Minnesota Woman Arrested, Charged In The Fatal Shooting Of Her 6-Year-Old Son

A Minnesota woman has been arrested for allegedly murdering her 6-year-old son, whose body police found in the trunk of a car.

This past Saturday, police in Orono, Minnesota arrested 28-year-old Julissa Thaler after they found Eli Hart, 6, dead in the car’s trunk. According to CBS 4 WCCO, police found out Eli’s body was in her trunk while they were performing a traffic stop last Friday in Mound, Minnesota. Prior to their check, police received a report of a car that had a shattered rear window and a popped tire.

Blood from Eli’s body appeared to be stained on Thaler’s hands. Thaler also had a shotgun, and there was a bullet hole in the back seat along with a missing shell casing. A preliminary autopsy found that Thaler allegedly shot the boy possibly nine times.

According to family and friends, Eli spent almost a year in foster care before he was given back to his mother, who’d lost him allegedly due to neglect. At the time, the boy’s family was trying to win full custody of him. After Thaler gained custody, Eli’s behavior started down a dark path, including him allegedly acting up in school and exhibiting signs of anxiety, NBC News reports.

“I feared if she got custody back, that she would harm Eli, if not worse,” said Nikita Kronberg, who’d taken Eli in for almost a year, CBS 3 WCCO reports. “I keep looking at pictures of him and I think this can’t be real. He’s out there somewhere playing, having fun. It can’t be real.”

Thaler has been charged with second-degree murder in Hennepin County. She’s expected to appear in court for the first time this week.