A Michigan couple has been charged with murder following the death of their seven-year-old son, who authorities say died of heart failure while weighing 255 pounds.
Damien O’Brien, 40, and his wife, Jessica O’Brien, 41, are also facing child abuse and torture charges after prosecutors alleged their son, Casper, was subjected to “extraordinary, terrible neglect.”
Authorities say the boy had never attended school and had seen a doctor only once, while living with his parents in what officials described as a dilapidated “hoarder” home in Flint Township, Michigan.
Police said officers were called to the “absolutely disgusting” residence on November 4, 2025, after a 911 call and found Casper in medical distress on a makeshift bed shared by four family members.
Casper was taken to a hospital, where he died a short time later. A medical report listed his cause of death as dilated cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure, with morbid obesity identified as a contributing factor.
According to the report, Casper weighed 255 pounds and stood four feet two inches tall. By comparison, the typical weight range for a seven-year-old boy is roughly 40 to 70 pounds.
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton announced the charges this week, accusing the parents of allowing years of neglect and abuse to culminate in the child’s death.
“On the face of it, this is cruel and extreme suffering from this child caused by the neglect of the parents,” Leyton told WJRT. “I don’t want to charge parents with neglect or murder…. I didn’t have any choice.”
Casper O’Brien, 7, died in November 2025 from heart failure after he ballooned to 255lbs
Damien O’Brien, 40, and his wife Jessica O’Brien, 41, were hit with murder, child abuse and torture charges after their son Casper died from ‘extraordinary, terrible neglect’, prosecutors say
Prosecutors said the parents left their home in Flint Township, Michigan in a ‘hoarder’ situation, and described their children’s ordeal as ‘cruel and extreme suffering’
Authorities said Casper was autistic, and the couple also have a five-year-old daughter, who has been placed in the care of Child Protective Services.
Leyton said despite Damien O’Brien having a good career as a cloud engineer for Delta Dental with health insurance for his family, they never gave their son medical checkups or took care of his health issues.
‘That is obesity. This child did not have a pediatrician, was only taken to the doctor I believe… once,’ the prosecutor said.
A forensic autopsy report said the boy was last seen by a doctor in February 2024, when he was referred to a pediatric endocrinologist that he never saw, reports MLive.com.
The report added that Casper’s diet was ‘potato chips and fries’, and he couldn’t eat a variety of foods because of ‘texture issues.’
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Despite the extreme alleged neglect, Leyton added that on the day Casper died, the parents called their veterinarian to have their dog treated.
Police described the family home in Flint Township, Michigan (pictured) as ‘absolutely disgusting’, as one officer said trash on the floor was ‘so extreme, I could not tell if there was carpet or wood floors’
Casper, seen as a child in his parents’ social media profiles, died from a heart failure disease while weighing 255 pounds at just four-feet-two-inches tall, a medical report said
Authorities said that despite allegedly neglecting Casper, on the day the boy died the parents called their veterinarian to have their dog treated
Authorities said the parents’ neglect was so severe that they never registered their children in schools, as Leyton said, ‘none of these kids even existed in the eyes of the government.’
‘CPS had never been out there, nobody knew about these kids, they had not been to school,’ he said.
When police and Child Protective Services searched the home following Casper’s death, they described the property as ‘absolutely disgusting’ and said piles of trash had built up throughout the home.
‘There was trash on the floor throughout the residence. It was so extreme, I could not tell if there was carpet or wood floors,’ a police officer wrote in a case report.
Police also said they found four neglected dogs in the home that needed urgent medical attention, and a broken bathroom toilet that was filled with feces.
Police described the family’s home as ‘absolutely disgusting’, and said on the day Casper died they found him suffering from a medical emergency in a makeshift bed that four family members slept in together
Leyton described the home as a ‘hoarder’ situation, and said he had never seen a case as severe.
‘I can’t think of what else this is, other than extraordinary, terrible neglect. And to me, that is willful and wanton misconduct, which is second-degree murder,’ the prosecutor said.
The parents were arrested this week and formally charged with child abuse, torture and second-degree murder.
They are being held at the Genesee County Jail without bond, and are next in court on July 2.
