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Recovery efforts are continuing along the Ohio River in Lawrenceburg, Indiana where the body of 6-year-old James Hutchinson was dumped after his death in Preble County this weekend, according to Middletown Police Chief David Birk.
Birk, along with Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson and Middletown City Schools Superintendent Marlon Styles held a news conference Monday afternoon with new details into the death of Hutchinson.
Police first made contact with Hutchinson’s mother, Brittany Gosney, 29, and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 42, around 10:15 a.m. Sunday morning after the two went to the Middletown police station to report the boy had been missing since Saturday, Birk said. The Middletown police supervisor felt the report was “suspicious” and requested assistance from detectives.
During the subsequent investigation, police learned Gosney tried to abandon all three of her children at Rush Run Wildlife Area, but took two of them back, Birk said. However the events that specifically led to Hutchinson’s death were still unknown because police need an autopsy report to confirm the boy’s manner of death.
Gosney told police she went to Rush Run Wildlife Area “because she and Hamilton had taken the children fishing” at the location.
A Preble County Sheriff’s Office report said that “Brittany stated Hamilton wanted her to get rid of her kids.”
“Brittany stated she had planned to get the kids out of the vehicle and leave them behind as Hamilton had been pressuring her to get rid of the kids,” the report read.
According to court records, Gosney told police she drove off at a “high rate of speed, dragging the child for a distance,” a detective said in the document.
After recovering the Hutchinson’s body later, Gosney brought back to their Middletown home, where they kept him in a spare bedroom, according to an incident report. Around 3 a.m. Sunday, investigators said Gosney and Hamilton drove from Middletown down about a hour to Lawrenceburg, Indiana and disposed of Hutchinson’s body in the Ohio River, near the I-275 bridge.
Those recovery efforts are still underway Monday afternoon and involve several agencies, Birk said.
“We’re hoping to locate (Hutchinson) as soon as we can,” Birk said.