Drunk Minnesota Man Suffocates Toddler Son To Death After Passing Out On Top Of Him
A drunk Minnesota man reportedly suffocated his 8-week-old son to death after drinking at least 24 beers and passing out on top of him, according to WTSP.
Cory Neal Stucky, 30, has been charged with manslaughter and child endangerment, officials confirmed.
The Minnesota man previously told investigators that he was a heavy sleeper and wasn’t drunk when he slept on top of his son, but his girlfriend, Amy J. Solland, had a different version of how things unfolded on that fateful night.
According to police records, Stucky, who lived with Solland and newborn Myles at his Blooming Prairie home, started drinking around 11 a.m., a day before his son’s death. Solland told the police that the Minnesota man had neighbors over at their house and drank more than two dozen beers until around 9.pm., at which point he decided to go out to a local pub. When he returned at around midnight, he found Solland and their toddler son Myles to be asleep.
After he had slept too, the Minnesota man woke up an hour later to find Solland trying to get their son to sleep since the toddler had woken up in the middle of the night. Allegedly drunk, Stucky took the boy and reportedly told his girlfriend that it was his weekend to get up with him. He asked Solland to get back to sleep and headed towards the living room of their house to feed the young child.
Charges: Blooming Prairie, Minn. man drank 24 beers, suffocated baby while sleeping. https://t.co/F4gGAzImso pic.twitter.com/C37oPY5Mer
— FOX 9 (@FOX9) December 29, 2015
However, when Solland got up in the morning, she did not find the two of them in bed. Alarmed, she walked over to the couch to find Stucky facing the back of the couch and one of her son’s legs protruding from under the Minnesota man’s rather bulky figure.
According to her statements, Solland then moved Stucky’s arm off the infant’s head and saw the boy was face down in the couch. It was then that she realized that her partner had suffocated his son to death. She began screaming and called 911 immediately.
When the first responders arrived on the scene, Stucky contradicted his partner’s version of the story, telling the officers that he wasn’t intoxicated the night before. Their subsequent investigations, however, led them to believe that the Minnesota man was lying.
A friend of Stucky’s later also told the police that the man was “tanked” the day before the baby’s death.
According to MPR News, an autopsy of the baby revealed that he had died of asphyxiation, thus confirming the mother’s story. The Steele County criminal complaint states that the police have charged the Minnesota man with second-degree manslaughter and child endangerment.
The charges, however, give the mother of the child no satisfaction. Speaking to the Star Tribune, Solland said that the couple often had fights about Stucky’s drinking problem.
“[The charges] are not a thing of satisfaction with me. He’s got an alcohol problem. It’s a 12-year problem that led to the death of our child.”
Solland hopes the charges will finally make Cory Neal Stucky abandon alcohol once and for all.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the grieving mother set up a GoFundMe page for Myles, hoping to meet his funeral expenses.
The Minnesota man was released from jail and is due back in court on Monday.
This is not the first time that a man has suffocated his own son to death. Last year, 24-year-old Florida man Cody Wygant had suffocated his son after the baby’s incessant crying reportedly prevented Wygant from playing video games.
Bizarre as it is, the men in both cases were prey to some form of addiction, but that would be of no help to the mother who is still grieving for her dead son.
[Photo by Jesse van Kalmthout | Cropped and Resized | CC BY 2.0]
