Prosecutors: Mom fatally set 4-year-old son on fire in bathtub
MILWAUKEE -- Prosecutors allege a Milwaukee woman killed her 4-year-old son by setting him on fire in a bathtub in their apartment.
Twenty-three-year-old Amelia DiStasio faces a charge of first-degree intentional homicide.
According to the complaint, authorities were called about smoke at DiStasio's south side apartment Sept. 28 and found her son Antonio's burned and lifeless body in the bathtub. His hands had been bound behind his back with seven belts, and a plastic garbage bag was over his head. An open bottle of cooking oil was in the bathroom.
"The majority of the victim's body was burned," read a criminal complaint obtained by CBS affiliate WDJT.
A pet guinea pig was also found drowned in a cage next to the bathtub, according to the complaint.
Neighbors tell the station they heard screaming the night before the grisly discovery was made. According to the complaint, a resident of the same apartment complex told police that she heard the victim say, "Please mommy, stop! I won't do it again!"
She then said she heard the suspect yell: "Shut up!"
The mother was not home when police responded. A witness said she saw DiStasio climb out of the apartment window and run away.
A police officer later found DiStasio walking.
The complaint says investigators found Web searches on the woman's phone including "How do canabals die" [sic] and "How to kill a canabal" [sic]. The phone had also accessed a message board dedicated to an online game billed as a horror survival game in which players fight cannibals, WDJT reports.
The message board detailed ways to kill cannibals within the game, which included, "Kill it with fire!" The message board also referenced how in the game, cannibals like to "bathe in oil."
The detective who wrote the complaint said that was significant because of the open bottle of cooking oil found at the crime scene.
DiStasio remains jailed with bail set at $400,000. It's unclear if she has an attorney.
