A Minnesota mom, who was just awarded custody of her six-year-old child, was arrested for allegedly killing the young boy and stuffing his body in the trunk of her vehicle. Police found the lifeless body of Eli Hart in the trunk of his mother's Chevy Impala when they made a traffic stop in Mound, Minnesota, on the morning of Friday, May 20.
Cops arrested Julissa Thaler after they noticed blood on the interior of her car. According to a report by WCCO, Orono Police Department officers were called around 7 a.m. on Friday to a suspicious car, which was driving on its rim with the vehicle's back window smashed out.
Police then spoke to the woman who was driving the car and found blood inside the vehicle after she performed a traffic stop at Shoreline Drive and Bartlett Boulevard. They then discovered the body of the young boy after performing a search on the vehicle.
Court failed Eli Hart by handing mother custody rights
According to the report, Eli's father, Tory Hart, made several complaints about the 28-year-old suspect's drug and mental health problems but was ignored by the courts. Despite Hart's complaints, Thaler was awarded full parental custody of Eli just 10 days before the child's body was discovered. Hart's fiancée Josie Josephson told Fox9 in an interview that the court failed Eli by handing the boy to his mother despite her substance abuse and mental health issues.
Josephson said that no matter how many cries they cried, no matter how many warning signs there were, the court still ignored them. Family court documents also reveal that several social workers were concerned with the mental health of Thaler, as well as her unstable living situation and criminal history.
One document that was shared by a WCCO-CBS Minnesota reporter on social media platform Twitter noted that Thaler has a hearing in June regarding the theft of pharmaceuticals and she received numerous traffic infractions for speeding or using a phone while driving.
Another document also surfaced noting that Thaler was jeopardizing her son's relationship with his biological father, despite the fact that Tory seemed to be a stabilizing force in the young child's life.
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Bond between Eli Hart and his dad was powerful from the start
According to the boy's one-time foster mother, Tory was not able to have a relationship with his son Eli until the beginning of last year due to Thaler's efforts to block him from the kid's life.
The foster parent said the bond between dad and son was powerful from the very start. She wrote on a GoFundMe page that Eli fell in love with his father and loved spending time with him, according to a report by the New York Post.
She said that Tory was excited to make up for all the lost years and was thrilled to start teaching Eli how to ride a bike with no training wheels and fish. That won't happen now with Tory unfortunately now planning for his son's funeral instead.
