Warning: This article contains excerpts from an official police report relating to extremely disturbing child abuse. Some especially upsetting details have been omitted.
A MOTHER AND her boyfriend in the US state of Utah are facing child abuse homicide charges after the horrifying death of her young son this week.
Two-year-old James “JJ” Sieger Jr. was taken off life support on Monday, after allegedly being abused by his mother Jasmine Ruth Bridgeman (23), and her boyfriend Joshua Scott Schoenenberger (34).
According to an affidavit from police in the town of Layton, the attack last Saturday that led to the toddler’s death was just the latest in a series of horrific incidences of abuse.
After reportedly lying and telling investigators several different stories, Bridgeman admitted her boyfriend had become enraged that evening when JJ, who was toilet training, had a dirty nappy.
“Jasmine said Joshua took [JJ's] diaper off and smeared the poop from the diaper in [JJ's] face,” the report says.
Despite this, Bridgeman, by her own account, left her son to take a shower with Schoenenberger while she went outside to smoke a cigarette.
Hearing the boy screaming, she reportedly ran back inside, and found the toilet locked.
She heard what sounded like punching and shouting by her boyfriend, and when he opened the door, saw her two-year-old son lying on his back, vomiting and with a bloated stomach.
When he was admitted to hospital, JJ was unresponsive, not breathing, was bleeding internally, and had bruises all over his body.
Doctors were able to regain his pulse, and placed him on life support for the weekend, but he died on Monday.
After initially lying to police to cover for Schoenenberger, Bridgeman revealed she had witnessed her boyfriend savagely abusing her son on several previous occasions, after beating him, including with a belt.
In one instance, JJ had gone to toilet while taking a bath with Schoenenberger, which “upset” him.
He dropped the boy out of the bath tub from a height, and stepped on him as he lay unresponsive on his back, because of “how he treated his home.”
Both Bridgeman and Schoenenberger were initially charged with several counts of child abuse, but they are expected to be upgraded to homicide, since JJ died on Monday.
Earlier this week, the boy’s father, James Stieger, tearfully told local TV station KUTV Monday was “the worst and most difficult day of my life.”
He was just the best kid. He was funny, very smart.
“There are no words for what this baby went through and the pain he suffered,” the boy’s aunt Nicole Sieger added.
JJ’s grandmother, however, said his death could have been prevented, claiming she called police last month after seeing the boy around town, with a large bruise on his face.
Layton police say they followed up the report with local child protection services, but that Jasmine Bridgeman could not be located, having “disappeared” with JJ and another young child some four months ago.
Warning: The police affidavit contains extremely graphic and disturbing details of child abuse, but can be read here.
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