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Mother Realizes She Ran Over Her Own Son · The Empire of Wealth

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: James had slipped and fell as a music swat flippery.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: And he had hit his head.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: So I went to the bathroom.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I came out in the.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Killing to tell me where.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: On a February evening, Brittany and her boyfriend pulled over
• 0:19
  deep in the Ohio forests with a plan to abandon James,
• 0:22
  their six year old child. However, as they went to
• 0:25
  drive away, James was tragically dragged under the wheels of
• 0:28
  the car and had his life taken. Days later, they
• 0:31
  walked into the Middleton Police department, claiming James had gone missing.
• 0:35
  A search began for the boy immediately, but police knew
• 0:38
  something was wrong. Their story was full of holes and
• 0:41
  the couple seemed nervous, so they were each taken into
• 0:44
  an interrogation room with a detective determined to get to
• 0:47
  the bottom of things.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I'm Detective Poser. Okay, they called me and went partner
• 0:52
  out for anything to do with children, So this is
• 0:56
  real for in this part, he had to be one.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Percent honest with me with her boyfriend, who was also
• 1:02
  called James, was in another room at the same police station,
• 1:05
  and detectives are going to compare their stories. There were
• 1:08
  many red flags, right off the bat in this case,
• 1:10
  as the couple claimed he had been missing for most
• 1:12
  of the night before they decided to contact police. If
• 1:15
  your six year old had gone missing, you'd likely be
• 1:18
  doing everything you can to get them back as soon
• 1:20
  as possible. So the cops were sure something sinister was afoot.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So what happened? What time did you guys go to
• 1:26
  bed last night? Well, the kids go to that at nine, okay, and.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We normally go to that at ten. I told him,
• 1:35
  told 'em all the nine nine o'clock time for bed,
• 1:38
  So they all went upstairs, and I went upstairs a
• 1:42
  little bit later to see if they were sleep. True,
• 1:45
  and they were all asleep. So then that's when I
• 1:48
  came down.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Wait a couple of minutes, just to see if they
• 1:50
  might have come down stairs or something.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And then I went, okay, what time did you get
• 1:55
  up to Sam? He will open eight, say you try
• 2:01
  and wake me up several times. But what kind of
• 2:06
  medicine do you think? Okay? This is where I need
• 2:09
  to be honest with me. It is what it is. Okay.
• 2:12
  Do you use any other type of narcotics drugs, illegal
• 2:15
  drugs or then you smoke weed? Deal? Okay? You don't
• 2:19
  use heroin. You don't use uh No, I've had family members. Okay,
• 2:27
  do you know what do you know if your boyfriend
• 2:31
  does you use any type of dough at all? Not
• 2:34
  that you know with you would know more than anybody.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: That's why i'm asking.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna get him in any trouble. I just
• 2:40
  need to know if you're being honest with me. That's
• 2:42
  what I'm trying to feel that I've never seen. I mean,
• 2:47
  we smoked cigarettes.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not talking about that.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I said drugs illegal. Of course, a lot of people
• 2:53
  smoke cigarettes, a lot of people smoke weed, a lot
• 2:55
  of people use sweets.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: But because that's the only thing I know. Okay, that's
• 2:59
  why I don't know if he does anything else, and.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: You don't need to protect him. I'm just getting I'm
• 3:03
  getting a feel for you. If you're gonna be honest.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I just need to be honest, be honest with Brittany
• 3:08
  appears to have a little trouble opening up about her
• 3:10
  boyfriend's drug habit. This can help the detective determine whether
• 3:14
  she is being honest in the future, as she should
• 3:16
  treat opening up about later details with similar ease. They
• 3:19
  continue to go over the details for the morning James
• 3:22
  went missing. But during this line of questioning, Brittany begins
• 3:26
  to show some concerning signs.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: What time did James say they first notice of James?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know what time he's exactly count up,
• 3:38
  but he normally every day, normally he did sup around four,
• 3:42
  anywhere from four to five, maybe sometimes a little later.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: But when Brittany has asked more questions about her boyfriend,
• 3:50
  she appears to look up into the left. There's a
• 3:53
  lot of contention around eye movements while recalling information. Some
• 3:57
  say the direction that someone looks is a direct tell
• 4:01
  for if someone is lying, but it's never a guaranteed indication. However,
• 4:05
  the mere act of suddenly avoiding eye contact with the
• 4:07
  detective while answering is a more solid sign, as many
• 4:10
  people associate eye contact with trust. Thus, it's often hard
• 4:14
  for people to maintain a gaze while lying, whereas those
• 4:17
  trying to argue the truth will often look directly into
• 4:20
  the detective's eyes to seem more believable.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Did James er walker? I mean businssing before?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: He's he was missing once before? How long it was it?
• 4:33
  I wanna say it was the first of the month,
• 4:35
  but it could have been later than that, but I
• 4:37
  know it's some time this month. Uh, from that house.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So he's missing once f before from that
• 4:43
  house and how long was he going for?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know when he was outside, but we've found
• 4:49
  out the well. He found him at the the you
• 4:51
  know there's basements fairs, well, he found them at.
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  Speaker 1: The bottom of the basement stairs. I don't know what
• 4:57
  he was doing, but is there only one way to
• 4:59
  get into your basement? Yeah, that's from the outside.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: The fact that James has been missing before is another
• 5:05
  red flag for the detective. It's possible James is just
• 5:08
  an adventurous child and tries to slip away at every
• 5:11
  opportunity he gets, but it could also be a sign
• 5:14
  of abuse or neglect in the home. Either way, it's
• 5:17
  giving the detective all the more reason to be suspicious.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I have there a.
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  Speaker 1: Policeman for twenty seven years. I'm going to sign the
• 5:25
  detective any I've interviewed a lot of people, hundreds, hundreds
• 5:30
  of hundreds of people.
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  Speaker 2: In my career.
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  Speaker 1: There's something going on here, something's not right here. I've
• 5:34
  done this, Like I said, I've interviewed hundreds of people
• 5:37
  in my career, and you know, people get scared, they
• 5:40
  get the sells backed into a corner and they don't
• 5:42
  know what to do, and my job is to help
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  them through that because.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it is what it is that something.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Happened and you parents freak out, who.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: You know, don't know what to do?
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  Speaker 1: So does anything else before I walk out of here?
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  This is your opportunity to be one hundreds. That's straight
• 6:00
  with me. I suspect James or this is why I
• 6:02
  got mad at the why last night and he expand
• 6:05
  to men to go about the door or just anything weird.
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  It's fine to tell me. You're not gonna tell me
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  anything's gonna surprise me. Okay, I mean, did you hurt
• 6:17
  your baby?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Do you know about my kids? I would effort. Okay,
• 6:22
  do you.
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  Speaker 1: Know who hurt your baby? Do you know your baby's
• 6:25
  whereabouts right now?
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 1: Do you do you suspect James is doing anything to
• 6:31
  your baby? Okay? You're one hundred percent sure on that one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah he knows.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Note that the detective is making a conscious effort to
• 6:41
  refer to James as her baby. This is in a
• 6:45
  direct attempt to exact an emotional reaction from Brittany. This
• 6:49
  kind of specific word holds a lot more weight than
• 6:51
  just kid or child, as it portrays James as more vulnerable.
• 6:55
  The detective is also trying to let Brittany know that
• 6:58
  he's sure something is wrong, and, as he'll soon find out,
• 7:01
  his instincts are absolutely correct.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: What was the needle that we found out? There was
• 7:07
  a needle found at the side door?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: You know anything about that?
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: So?
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Do you use needles for any of your medications? Yeah,
• 7:14
  there's the people next door the rugs. Okay, so maybe
• 7:19
  it was from one of them. Was ever saying, yeah,
• 7:21
  have you ever seen all We always see a whole
• 7:23
  bunch of people just walking in through those Oh yeah,
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  cutting it, cutting through that. Have you ever seen James?
• 7:29
  You had any needles? So you said something about James
• 7:35
  does work like doing electrical work for houses?
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, like Raynolds.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I would assume yes, right, like you get some ready?
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  Who does he work for?
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Taylor is only gonna know his name is Taylor?
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  Speaker 1: And what's Taylor is getting?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: The keys of these?
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  Speaker 1: Are they all bacon? I would have assume I don't
• 7:54
  clean them out?
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  Speaker 2: What do they do? Do you? I know what like
• 7:58
  when they put people out and that get a bit
• 8:00
  it and they sit people's stuff out, put it. I
• 8:04
  don't know if they sit it out, put it in
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  the dumpster, I.
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  Speaker 1: Don't know what they do. Does he have like keys
• 8:09
  of the house, James, Does he have keys of the
• 8:10
  houses and stuff at us but he works for Did
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  he ever come in with a bunch of I mean
• 8:15
  you would know, I mean, does he come in with
• 8:16
  a bunch of keys.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Or he's always had the same key that he's.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Had, but nothing like extra keys that Basically, I'm waiting
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  for my guy to come here. He's gonna do a
• 8:27
  polygraph for me, and we'll just kind of go from there.
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  Speaker 3: Brittany now tries to avoid the questions regarding her boyfriend's
• 8:33
  drug use, but if she does agree to take a
• 8:35
  polygraph test, then the truth could finally be revealed. All
• 8:39
  this time, there have been people searching for James, hoping
• 8:41
  to find signs of life. As we'll later find out,
• 8:44
  his body isn't anywhere near where they're lucky.
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting a story that is totally different than what
• 8:51
  you've told me. And I don't know why James is
• 8:53
  telling me that, but that's what he's telling me. He's
• 8:55
  wanted more details than that. Okay, but I'm not gonna
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  share that with you. Didn't know what happened last night
• 9:03
  with your boy, your six year old? A six year
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  old just doesn't get up and walk out the door.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: There's more to the story than what you're telling me. Okay.
• 9:13
  I've talked to James, My partners talked to James extensively,
• 9:19
  and James is coming off of this slowly. I would
• 9:22
  suggest for you just tell me the truth now. He
• 9:25
  might have told me more now, I don't know. I've
• 9:28
  been in here with you, okay, But James has said
• 9:30
  he took a deep breath, and I suggest that to you,
• 9:33
  did you dank your pop? Take a deep breath and
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  just tell me what's going on here.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Brittany finds herself in a position where she might
• 9:38
  doubt exactly what James has told detectives in the other room,
• 9:42
  and she finally cracks.
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  Speaker 2: James told me to get rid of it, fit okay,
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  and so I took him for to arrive to make
• 9:57
  them sink. Hop m h. I get rid of it,
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  but I'm not gonna get rid of my kids for anybody.
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  Speaker 3: Help, even though she's getting closer to the truth, Brittany
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  is still trying to deceive the detective by trying to
• 10:09
  convince him that getting rid of her kids isn't something
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  she'd really do, despite that being exactly what she's guilty of.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what Rob it was.
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  Speaker 2: It was just we were just driving around. Well, the
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  kids were going to the bathroom.
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  Speaker 1: I had pulled over to this a little boose in
• 10:30
  the middle town.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, it's a little star or something a bathroom.
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  Speaker 1: I pulled over.
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  Speaker 2: To the bathroom and let him all use the bathroom.
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  All was writing and stuff.
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  Speaker 4: I left the left the door unlocked in the van
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  and told him we'll all go in here, not all
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  les at once, but each one of us go in
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  here when I find use the bathroom.
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  Speaker 2: So we learned the bathroom more active owner.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: But when I was to go in the bathroom, I
• 11:03
  told just get in the land Well, James had slipped
• 11:09
  and filled.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Wet flipper and he had hit his head.
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  Speaker 3: The problem here is simple. If James had simply hit
• 11:17
  his head, why not just get medical help then and there.
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  Brittany is trying to take away as much blame as
• 11:23
  she can from herself. The truth was Brittany had simply
• 11:26
  decided she wanted to get rid of her kids for good.
• 11:29
  Allegedly at the request of her boyfriend. Both she and
• 11:32
  James drove her three children to Rush Run wildlife area
• 11:35
  in southern Preble County, where they had a change of
• 11:37
  heart and decided to only leave their youngest James. But
• 11:41
  as they tried to drive away from the park without him,
• 11:43
  he tried to grab onto the car and was dragged
• 11:46
  under the wheels. Sadly, the accident killed him, and Brittany
• 11:50
  and James returned to find his body in the road.
• 11:52
  The detective suspicions have been right all along. After Brittany
• 11:56
  and James drove home, they placed the six year old's
• 11:58
  body in a spare room of their house before they
• 12:00
  dumped his body off a bridge that crosses the Ohio River.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Kill him there, Jill, did it? Did it fall?
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Hurting?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: He was?
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I asked him he was at hey. He wouldn't answer me.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: So I've noticed he was breathing kind of heavy, and
• 12:20
  I thought, maybe that's not don't know, I've.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Never seen him bury let good before. Well, he was breathing.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know how long he was breathing for but
• 12:30
  he had fell and buffed his head on the side
• 12:32
  of the van and trying to get in there, and
• 12:37
  he was breathing heavy for a couple of minutes and
• 12:39
  then I couldn't I.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Try to use the jore and so he stopped breathing.
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  And where's his body?
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Yet?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: You're doing good? Okay, just tell me where.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: His body there?
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  Speaker 1: So I gotta go find him.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: I have for you.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's conclude right now.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: We're versus Baya.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Would you take it back home with you? No?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I left it and you left it.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: So who's all in the car with you?
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: James? You?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Yes? We always a family, so all five of you? Yes?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: All right? And where what park was this or where
• 13:20
  was this at in Middletown, because it would make sense
• 13:23
  to put to me, did you put him in a dumpster?
• 13:26
  Did you put he did you just let him lay
• 13:28
  right there?
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Was he buried?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's what I need to know.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't do nothing about it.
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  Speaker 5: I just let him lay in the park lot because
• 13:37
  it was a playing parking lot. There was I leave
• 13:40
  like water over here or something, and there was one
• 13:44
  little stall and.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I left him just lay on the ground. Okay, did
• 13:52
  you did James do anything with him? Your boyfriend? I mean,
• 13:59
  it doesn't make sense eploying right there on the ground.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I left the land in there on the ground
• 14:03
  because I was going to call land once, but I.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Was I was fair shook up or by what to do. Okay,
• 14:09
  So so now we need to figure out where this
• 14:12
  is at. Well, he the.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Little boy was laying on the ground.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I went to the bathroom, told him to try and
• 14:21
  you try real quick. Back and couldn't hold myself.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: I told him, you try real quick, to give with CPR,
• 14:28
  and so I went to the bathroom.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: I came out in this.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Regardless of how true her story is, Brittany has now
• 14:34
  told the detective that James is dead. The priority is
• 14:38
  to find him. After Britney details the moment they dumped
• 14:41
  his body, police are able to search the area, but
• 14:43
  despite their best efforts, they would never find him. Brittany
• 14:47
  would plead not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that
• 14:50
  she had a learning disability and did not understand what
• 14:53
  was happening, but an evaluation by a psychologist showed that
• 14:56
  she was competent to stand trial. Of course, both were
• 14:59
  found guilty and Britney would face the harshest punishment. She
• 15:02
  would be sentenced to murder and child endangerment, totaling twenty
• 15:06
  one years in prison. James, on the other hand, was
• 15:08
  found guilty of kidnapping, a child, endangerment, and gross abuse
• 15:11
  of a corpse and would be given the maximum sentence
• 15:14
  of nineteen years