Babysitter Returned Dead Boy To Mom In Car Seat: Report

WAUSAU, WI -- Prosecutors in Wisconsin say a babysitter killed the 2-month-old boy she was watching, only to give the boy back to his mom while pretending he was still alive.

Authorities say 28-year-old Marissa Tietsort of Wausau has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide. If convicted, Tietsort faces life in prison without parole. She's currently being held in the Marathon County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Marathon County, officers responded to the Northway Coin Laundry in Wausau on Oct. 18 on a report of a child who was not breathing and did not have a pulse. When officers investigated, they learned that the child was deceased.

Police said the child's mother dropper her off at Tietsort's residence at about 3:30 p.m. that day. When the child's mother picked up her 2-month-old by later that evening, investigators said Tietsort had the child - already deceased - bundled up in a car seat with a cap pulled over his eyes. The child's mother thought her son was asleep, according to police.

According to police, it wasn't too much later before the child's mother discovered that her son was deceased.

When police questioned Tietsort, she told police that the child died in her care earlier that day. She admitted to putting the boy's lifeless body on the floor of her home, only to dress him in a snowsuit, and place his body in the car seat with blankets, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators say Tietsort went swimming with her boyfriend after she returned the deceased child to his mother.

According to the criminal complaint, an autopsy on the child determined that he died from blunt force head injuries with multiple impacts to the head. He also had a fractured tailbone, according to reports.

According to court records, Tietsort also has been charged in Oct. 2018 with child abuse. Tietsort pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia in a 2013 case, and also receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance, and resisting an officer in 2014.

Image Via Marathon County Jail