Baby Chance's Dad Charged With 1st Degree Murder

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has announced that the father of a 9-week-old baby boy found buried in North Port last week has been charged with first-degree murder.

Joseph Walsh, 36, is accused of beating the infant to death and then leaving his body to decompose in his crib before putting him in a shallow grave dug off Elliot Court in North Port.

Walsh was booked into the Sarasota County Jail at noon on Tuesday. He is currently being held on one count of child neglect and one count of felony first-degree murder. No bond has been set.

Baby Chance’s mother, Kristen Bury, 32, was arrested Oct. 16 on child neglect and homicide charges. She is also being held in the Sarasota County Jail without bond.

The search for Chance began on Oct. 4 when his maternal grandmother contacted the Sarasota sheriff’s office to say she had not seen the then 9-week-old baby since Sept. 9, the sheriff’s office said. She and the boy’s paternal grandmother made a number of attempts to check on the baby’s welfare.

Chance’s parents “are longtime drug users,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a media release about the search.

Family members heard from the couple that they had been involved in a car accident in South Carolina. The couple, the sheriff’s office said, provided conflicting reports about Chance in relation to the crash. They told some relatives that Chance was unharmed, but others heard the boy died, the sheriff’s office said. Still another relative was told the baby was given to a women at a hotel in Georgia.

“Detectives confirmed with South Carolina law enforcement that there was no baby in the vehicle at the time of the crash and no room for a car seat,” the release said. “They also confirmed with Georgia law enforcement that the couple stayed at an Augusta hotel but there was no baby with them. A woman staying at the hotel reported that Kristen tried to sell baby clothes to her and that Kristen told her the baby had died three weeks earlier.”

Walsh and Bury were charged with child neglect by the sheriff’s office and were brought into custody in Jasper County, South Carolina.

Bury, the sheriff’s office said, led deputies to the location where Chance’s body was found last Thursday.

Booking photos and photo of Chance Walsh courtesy of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office