Cruel Virginia mom beats two-year-old son to death so badly that all left of him was his leg and liver
A coroner found a toddler's body was so badly dismembered and butchered that the only identifiable remains were his left leg and liver.
Noah Tomlin was just two when his mutilated corpse was discovered in an industrial site nearby his family's Buckrow Beach, Virginia residence, WTKR reports. His mother Julia Tomlin was charged with his murder on Thursday, almost six months after he disappeared.
In court, Prosecutor Anton Bell revealed how the toddler had sustained "horrific" injuries after allegedly being "tortured" before his death. According to Bell, the coroner had to reassemble "partial parts and pieces" of Noah’s body to establish he had died of two skull fractures.
The prosecutor added the skull fractures indicated such an impact that it was as if Noah had fallen several storeys from a building. Furthermore, the coroner concluded the toddler had suffered weeks or months of abuse, saying some of his injuries had already started to heal by the time of his death.
“These injuries were not only severe, but horrific, to say the very least," said Bell.
While examining Noah's body, the Hampton Coroner's Office also saw signs of blunt force trauma and battered child syndrome on him. The coroner was working with an anthropologist and both found the child was only left with a fully recognizable left leg and liver, and nothing more.
Meanwhile, the abuse signs included "the types of injuries that you would find that would literally stop the growth of bones...due to either some severe disease, such as cancer, or some type of abuse or even malnutrition.”
Tomlin, who was arrested a couple of days after her son disappeared, was originally charged with child neglect. At the time, she claimed Noah had accidentally hit his head and drowned while taking a bath.
"I have been prosecuting for more than 20-plus years, and I’ve seen some very graphic things," Bell said. "I’ve seen some very horrific crime scenes and have actually gone to an autopsy. And nothing really kind of grabs you like seeing a child, or a toddler, being the victim of a crime."