Wisconsin blind boy's rotting body found in mom's car trunk after she claimed he was out with his father
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN: The rotting dead body of a five-year-old blind boy has been found in his mother’s car trunk months after he went missing. The boy's mother Sagal Hussein had previously claimed that Josias Marquez had been out of state with his father since January 9.
The 26-year-old was arrested on March 30 and charged with five counts of child neglect. Police took her into custody because of inconsistencies in her story and her refusal to cooperate with police in the search of the child.
The next day after her arrest, investigators found a decomposed body of a boy in her car after obtaining a warrant to search her home and vehicle. They sent the body for autopsy and now it has been confirmed that the body was of Marquez, The Sun reported.
The investigation into the missing case of Marquez was launched on January 26 when a neighbor called police after finding two of Hussein’s children, aged 2 and 6, unattended outside their home. The older one told investigators at the time that they did not know where their mother was as they had not seen her since the previous night.
At that time only, investigators got to know about Hussein’s third child, Marquez, who was blind and suffered from seizures. Neighbors had told officials that they had not seen him since November 25, 2019.
However, when the police located Hussein and questioned her, she said she had only been gone for 10 minutes to run errands but soon reportedly changed her statement and said she went out for 40 minutes. When asked about Marquez, she allegedly claimed that the boy was with his father out of state since early January. When deputies asked her for the children's father's contact number, she reportedly did not provide it.
It is still unclear how the boy died. However, Hussein’s mother, Amal Ismal, has said Marquez’s father "wasn’t a caring dad and he wasn’t doing his part as a dad". She also said that she did not believe her grandson was killed.
“What I know is my daughter, Sagal, was a loving mother, and she didn’t kill her own son, and what I believe is, it was not her intention to hurt or kill her own child,” Ismal added.
During the time of her arrest, Hussein was charged with child neglect and forgery. However, now prosecutors are waiting to press formal charges against her until an official cause of death for Marquez has been established.
Currently, she is being held on a $500,000 cash bond since a probable cause hearing on April 1. She is scheduled to appear next in court on April 29.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that the other two children of Hussein have been taken into foster care. Ismal said that the children’s father’s family is trying to bring the children to California. However, she stated she hopes the children can stay in the Green Bay area.