Affidavit: Father beat Baby Chance before death
NORTH PORT (FOX 13) - Baby Chance's mother has finally told investigators what happened to the 8-week-old baby.
According to court documents, Kristen Bury says the boy's father, Joseph Walsh, beat him in their North Port home over a month ago, then left him to decompose in his crib.
Walsh was extradited back to Sarasota County this morning, three days after Bury and two weeks after their arrests on child abuse charges. He faces a new charge of first-degree murder and his probable cause affidavit lays out the disturbing details of the young boy's final hours, at least according to Bury.
Back on the morning of September 15, it says, Bury and Walsh got into an argument. Walsh allegedly struck Chance repeatedly, despite Bury's objections, and threatened to "bash his head into the ground."
The final details of the boy's death are redacted, but Bury's account makes it clear that Walsh killed the boy as she looked on.
"[Bury] never called 911 or took any measures to prevent [Walsh] from abusing Chance," the affidavit noted.
After Chance died, they left his body in the crib until the odor of decomposition became overwhelming. Walsh allegedly wrapped the boy's body in trash bags and moved it to the closet.
Before dawn on September 24 -- more than a week after the murder -- the reports says the couple drove across town to a lot off Elliot Court and dug a grave, went home to get the baby's body, and then buried him at the lot.
The couple hit the road -- "to start a new life," Walsh later told detectives -- but got into a crash in South Carolina. After concerned relatives reached out to deputies, an alert for Chance was issued. By then, of course, it was too late. Bury and Walsh were arrested when their stories did not add up, but it wasn't until Thursday that Chance's body was found.
"Sleep peacefully my tiny angel, the clouds are now your blanket, and heaven is now your bed," a family friend said at a vigil Saturday.
The affidavit says Bury directed detectives to the burial location.
"The decomposed body was covered only with a diaper," the report added.
Investigators also found fragments of surgical gloves that Bury said Walsh wore as he dug the hole.
Relatives had previously described the couple as "long-time drug users" though Bury's redacted account did not mention any involvement of illegal drugs.
She did, though, shed some light on why she didn't go to police after the murder. Bury told detectives she didn't want to lose both people she loved in the same day, the document said.