Sitter Allegedly Gave Mom Baby in Car Seat—Dead

Marissa Tietsort accused of killing 2-month-old
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 5, 2019 6:00 AM CST
Sitter Allegedly Killed Baby, Returned Body to Mother
This undated booking photo released by Marathon County Sheriff's Office shows Marissa Tietsort of Wausau, Wis.   (Marathon County Sheriff's Office via AP)

A Wisconsin babysitter who allegedly killed a 2-month-old boy then pretended he was alive when she gave the boy back to his mother has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide. A criminal complaint filed Friday says 28-year-old Marissa Tietsort of Wausau caused the infant's death in October, then put him in a snowsuit and car seat and returned him to his mother—without telling her the child was dead. Authorities found the mother trying to revive the boy, but he had died hours earlier of blunt force head injuries from multiple impacts to the head, reports the AP. During a court appearance Friday, Judge Jill Falstad issued a $500,000 cash bond for Tietsort and ordered that she have no contact with children or with the victim's family, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

According to the criminal complaint, the mother of the 2-month-old boy dropped him and his older brother off at Tietsort's home on Oct. 18. When Tietsort's boyfriend got home that evening, they went to McDonald's and she brought the dead baby with them, according to the complaint. When the victim's mother came to pick up her sons later, the infant was in his car seat with a hat pulled down over his eyes. The mother told police she thought he was sleeping, the complaint said. The boy's mother later realized her son was not breathing, cold, and stiff. Officers arrived to find the boy had "ashen skin tone, his jaw was clenched, and his lips were blue." After she gave the boy back to his mother, Tietsort, her boyfriend, and their son went swimming at a local hotel, the complaint said.

(More child murder stories.)

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