TUCSON, AZ — Documents are shedding light on the circumstances in which Pima County Sheriff's deputies discovered the body of a 9-year-old boy in west Tucson.
On Sunday, deputies responded to a call at the home of 38-year-old Joseph Gregory Antonsen for a "rescue follow-up."
Upon arrival, they made contact with Antonsen who told deputies his son had become ill on Friday, July 12. According to the complaint, he told deputies that he was going to take him to get checked out the day he got sick. When he went out to turn on his vehicle, then back inside to put a shirt on, he noticed his son was "shuttering and going limp," the complaint said. He could not find a pulse and he was not breathing, Antonsen told deputies.
Antonsen told deputies that he ended up leaving the home for an unknown location, without his son, the complaint said. He did not return for two days.
Deputies described the home as being cluttered with piles of garbage around and near the couch where the boy was located, along with empty beer cans, large piles of soiled diapers, rotten foods, and large amounts of one-gallon bottles, apparently filled with urine, the complaint said.
Deputies also noted a lot of insect and spider activity, such as black widows and brown recluses. Spiderwebs were going everywhere, the complaint said.
The complaint stated that the home had no running water or working toilets.
Deputies located the boy on the couch in a sitting position and in the process of decomposition.
When detectives tried to get more information from Antonsen, he declined to provide any, the complaint said.
Antonsen has been charged with two felony counts of child abuse and one felony count of negligent homicide.
Based on the investigation, Antonsen was arrested and booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Complex on those charges.
The investigation remains ongoing.
