Missouri mother charged after her son fell out of 17th story window and died

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (TCD) — Jackson County prosecutors are charging a 27-year-old mother after her 5-year-old son fell out of an upper-story window and suffered “catastrophic damage to his head and body” in November.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced this week that Corinne O’Connor was arrested and charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child because she “failed to provide a livable/habitable dwelling” for her son. O’Connor also allegedly did not call for help when her son fell out of the window.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 27, 2023, at 11:31 a.m., Kansas City Police Department officers were called to an alley near downtown and found the 5-year-old boy deceased. He had “massive” head trauma and a “broken and twisted” right leg. He was wearing an inside-out shirt that was on backward, rolled jeans, and socks without shoes. Police noted an open window on the 17th floor and said it was the “sole window open on the entire back wall of the apartment building.”

The affidavit says the boy, who WDAF-TV identified as Grayson O’Connor, first hit a covered walkway, then the alley.

A detective and an investigative sergeant went to the apartment and allegedly found Corrinne O’Connor “laying in front of the open window.” She allegedly told the sergeant her son “went out the window.”

The affidavit says a resident walking out of the basement discovered the young boy. Emergency personnel and the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office became concerned because Grayson O’Connor had such a low body temperature.

Investigators spoke with the apartment building’s manager, who said it “should be impossible” that O’Connor’s window could open fully. She said each window had safety mechanisms that prohibited it from opening more than a few inches, but if it opened all the way, then someone removed those stops. When detectives searched O’Connor’s apartment, they noted the window did not have any of the safety stops.

Officials obtained a search warrant for the apartment, which was unkempt and unsanitary. According to the affidavit, the apartment was littered with feces, trash, food, and clothing. There was a small mattress “covered in food” in the living room and a larger mattress on the kitchen floor.

Detectives noticed a “copious amount of chocolate” on the open window sill and exterior of the window, which was “dripping over the edge down to the ground 17 stories below.” The interior sill was also covered in chocolate hand prints. Investigators found chocolate syrup bottles and other chocolate stains around the apartment.

The majority of the other windows in the apartment reportedly had the safety mechanisms that prevented them from opening more than 6 inches, while two windows would not open at all. The living room window was the only one without the stop.

Court records show the apartment’s management company filed an immediate eviction notice against O’Connor. The notice said the window stops had been “carelessly removed” and that the apartment was “deemed to be uninhabitable by the State due to very poor sanitary conditions.”

O’Connor is in custody at the Jackson County Jail with bond set at $100,000.

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