She claimed her son was with her father, according to police, but officials say a body found inside a Wisconsin woman’s trunk was her son.
Green Bay-Gazette reports that authorities contacted 26-year-old Sagal Hussein on January 26, following reports of a neighbor seeing her two young children, ages 2 and 6, playing outside without supervision. When the officers interviewed the children, the older child said that their mother left them alone overnight and they couldn’t find her.
When authorities located Hussein, she claimed she had only left the children alone for around 40 minutes. Brown County Child Protective Services ended up taking the two children into temporary custody, but one child, 5-year-old Josias Marquez, was unaccounted for.
When deputies questioned Hussein again, she allegedly claimed that Josias was with his father in another state. She wouldn’t provide a contact number for the father when deputies asked. Authorities later learned that not only had Hussein reportedly lied about the boy being with his father but that the child had not been seen in months.
Authorities interviewed several people, who all said they hadn’t seen Josiah since November 2019.
On March 30, police arrested Hussein due to numerous inaccuracies in her statements. On March 31, they found the remains of a child in the trunk of her car. Autopsy results confirmed that the remains were of Josiah, NBC 15 reports.
No formal charges have yet been file against Hussein in connection with Josiah’s death. The prosecution has until the end of April to file charges.
FOX 11 reports that Hussein’s mother said she doesn’t think her daughter intentionally killed Josiah.
“What I know is my daughter, Sagal, is that she was a loving mother and she didn’t kill her own son and what I believe is it was not her intention to hurt or kill her own child,” Amal Ismal said.
The cause of the boy’s death is currently unknown.
Meanwhile, Hussein remains behind bars on child neglect and forgery charges. Her bond has been set at $500,000.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Sagal Hussein/Brown County Jail]
