Parents charged with murder of 7-year-old son who weighed 255 pounds

FOX 2 – After the death of an obese 7-year-old from suspected neglect, the parents have been charged with murder in a heartbreaking case near Flint.

The backstory:

Their son, Casper O’Brien, was bedridden, unable to speak, and weighed 255 pounds when first responders were called to the family’s home.

Warning: The details of this story are difficult to hear.

FOX 2 was provided the only recent photo of 7-year-old Casper O’Brien. When he died, he weighed 255 pounds.

Investigators say he was bedridden, neglected, and living in complete filth.

David Leyton is the Genesee County prosecutor.

“The paramedics went into the house to try to revive the child, and the township police wrote in their police report, that they couldn’t even go into the house because there wasn’t any additional room,” he said.

Casper’s parents, Damien and Jessica O’Brien, called 911 last November from their Flint Township home after the boy stopped breathing. He died at the hospital from a heart muscle disease compounded by morbid obesity.

His 5-year-old sister was rescued the same day he died.

“When the police arrived, the 5-year-old little girl was running around naked and, for lack of a better term, she was like a feral child,” Leyton said.

The O’Briens are now charged with second-degree murder, torture and child abuse.

Leyton says Casper was non-verbal and likely on the autism spectrum, but neither child received medical care. 

Investigators say both parents were employed and had health insurance for the family.

“They knew enough to call the veterinarian the very morning the child went into (cardiac arrest) because the dog was sick,” he said. “But yet they don’t take the kids to the doctor. (It) doesn’t make any sense to me.”

The 5-year-old girl was immediately removed from the home by Children’s Protective Services. She is currently in temporary foster care.

Casper O’Brien weighed 255 pounds when he died, leading to charges for his parents.