Dakota Mom Accused of Murdering Son

(Minot, North Dakota) A 35-year-old local woman, Jessica Jensen, has been accused of starving her 13-year-old son to death.

Jensen faces one count of murder, one count of neglect or abuse of a child and one count of failure to report the death of a child.

State Medical Examiner William Massello said in his autopsy that Jensen's son died from chronic starvation due to untreated juvenile appetite disorder. He listed the manner of death as homicide.

Jensen's attorney, Bob Martin, argued that she neglected her son's untreated medical condition but did not deliberately starve him and should not be charged with murder.

For more than an hour, prosecutor Kelly Dillon interviewed Detective Laura Forbes, an investigator whose answers painted a detailed picture of the living conditions in some areas of Jensen's house and the alleged mistreatment of her middle child. Forbes said Jensen told the detective that she had at times locked her son in a bedroom on the second floor of her home.

Forbes testified that both windows in the bedroom were covered in black plastic and were boarded up with plywood. She said the room was filled with trash, that the room smelled of feces and urine and that food was splattered across the walls.

Ugly case all around, I think.