A grand jury in Platte County has issued an indictment in the death of an eight-year-old-boy in June of 2017.
Aushena Warren, 30, now faces a count of first-degree murder in the death of her son after authorities allege she drowned the boy in a bathtub on June 13, 2017.
The Platte County Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Warren drowned her son and proceeded to the Kit Bond Bridge for a suicide attempt. Warren survived the fall as authorities were in the area conducting training at the time.
Aushena Warren
The first-degree murder charge is in addition to the felony count of abandonment of a corpse filed the week following the boy’s death. Though redacted in court documents earlier published stated the boys’s name was Audrick Warren.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said the grand jury’s indictment was the result of an ongoing investigation by the Kansas City Police Department.
The indictment alleges Warren caused the death of the eight-year-old by drowning him. Court documents filed in June indicated that police arrived at a residence in the 5800 block of North London Ave. on June 13, 2017, where paramedics had declared an eight-year-old boy dead.
Warren is being held in the Platte County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond. If convicted, the sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
According to court documents, another resident of the home left for work that morning with Warren, the victim and another apparently younger child in the house.
At about 11:30 a.m., the resident received a FaceTime call from the other child in the house, stating that Warren had left the house. The resident returned to the home and found the victim deceased.
The witness then moved the child out of the water and into a nearby bedroom.
The witness said he also found a note from Warren explaining that the family’s financial struggles were her fault and how she feared the children would be taken by the state and given up for adoption.
According to court documents, Warren said after her rescue, but before the boy was found dead, that she is bi-polar and had not been taking her medication. She told authorities the children “were at home,” but when asked if the victim had been left in charge, she became emotional and ended the interview.
In an interview with the second child, he stated that he heard “a head bump” three times at some point that morning. He also relayed that Warren gave him and his brother “pink medicine” that morning, and that she was running water in the bathroom for a long time.
After leaving his room, the boy apparently found his brother “asleep” under the water with a red face and purple hands. He said his mother left the house looking sad without telling him where she was going.
The boy used the cell phone she left behind to call for help.
According to court documents, an autopsy revealed a contusion on the back of the victim’s skull. The cause of death was determined to be drowning.
The felony charge for abandonment of corpse was filed because Warren didn’t call 911 or make an attempt to report the drowning.