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10-Year-Old Allegedly Killed By Foster Mom -- Minutes After Begging Neighbor To Adopt Him!

10-Year-Old Allegedly Killed By Foster Mom – Minutes After Begging Neighbor To Adopt Him!

A 10-year-old boy asked his neighbor to adopt him… just minutes before he was killed by his foster mom! Oof!

According to court documents obtained by WGN, NBC Chicago, and CBS Chicago, Dakota Levi Stevens died on April 25 after a medical emergency in Liberty Township, Indiana, the Porter County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a release.

According to People, two months after his tragic death, authorities finally issued an arrest warrant on his foster mom, Jennifer Lee Wilson, for one charge of reckless homicide. She was taken into police custody on Saturday in Berrien County, Michigan, per the county’s sheriff’s office. She is currently being held there on a fugitive of justice warrant.

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Via court records, the 48-year-old’s charges in Indiana are pending; it doesn’t appear as though she has submitted a plea. It’s also unclear if she has obtained a lawyer yet.

As for what led up to the boy’s death, it sounds like he knew he was in danger. Several outlets reported he ran to a neighbor’s house and asked her to adopt him. According to the affidavit via CBS, Dakota told the neighbor his parents would hit him in the face and didn’t let him call his caseworker. Jennifer, having discovered that Dakota ran away from home when he was supposed to be cooling down from an argument in the backyard, soon arrived to take the boy home. When the neighbor revealed Dakota asked her to call the police, Wilson told the neighbor to mind her own business. The woman later told authorities she hadn’t see any signs of injuries on the child at the time.

But just around 30 minutes later, he was fatally injured.

According to the affidavit viewed by CBS, Dakota had only been placed in Wilson and her husband’s care earlier that month. They initially declined but since they’d briefly looked after him two years prior, they eventually agreed to take him in. They had previously adopted three foster children, so they had experience. But Jennifer claimed things were challenging with the 10-year-old, telling cops he had verbal and physical aggression issues. She insisted he had never tried to run away before.

After taking him home from the neighbor’s house, the duo got into an argument in the car, which resulted in the mother laying on top of the boy outside their home — right there in the open on the front lawn — as he screamed underneath her weight for several minutes. All of this was caught on numerous home security tapes, too.

Jennifer claimed she wasn’t sure if she tackled her foster child or if they fell to the ground, but they wound up in that position and stayed there while she called his caseworker and tried to get him to calm down. When he stopped moving, she thought he was faking — until she rolled him around to find his eyelids were pale. She began CPR and called 911 as someone came to help. A camera caught her saying at one point:

“I was laying on him and he was acting bad.”

Dakota was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. His cause of death was listed as mechanical asphyxia, which is when someone is prevented from breathing. Just for reference, the affidavit noted that Dakota was 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 90 pounds — meanwhile, Jennifer is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 340 pounds. Jeez. That’s a big difference — and a lot of weight to put on a child’s lungs! He was discovered with bruising on his chest AND his neck.

Absolutely horrific. He was so young — we hope justice will be served! R.I.P.

[Image via Geisen Funeral Homes]

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Jul 16, 2024 17:00pm PDT