Jared Nicholas Tutco Jr. was born on October 5th, 2004, at Shore Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. His mother, Kimberly, would later describe him as a child with serious mental disabilities who was very hard to manage. He tore up the floor and carpet in his room, spread his feces on the walls, and refused to wear a diaper.
By August of 2005, he was officially diagnosed with fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes developmental delays. But Jared Jr. ‘s parents had been on the radar of child services long before he was born. For Kimberly, it started in 1993 with her oldest child from a previous relationship.
That infant, only six months old, suffered two head injuries in a short period of time. Her rights to that child were terminated, and she soon gave up her parental rights to her other children from that relationship as well. Kimberly married Jared Senior, and the couple had more children together. After the birth of their second and third children, the Pennsylvania child welfare agency had concerns about unstable housing and lack of medical care.
The family was constantly moving, and the children weren’t getting what they needed. There was a court hearing scheduled to consider removing the children from their care, but the hearing never happened. The family packed up and moved to New Jersey before the court date. Jared Senior later told a case worker that their lawyer had warned them the state was about to take their children.
Once in New Jersey, reports continued to follow them. A daughter named ART, born in 2003, was hospitalized for seizures but never given her required medication properly. Her parents skipped follow-up visits, and her father reduced her dosage against the pediatrician’s advice. The state briefly removed ART from the home after an emergency room visit in September 2004, but she was later returned to her parents.
Because of everything the agencies already knew about this family, hospital staff were asked to delay Jared Jr. ‘s release after his birth. He was placed in foster care briefly before being handed back to his parents. The family moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005.
Neighbors said they hardly ever saw Kimberly outside the house. One neighbor remembered seeing Jared Senior slap one of his sons, a boy so thin his ribs were visible. By June 2005, a home nurse was worried about Jared Jr. He wasn’t gaining weight.
At nine months old, his weight was dropping steadily. On July 1st, he weighed just over 13 pounds. The doctor called the family and told them Jared Jr. needed to go to the hospital.
Jared Senior said they didn’t have a car. The doctor suggested an ambulance. He refused and hung up. Jared Jr.
was admitted to Shore Memorial Hospital through child services intervention. He gained over a pound during his short hospital stay. After discharge, he was placed back in foster care and remained there until April 2006. In January 2008, the school submitted a report about BT, the oldest daughter at home.
The seven-year-old had poor hygiene and often looked dirty. She told staff she was scared of her father and claimed her mother touched her inappropriately. Her brother told school staff his dad was scary like a monster. The case was investigated, but according to grand jury testimony, none of the documents from that investigation could be found.
The outcome remains unknown. In February 2010, another report came from the same school. BT, who was hearing impaired and used sign language, had a fever. When staff asked if her dad had done anything to her, she signed the word “slap.
” She seemed upset, and the school was scared to send her home. A case worker interviewed her, but BT didn’t share anything. Her brother said he didn’t know anything about his sister being hit, though he admitted that Jared Jr. sometimes got his hand smacked.
During a home visit, Kimberly mentioned that ART had severe brain damage from a seizure in 2007 and was now confined to a hospital bed. The case worker noted that BT showed behavior similar to children with autism and suggested an evaluation. When the case worker asked to see Jared Jr. , Kimberly said he was at a friend’s house.
The next day, another case worker visited and saw him. He appeared clean and had no visible issues. The investigation was closed. In October 2013, a new report came through Pennsylvania’s Childline.
One of the children told the reporter there was ongoing violence between his parents. He said he often got dragged into their arguments and felt pressured to choose sides. When he sided with his mother, his father would yell, curse, get in his face, or hit him. The child said he wanted to run away because of all the fighting, but he was scared to tell anyone what went on at home because he thought his dad would hurt him.
A case worker visited the home on October 24th. She told the parents she needed to see all the children. Jared Senior went upstairs and came back down about 15 minutes later, carrying Jared Jr. The boy’s head was wet.
When asked, Jared Senior said the boy had poured iced tea on himself. On October 31st, the case worker met with the 12-year-old brother at his school. He told her the iced tea story wasn’t true. He said Jared Jr.
had feces all over himself from his diaper, and their dad had been trying to clean him up. Then he added something that should have ended everything right there. He said his dad didn’t care about Jared Jr. anymore.
The case worker learned more about the family. Both parents were unemployed. The family lived on government benefit checks. The brother slept on the living room couch and didn’t have a bed.
He said his dad punched holes in the walls during fights and smashed phones. The case worker saw patched areas in the walls, and both parents confirmed Jared Senior had done it. Both ART, who was ten, and Jared Jr. , who was nine, were not enrolled in school at all.
The case worker asked both parents to sign release forms so she could access the children’s medical records. Kimberly got upset and asked why those were needed. “This is how things get twisted,” she said. She threw the release forms and started yelling.
She asked if she should get a lawyer. Neither parent ever agreed to let the agency see the children’s medical records. An emergency meeting was held at the agency. The case worker rated the severity of the situation a 9 out of 10.
The plan included getting the medical release forms signed, enrolling the school-aged children, and checking with previous state agencies about the family’s history. They decided to assign a different case worker, thinking a male case worker from a rural background might get better cooperation from the family. The new case worker had a completely different take on the situation than the first one. He didn’t seem to share the same level of concern.
The old case worker wrote up a full report summarizing everything, but the new case worker and his supervisor didn’t follow up to make sure the children were enrolled in school. They couldn’t get the medical release forms signed. Instead of requesting records directly from doctors, they accepted a binder of medical records that Kimberly had put together herself. Neither the supervisor nor the new case worker ever went up to the third floor of the house.
The supervisor later admitted she never went beyond the first floor. The case worker didn’t even know the house had a third floor. On December 20th, 2013, the agency closed the case. In January 2014, Hershey Medical Center called about ART.
She had been admitted with a fast heart rate and a fever. She arrived looking unclean, her fingernails dirty and untrimmed. She couldn’t speak and needed around-the-clock care. The nurses who had worked with her before refused to return, saying the family was too difficult to work with.
The parents didn’t come to visit her at the hospital even though they could have taken the bus. When the hospital was preparing to send ART home, the parents first said they didn’t have the right medical supplies. The hospital confirmed they did. Then the parents said she couldn’t come home if she needed oxygen.
The hospital followed up with the doctor who supposedly said this and confirmed that ART could safely come home with oxygen. Only then did the parents agree to have her discharged. Around this time, Jared Senior had started locking Jared Jr. in the front bedroom on the third floor of their house, allegedly to stop him from falling down the stairs.
He also said his son would throw things when let out. On July 27th, 2014, Jared Senior said he last saw Jared Jr. in that bedroom. He did not check on his son again until July 29th.
That’s when he found Jared Jr. dead. He claimed he tried to resuscitate the boy while his body was still warm. But he did not tell his wife.
He continued to hide what had happened by pretending to check on his son every now and then. He used mothballs and bleach to hide the smell. Kimberly soon began complaining about the odor. Jared Senior finally contacted a family-based worker who advised him to call the police.
On August 1st, he told his wife that their son was dead and moved Jared Jr. ‘s body to the floor of the second-floor bathroom. At 10:35 p. m.
, Kimberly called Harrisburg police. Kimberly told police that Jared Senior was primarily responsible for taking care of their son. She said she hadn’t gone up to see Jared Jr. in his room for years because she was worried about carrying bacteria back to their very sick daughter, ART, who relied on her for everything.
But later, she admitted that she saw her son a day or two before he died. When police entered the front bedroom on the third floor, the door was shut, with a towel or blanket pushed against the bottom. Mothballs were scattered in the hallway. Inside, there was no furniture except for a television bolted to its stand.
The walls and floors were smeared with a thick layer of feces. Behind the TV stand, there was a dried pile. Both the light switch and the inside doorknob were covered in human waste. The light didn’t work.
In the center of the room, they found a filthy stuffed rabbit toy in a blanket. The room was filled with flies. The doorknob had been installed backwards, so it locked from the outside, making it impossible for someone inside to leave. Jared Senior was taken into custody and charged with abuse of a corpse and endangering the welfare of children.
His bail was set at $500,000. Kimberly was not charged at this point. She insisted she wasn’t involved. She claimed she asked about Jared Jr.
every day and night, checking if he had eaten and how he was doing, and was always told he was fine. On September 29th, 2014, Kimberly was also arrested. This time, the charges included criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children. The district attorney held a press conference.
He said both parents showed extreme indifference to the value of their child’s life. The autopsy was carried out by a certified forensic pathologist. At the time of his death, Jared Jr. measured 42 inches tall and weighed just 16.
9 pounds. There was no body fat anywhere. There were clear signs of dehydration and malnutrition. Dried fecal matter was stuck to the bottoms of his feet along with strands of blue carpet fibers.
His hands and underneath his fingernails also had feces on them. The cause of death was starvation and child maltreatment syndrome. His death was ruled a homicide. A forensic dentist examined Jared Jr.
‘s teeth. Several were infected. One tooth had an abscess that had broken through the bone. Two others had opened pulp chambers that would have caused serious pain for anyone.
The dentist said the condition of his teeth showed clear dental neglect. Investigators found no dental records for Jared Jr. There’s no sign he ever received any dental care. After discovering Jared Jr.
, police were immediately worried about the other children in the home. They took the remaining children into protective custody. ART was completely bedridden, couldn’t move on her own, and needed care around the clock. Her heart rate was slow and her body temperature dangerously low.
She was taken to Penn State Hershey Medical Center. The doctor who led the child protection team said ART looked like she was about to go into shock, which could have ended her life. She was revived and admitted right away. The doctor said she had been a pediatrician for 30 years and had never seen a child in such poor condition.
ART was extremely dirty. Wax from her ears had come out onto her face. Her eyes were sealed shut with dirt and fluids. Her skin had thick layers of filth and scales.
Her hair was matted with grime. The only clean area was her diaper, which showed someone was at least changing it. After six baths, the smell was still overwhelming. In just one year, ART had lost about 15 pounds.
Since she couldn’t eat normally, someone had to feed her through a feeding tube. That clearly wasn’t happening. Due to her condition, her spine had twisted badly and was pressing against one of her lungs. Three of the siblings were kept together in foster care, while the other two were placed with different families.
Despite everything, the children are reportedly doing well in foster care. The grand jury also started examining problems within the child welfare agency. They found the agency itself was struggling with how it was organized and how it handled cases. In March 2014, just months before Jared Jr.
‘s death, the agency split into three parts: intake, in-home protective services, and permanency. The investigation found that training for case workers was not enough. There was a major lack of communication between the agency and other groups that worked with families. The 60-day time limit for completing investigations was seen as unrealistic and dangerous.
And the number of workers quitting, combined with overwhelming case loads, made it nearly impossible to keep up. Officials had known about this family for years, across different counties and even across state lines. And still, nothing changed. In court, both parents entered not guilty pleas at their preliminary hearing in December 2014.
But during the trial, one piece of evidence presented was a photo of the filthy stuffed bunny found in Jared Jr. ‘s room. A former case worker remembered it clearly. She said one cannot forget the feces-covered stuffed bunny, knowing it was likely the only source of comfort that Jared Jr.
ever had. Judge John Cherry was especially harsh towards Kimberly. He said, “We don’t even keep animals like that. ” He told her he couldn’t understand how she let this happen.
Kimberly claimed she was being hurt and scared. She said she wished more than anything that her son could come back so she could tell him how sorry she was for not protecting him. Her lawyer described her as a battered woman, someone controlled and hurt in ways that didn’t leave visible bruises. Jared Senior tried to explain his actions in court, crying and saying his mental health issues pushed him into isolating his son in that filthy upstairs room.
He told the court he was not a monster, that he loved his child and tried his hardest. Even his own lawyer admitted it was a complete failure in parenting. On October 26, 2015, both parents pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, two counts of child endangerment, and one count of aggravated assault. Judge Cherry sentenced Jared Senior to 21 to 42 years in prison.
Minutes later, he sentenced Kimberly to 20 to 40 years. He told them they were both equally to blame. After Jared died, no one came forward to claim his body. The coroner spoke to Kimberly once, but then didn’t hear from her again for at least 19 days.
He gave her the names of two agencies that could help with burial costs, but she never got back to him. He made the decision to have Jared’s body cremated. Jared’s ashes were buried along with the remains of other unclaimed people during a special ceremony held at the end of each year. His final resting place was in a potter’s field, a county-owned cemetery near the 911 dispatch center.
His glossy black tombstone is heart-shaped. It simply says, “In loving memory of Jared N. Tutco Jr. , October 5th, 2004 to August 1st, 2014.
” It contains the image of a bunny, much like the stuffed rabbit that served as his only source of comfort. On August 1st, 2019, on the five-year anniversary of his death, the prosecutor recalled the day he was called to the crime scene. It wasn’t just the horrifying condition of the room that stuck with him. It was how clearly the case exposed the cracks in the system.
Jared Jr. ‘s death wasn’t just the result of his parents’ actions. It was also the result of years of missed chances by the child welfare system. The grand jury’s work had led to a 122-page report detailing what happened to Jared Jr.
and what allowed it to happen. It showed the weaknesses of the very agencies that were supposed to protect children like him. The grand jury offered recommendations for how things could change, not just in the county, but across all of Pennsylvania. Five years later, the prosecutor wanted to know: had anything actually changed?
For him, it wasn’t just about remembering what happened to Jared Jr. It was about making sure no other child had to live and die just like he did.
