In the weeks before a 5-year-old autistic boy died in a hot car outside the family’s Waterford home, his mother made what police called concerning searches on her phone, according to the arrest warrant application.
The arrest warrant for her says the searches police found included “do people cry when they’re dying,” "teen dies in minivan” and “autistic children and reincarnation.”
Police started investigating when Bossleman called 911 at 2:28 p.m. on May 3 to report that her 5-year-old son was missing, police said.
She told officers that she took a nap in her room around 11:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. and her son was gone when she woke up around 2 p.m.
Bosselman told investigators that her son, known to his parents as CK, was autistic and non-verbal and had a history of leaving the house and wandering.
Officers who responded to the family’s Maple Avenue home searched inside and outside and found the boy minutes later buckled in a car seat in the back seat of a car that was parked on the property, police said. It was 85 degrees that day and the little boy was unconscious and had no pulse, according to police.
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Firefighters and EMS tried to resuscitate the child, but they were not able to and the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
On May 7, Waterford Police received an anonymous tip through their website that said, "Whitney Bosselman is a gamer with noise cancelling headphones. Please look at her WoW (World of Warcraft) account/computer for active play around the time of her son's death in case she was gaming and not actually napping," the arrest warrant states.
Police found that Bosselman's WoW account had been logged into 83 times between April 20 and May 3. They also found Bosselman's account sent 273 chat messages between May 2 at 10:53 p.m. and May 3 at 6:03 a.m., according to the warrant.
Within her chat logs for the game were messages Bosselman sent, including "also would like a bunk bed that i could make into a cage thing for him at night," "seriously depressing though to have everything destroyed," and "just tired of poop and scribbles and pee," according to the arrest warrant application.
Police also searched Bossleman’s phone and found a search at 7:01 p.m. on March 28 for “do people cry when they’re dying.” On April 13, there was a search at 7:37 a.m. for "Teen dies in minivan.” Two days later, there was a search for “autistic children and reincarnation,” according to the arrest warrant application.
When investigators went through Bosselman's computers, they found that a story about a father who confessed to killing his 5-year-old autistic son was visited several times in April.
The state Department of Children and Families was also contacted for the investigation and the report on the department’s investigation said Bosselman showed a serious disregard for the boy’s safety by failing to adequately supervise her autistic son, resulting in his death, according to the arrest warrant application.
The report also said the family’s home was deplorable and the children were living in their own filth.
The arrest warrant says officers found used diapers, bags of trash and moldy food on the floor of the home and the inside of the house smelled like urine and excrement.
Officers also noted how there were stains that appeared to be excrement on two mattresses and on the carpet in one bedroom.
In a second bedroom, police said they found moldy yogurt, cereal and pretzels on the floor with clothes and toys. They said the bed sheets has stains, some of which stains appeared to be from food while others were possibly bodily fluids.
Bosselman turned herself in to police Monday, with her attorney present. She appeared in New London Superior Court and pleaded not guilty.
The case was transferred and the next court date is Nov. 6.
