A 23-year-old mother in Milwaukee has been charged with murdering her four-year-old son by allegedly setting him on fire in the bathtub of their home.
Amelia Di Stasio was arrested after fire fighters found her son Antonio’s charred remains in the bathtub of their apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 7.20am on September 28.
His arms and legs had been tied to his hands with seven belts and there was a plastic bag over his head.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by DailyMail.com on Thursday, a guinea pig was also found drowned in its cage next to the boy and there was a cannister of canola oil nearby.
The smoke detector had been ripped from its fixture and placed in water.
Amelia Di Stasio, 23, is accused of murdering her four-year-old son Antonio (right) by setting him on fire in the bathtub of their home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Police later found Di Stasio walking down the street. When an officer approached her, she at first told him ‘lots of people look like me’, according to the report.
She then admitted to being the boy’s mother.
Neighbors said that in the days before Antonio’s death, they heard the little boy pleading: ‘Please, Mommy. Stop! I won’t do it again.’
They said Di Stasio, a single mother, told him to ‘shut up’. Others said they heard banging coming from inside the home.
The woman’s family say she suffers from mental illness and may be bipolar.
Di Stasio was not in the home when police arrived at the apartment. Neighbors later told detectives they saw a ‘frazzled’ woman jumping from the window.
Antonio’s arms and legs had tied to his sides with seven belts and there was a plastic bag over his head when his charred remains were found. Neighbors said his mother jumped out the window after setting the fire
After fleeing the home, she approached a man in the street and asked him if he knew a pastor. Police said Di Stasio told them that she ‘did something really bad.’
When police searched the woman’s cell phone, they found that she had looked up ‘how to kill a canabal (sic)’.
Di Stasio’s father said she was a devoted mother who suffered from mental illness
She had also visited a video game web page where people discussed the various ways to kill a cannibal.
Some had written: ‘Kill it with fire!’
Di Stasio was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and remains behind bars. It is not known whether she has an attorney or when her next court date is.
Her father Ralph Di Stasio said that though she suffered mental health problems, she was devoted to her son.
He appeared to suggest that she may have snapped under the strain of caring for the little boy who, though ‘bright and happy’ would ‘scream’ and was ‘too loud’.
‘He would act out and jump up and down and scream so loud. And that’s when the noise complaints would come. He was too loud, he was making too much noise.
‘She loved him. Took him everywhere with her. Tried to get him treatment. And she’s now under arrest.
‘I don’t know what happened, only that I’ve lost both my grandson and a daughter,’ he said in a Facebook post after his death.
He is now raising money on a GoFundMe page to pay for Antonio’s funeral next week.
A smashed window at the home where the boy was found. Police say Di Stasio jumped out of the bathroom window after setting her son on fire