems” herself.
Jensen was also charged with abuse of neglect of a child for two other children, a 14-year-old son and 7-year-old girl.

The two boys hadn’t been to school since 2009, though investigators found little evidence the woman had made any effort to educate the kids inside their squalid home near the Canadian border.

The youngest had never been to school, could not write her own name and did not know her age, according to court documents.

Little Aidan died from chronic starvation due to untreated juvenile appetite disorder, a medical examiner ruled.

His mother is charged with his murder and held in lieu of $250,000 bond.

The surviving children are staying with relatives, the Herald reported.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/n-mom-starved-13-year-old-son-weighed-21-pounds-death-authorities-article-1.1734716#ixzz32NacJmQe