According to the court documents, just four months after telling a doctor 7 stunning words, the 5-year-old child, Andrew, died. However, the doctor was not so sure. While in the emergency room, the doctor tried to get more information from the boy to learn whether it really was the family dog that ‘did this’ to him or something else, something more malevolent. When the doctor asked about, the child offered a different reason, a startling and stunning reason. The doctor submitted this report to the Department of Children and Family Services.
Prosecutors said that the boy told his doctor about all the horrible things his mother was doing to him. His mom and dad were charged with his murder. An anonymous tip came from a source and police went to Andrew’s residences to check on him. They found a massive bruise on the five-year-old’s hip, and when asked about it, the boy told investigators that it was from the family dog. However, the doctor was not so sure. While in the emergency room, the doctor tried to get more information from the boy to learn whether it really was the dog that did it to him or something else, something more malevolent. When the doctor asked about, the child offered a different reason, a startling and stunning reason. “Maybe someone hit me with a belt,” he told the doctor. “Maybe Mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.”
Although the boy had varying reasons for the bruise, the doctor was unable to determine the exact cause of the injury. In the report, the doctor wrote that the bruise could have resulted from “a dog, belt or football.” With a lack of evidence to do anything, the case was closed a month later. Just weeks after the boy told the doctor the truth, the boy was murdered. His body was found wrapped in plastic buried in a shallow grave. His parents, Andrew Sr. and his mother, JoAnn, have since been charged with the murder of their five-year-old son. A pathologist found that the boy had died from head trauma that resulted from a blunt force injury.
DCFS had a large file on Andrew and his family. They have since released the plethora of their records, which shows their extensive interaction with the parents. Throughout the boy’s short life, DCFS agents made 17 unannounced visits to check on the boy. At the time, the worker found no evidence of abuse and did not notice anything untoward. However, DCFS received another hotline call last week when an anonymous source claimed that the boy was being neglected. That call came the same day when Andrew’s parents reported the boy missing. When police investigated, they squeezed information from the parents who eventually revealed the boy’s shallow grave, which was about 10 miles from the family’s home. When Andrew was born, his mom and he tested positive for opiates and benzodiazepines. He was removed from her care for eight months before he was reunited with his birth parents.
