Milwaukee mother charged with intentional homicide after setting 4-year-old on fire in bathtub
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Amelia Distasio, 23-years-old, is now charged with First Degree Intentional Homicide following the death of her 4-year-old son.
Warning: Graphic Details
The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the home in the 1700 block of Grant Street around 7:30 a.m. on September 28 for a report of smoke.
Upon arrival, crews located a pile of clothes in the bathtub smoldering. Inside the bathtub was also the body of a lifeless child with his hands bound behind his back with seven belts. The child had a plastic garbage bag over his head and the majority of his body was burned.
A pet guinea pig was also found drowned in the cage next to the bathtub.
According to the criminal complaint, a resident of the apartment that Distasio and her 4-year-old son lived in told police that she heard yelling on Wednesday evening. She allegedly heard the victim say, "Please mommy, stop! I won't do it again!" She then allegedly heard the suspect yell: "Shut up!"
A witness told police that she saw the suspect running away from the home looking "frazzled" on the date the homicide occurred.
Distasio was taken into custody shortly before noon on September 28. Officers conducted a search on the suspect's phone and found that she had searched for "Canabsls due." "How do canabals die" and "How to kill a canabal." The suspect's Google searches were done shortly before the homicide.
After this search, the cell phone accessed a message board that was dedicated to an online game which is billed online as a horror survival game in which players fight cannibals. Specifically, the message board accessed by this phone detailed the ways to kill cannibals within the game. The message board recommended that the first way to combat a cannibal was to “Kill it with fire!” Additionally, the game message board discussed how in the video game, cannibals often “like to bath in oil.” Complainant finds this to be significant as there was an open bottle of canola cooking oil in the bathroom in which the victim had set on fire.
