Police in Iowa say a father killed his 5-year-old son by strangling him. The father had been thinking about killing the child for about a week before the killing.
Linn County Sheriff’s Office records show that 45-year-old Matthew Gerald Schleier is charged with one count of murder in the first degree.
In the moments after the crime, the boy’s mother is said to have told first responders, “His dad strangled him.”
According to police, Schleier then allegedly admitted it when an officer nearby asked him if his wife was right.
Police were called to a house on Willowbrook Drive in Marion, a medium-sized city in the Cedar Rapids metro area, around 6 a.m. on Tuesday because of an unresponsive child. A criminal complaint obtained by Cedar Rapids-based ABC affiliate KCRG shows that this is what happened.
The complaint says the caller said the boy “wasn’t breathing and was warm to the touch.”
Firefighters tried to save Jack Schleier, 5, who was inside the house. All of that work would be for nothing. After that, police rushed the victim to a nearby hospital, where they pronounced him dead.
It was then said that they admitted guilt.
Investigators say the defendant told them he thought about at least one other way to kill his child: using knives. Police say that a search warrant carried out at the Schleier home found several of these possible murder weapons.
The knives that were found in the house suggest that the father had a “premeditated” plan to kill his son, according to a copy of the complaint that The Gazette, a Marion-area newspaper, got.
Police say that two other adults and one other child were in the house at the time of the murder. Besides the 5-year-old, no one else was hurt.
The defendant’s first court appearance in Linn County District Court was on Wednesday. It was done through a video feed.
A courtroom report from the paper says that Schleier looked straight ahead, blankly and without emotion, during the short hearing.
“This boy left behind a sad mother and many other close family members,” Nick Maybanks, the attorney for Linn County, told the Gazette. “After this shocking and heartbreaking loss, our hearts go out to them.” It is wrong for anyone to have to go through the loss of a child.
What a terrible pain that must be. Let their family have some peace and quiet while they deal with this terrible event.
Not much is known about the exact events that led to the child’s death on that day. Police have not come up with a reason why Schleier might have wanted to kill his son besides the fact that he is accused of having suicidal thoughts.
The person is being held in the Linn County Jail on a $1 million bond that can only be paid in cash.
Next, on Nov. 8, he is scheduled to go to court for a progress hearing.
