Jasmin Kennedy and Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez (OCSO)
A 37-year-old mother in Florida was arrested this week after she allegedly admitted to strangling her 13-year-old son to death inside of their family home. Jasmin Kennedy was taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count each of domestic battery by strangulation, child neglect, and aggravated child abuse, authorities announced.
According to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 21 responded to a 911 call at a residence located on Crosley Avenue in the area of Deer Run Road, which is about 30 miles south of Orlando. The 911 call was placed by a family member, Sheriff Marcos Lopez said in a Monday news conference.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders quickly located “a white male juvenile laying face up in the bed,” the sheriff said. Shortly after deputies arrived, emergency responders told them that Kennedy confessed to choking the teen to death.
“Fire rescue crew members advised that a female subject spontaneously stated that she killed her son,” Lopez said. “According to our deputies, she had been choking him on the bed.”
At least one sheriff’s deputy also allegedly heard the “spontaneous” confession from Kennedy, per Lopez.
The victim — whose name has not been released by authorities — had markings on his neck consistent with manual strangulation and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Despite admitting that she killed her son with her bare hands, authorities said that Kennedy has been cooperating with the investigation. However, the sheriff said it was still unclear as to what may have motivated Kennedy to allegedly take her son’s life.
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“She is cooperating. She did not say why, she just admitting to doing it,” Lopez said, adding that detectives were “still interviewing her.”
Lopez said that Kennedy lived in the Crosley Avenue home with her grandmother, the grandmother’s boyfriend, the victim, and her other child, a 5-year-old who was not harmed.
“It’s always a tragedy when someone so young is taken, regardless how it happens,” Lopez said during the news conference. “When you hear this news, it’s like you’re getting hit with a brick. Somebody so young — their life was just taken from them and they hadn’t even begun to live.”
Asked about the possibility of more serious charges being filed against Kennedy, Sheriff Lopez said investigators were waiting for more information.
“What we do is in this case, based on her statements and there were some signs of strangulation,” he said. “We have to wait for the medical examiner’s office to confirm the cause of death and they’re pretty good at turning these type of cases around and getting us that information. And as soon as we get that from them, we’ll know the exact cause of death and what to charge her additionally.”
The sheriff also noted that OCSO deputies had responded to a call from Kennedy’s home earlier this year, but said that the reason for the call had nothing to do with either of Kennedy’s children being harmed.
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