On October 18, a Wisconsin mother dropped off her 2-month-old son and his older brother with their 28-year-old babysitter, Marissa Tietsort.
Tietsort, who was pregnant with her sixth child, sent the mom a disturbing message a few hours later, according to the Wausau Daily Herald.
She warned the mom that a news story was published about her being charged with child abuse in relation an incident in August.
The babysitter told the mother not to tell anyone that she was babysitting her boys because she was not allowed to be in contact with children.
About the three hours later, the mom picked up her children from Tietsort, who did not mention any issues, and went to a laundromat.
The babysitter had put the 2-month-old, Benson, in a snowsuit and pulled a hat down over his eyes. The mother assumed her son was sleeping because it was past his bedtime.
But minutes after picking him up, she realized her son wasn’t breathing and had stiff limbs, Wausau Daily Herald reports.
Police quickly arrived at the scene and noted that the baby “had an ashen skin tone, his jaw was clenched and his lips were blue,” read the criminal complaint.
It was soon determined that he was dead.
The babysitter was located the following day and admitted that the child died under her care, but didn’t say that she killed him.
An autopsy revealed that the child died from “blunt force head injuries with multiple impacts to the head.” He also had injuries to his body.
Police later determined that Tietsort had gone to McDonald’s with the child that day and acted as if he was alive.
On Friday, the babysitter was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, Washington Post reports.
But this wasn’t her first run-in with alleged child abuse.
The same month of the infant’s death, the babysitter was charged in relation to another babysitting incident, when the 11-month-old she was watching was hospitalized with facial injuries.
Those are the charges she warned the infant’s mother about.
Tietsort had also lost custody of four of her children after her boyfriend filed a temporary restraining order against her in 2010, alleging that she was abusing their children.
According to the Washington Post, social workers didn’t know she had a fifth child or that she was pregnant.
The babysitter is due back in court on January 18. In a letter the judge, Tietsort defended herself. She wrote:
“I’m not a threat to society or a monster. I’m a great mom and I love everybody.”
She is currently being held on $500,000 bond.