In August of 2004, 32 year old Michael Tesecum and his then common law wife 41 year old Teresa Watlow’s 18 month old son Jermaine Tesecum died. But instead of reporting it to police, they buried their child in their backyard. Today more than 5 years later they both pleaded guilty to concealment of death.
It was Watlow’s sister in law who in 2008 took police to the yard on Riverside Street in Lake I where they found Baby Jermaine’s skull in a white bucket buried in a hole 3 and a half feet deep. The sister in law says the couple first told her that the baby died of diarrhea.
After the discovery, Tesecum confessed to police that he hit his 18 month old son against a wall and that’s when he stopped moving. No cause of death is known and so Tesecum and his ex-common law wife were only charged for concealment of death.
Justice Michelle Arana has deferred sentencing pending mitigation plea from their legal aid attorney Phillip Palacio. The maximum penalty for concealment of death is 2 years in prison.
