Mom: I Didn't Know My Son Died Til I Smelled Him

Jarrod Tutko's father didn't tell anyone boy had died
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2014 11:16 AM CDT
Mom: I Didn't Know My Son Died Til I Smelled Him
Jarrod Tutko. Police charged Tutko on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014, with child endangerment, concealing the death of a child and abuse of a corpse.   (AP Photo/Harrisburg Police)

Today, from the dregs of humanity: Eight-year-old Jarrod Tutko Jr. died on Tuesday on the third floor of his home. On Friday night, mom Kimberly Tutko asked her husband, Jarrod Sr., what was the cause of the smell coming from the third floor, at which point, in the telling of PennLive, the boy's father "went upstairs and came back with body of Jarrod Jr., wrapped in a sheet and laid him on the bathroom floor." Or, as cops in Harrisburg, Pa., put it, the elder Tutko confessed that their son had died only "when the odor of decomposition became too strong." Says Kimberly Tutko: "I said to him 'Why didn't you say anything?' He said he was too afraid to say anything because of other kids in the house."

Kimberly Tutko tells CBS that her son was severely mentally disabled and prone to acting out and smearing feces on walls, and that his father was his primary caregiver while she cared for another disabled child. She finds a curious victim in this: "I'm being picked on for being a bad mom, 'oh you didn't know that something was wrong with him?' I didn't, because every single day, it was a normal routine." As the AP notes, Jarrod Tutko Sr. now faces a raft of charges including child endangerment, concealing the death of a child, and abuse of a corpse. Bail has been set at $500,000; the Tutkos have been relieved of caring for their other five children. Jarrod Jr.'s cause of death has yet to be determined. (More Pennsylvania stories.)

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