{"id":729885,"date":"2026-06-27T21:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729885\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T21:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:00:50","slug":"michigan-parents-charged-with-murder-after-their-7-year-old-son-dies-weighing-over-250-pounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729885\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan parents charged with murder after their 7-year-old son dies weighing over 250 pounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Flint Township, Michigan, parents, are facing several charges, including second-degree murder, in the death of their 7-year-old son, who was 255 pounds and abused and neglected, according to the Genesee County prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>Paramedics responded to a home in Flint Township on Nov. 4, 2025, for a report that the boy, identified as Casper O&#8217;Brien, was having difficulty breathing, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wnem.com\/2026\/06\/26\/flint-township-parents-charged-with-murder-torture-death-7-year-old-son\/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSsH1lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEzUTJZdHJVUEJvM3VoZjZMc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHp1KzAKC890QsTpyu3W-q928-2XgapaVK1_JX4PgI-lEekOeqJ8CAsCi93Rw_aem_EMaep0B-cftldXE1VgcikQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CBS News affiliate WNEM<\/a>, which cited a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in an interview with WNEM that the house was filled with &#8220;everything you can imagine&#8221; and police reported they couldn&#8217;t go inside because the paramedics were taking up the available space. He added that there was a 5-year-old girl running around without any clothes on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was just one of the most unbelievable scenes, that the police have seen, that I&#8217;ve reviewed in my 22 years as prosecuting attorney,&#8221; Leyton said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/screenshot-2026-06-27-122209.png#.png\" alt=\"screenshot-2026-06-27-122209.png \" height=\"327\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  A home in Flint Township, Michigan, that paramedics responded to on Nov. 4, 2025, after a 911 caller reported a child was having trouble breathing.<\/p>\n<p>                WNEM<\/p>\n<p>The paramedics found Casper O&#8217;Brien was in distress and unable to move, according to WNEM. He died hours later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leyton, citing an autopsy, told WNEM that Casper O&#8217;Brien died of a heart muscle disease, with morbid obesity being a contributing factor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These parents, I believe, neglected this child to the point that he became obese,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Damien O&#8217;Brien, 40, and Jessica O&#8217;Brien, 41, are each charged with one count of second-degree murder, one count of torture and three counts of second-degree child abuse, online court records show.<\/p>\n<p>According to Leyton, Casper O&#8217;Brien was bedridden and never went to school.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe anybody from the school district, CPS, the  police, anybody in the government even knew these children existed,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The parent&#8217;s landlord, according to Leyton, told police that he had been concerned because the house had fallen into disrepair and Damien O&#8217;Brien said they couldn&#8217;t go inside. The prosecutor added that the family had health insurance and only took Casper O&#8217;Brien to a physician one time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Damien and Jessica O&#8217;Brien are each expected to appear at a probable cause conference on Thursday. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Flint Township, Michigan, parents, are facing several charges, including second-degree murder, in the death of their 7-year-old&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,10233,76008,76007,1303,698,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-729885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-child-abuse","tag-flint","tag-genesee-county","tag-michigan","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}