A preliminary hearing for a Pottsville woman charged with suffocating her 13-month-old son on April 1 has been continued.
Jennifer K. Bossler, 28, of 218 W. Market St., Apt. 2, was scheduled to appear for the hearing Thursday morning before Magisterial District Judge James K. Reiley, Pottsville, but the proceeding was continued and no new date has been set.
Bossler remains in Schuylkill County Prison where she is being held without bail since her arrest on April 13.
Pottsville police Detective Steven Guers charged Bossler with one felony count each of criminal homicide and aggravated assault stemming from the death of James Blake Bossler.
Pottsville police and Pottsville-Schuylkill Haven Area EMS were called to the home about 5:30 p.m. and found the child in cardiac arrest. He was taken to Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street and pronounced dead a short time later.
Guers said incidents concerning the infant's condition that afternoon prompted an investigation that eventually led to Bossler confessing to suffocating the child.
An autopsy was conducted on the child April 3 at Reading Hospital and Medical Center, West Reading, where a pathologist determined there was no significant disease that would have caused the death, no explanation why the child is dead and that the child is outside of the range of a vast majority of SIDS deaths.
The pathologist also determined that an external cause of death cannot be ruled out, Guers said.
The detective said Bossler was interviewed April 11 and had a clear recollection of what she did to her child on April 1 but would not provide details causing the interrogation to cease in just more than an hour.
On April 13, Guers said Bossler came to police headquarters saying she wanted to tell the truth about what happened to her son.
After again being read her rights, Guers said Bossler admitted she was responsible for the death of the child, saying she was frustrated because the boy would not stop crying and asking for his father, a man police did not identify.
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 downward pressure on his head and back, Guers said.
The detective said Bossler told him the child struggled until he became quiet and stopped breathing.
Police Capt. Richard Wojciechowsky, head to the department's Criminal Investigation Unit, said the criminal charges against Bossler are the result of her confession to police and evidence obtained in both the criminal investigation and autopsy conducted at Reading Hospital.