A Pottsville woman was sent to prison Friday after she confessed to killing her infant son April 1 inside the apartment they shared, authorities said.
Jennifer Kimberly Bossler, 28, of 218 W. Market St., Apt. 2, was charged with one felony count each of criminal homicide and aggravated assault stemming from the death of 13-month-old James Blake Bossler.
Jennifer Bossler was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge James K. Reiley, Pottsville, and committed to Schuylkill County Prison without bail. On a criminal homicide charge, bail can only be set by a judge in the county Court of Common Pleas and not at the district magistrate level.
Pottsville police Detective Steven Guers charged Bossler with causing the death of her son, who was found inside the apartment about 5:30 p.m. April 1.
Guers said that when officers arrived, they found the woman performing CPR on the child, who was turned over to Pottsville-Schuylkill Haven Area EMS and transported to Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street, where he was pronounced dead at 6:01 p.m.
Guers said Capt. Richard Wojciechowsky, head of the department's Criminal Investigation Unit, and Patrolman Joseph Welsh spoke with Bossler at the hospital. She told them she put the child in his crib for a nap, checked on him several times for about an hour and then found him not breathing.
She said that after finding the child unresponsive, she called her boyfriend in Reading, who instructed her to call 911.
While at the hospital, Guers said Bossler was found with a recent injury to her left wrist that she admitted inflicting on herself with a razor blade. She was then committed to the psychiatric unit of the hospital for observation.
On April 3, Guers said an autopsy on the child was conducted at Reading Hospital and Medical Center, West Reading, where a pathologist found a small imprint located just below the child's left ear, minor possible petechiae or spots caused by a minor hemorrhage on the nose and forehead of the child, small markings on the child's chin and bruising on his buttocks.
Guers said the pathologist said there was no significant disease that would have caused the death and no explanation for the death, and that the child is outside of the range of a vast majority of SIDS deaths.
The pathologist determined that an external cause of death cannot be ruled out, Guers said.
Guers said that on Wednesday, he and Wojciechowsky interviewed Bossler, who had a clear recollection of what occurred April 1 but would not provide details, causing the interrogation to end in about an hour.
Guers said the following day, the woman's boyfriend said he spoke with her after the interview and Bossler admitted suffocating the child in his crib. The boyfriend said Bossler told him she "snapped," Guers said.
Wojciechowsky interviewed Bossler on Friday and, after again being read her rights, Guers said Bossler admitted she was responsible for the death of her son, saying she was frustrated because the child would not stop crying and asking for his father.
Bossler said she placed the baby in the crib on his stomach and when he would not stop crying, she used both of her hands to apply pressure on his head and back, Guers said.
Although the results of toxicology tests have not been received, Wojciechowsky said the criminal charges against Bossler are the result of her confession to police and evidence obtained in both the criminal investigation and autopsy.
Miller will now have to appear for a preliminary hearing on the charges before Reiley in his Pottsville courtroom.