Baby Chance's Dad Indicted On 1st-Degree Murder Charge

SARASOTA, FL — The father of slain North Port infant Chance Walsh has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.

A Sarasota County grand jury handed down the indictment on Joseph Walsh Tuesday, the Sarasota County State Attorney’s Office confirmed. Walsh is accused of abusing his newborn son, Chance, and causing his death.

Chance’s mother, Kristen Bury, was sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this year after entering a no contest plea on aggravated manslaughter charges. The plea deal that resulted in the sentence also requires Bury to testify against Joseph Walsh, who was initially charged with second-degree murder in the slaying.

Nine-week-old Chance’s body was found in North Port in October 2015. Sarasota County Sheriff’s detectives accused Walsh 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.

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.

See Also:

• 25-Year Sentence For Baby Chance’s Mom
• Sarasota County Infant’s Remains Found
• Infant’s Disappearance Shrouded in Mystery
• Baby Chance’s Dad Charged With Murder

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 woman 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,” a sheriff’s office media 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, ultimately led deputies to the location where Chance’s body was found in October. Detectives believe the child was killed in September and later buried in the wooded area where his remains were found.

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

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