A 45-year-old Tooele County father has been charged with aggravated murder in connection with the death of his approximately 1-year-old son.
On Saturday, Aaron Visser was initially arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse, according to court documents. However, his infant child died from internal injuries Monday, court documents state. The aggravated murder charge was filed in 3rd District Court two days later.
According to a probable cause statement, emergency personnel were dispatched to an address in Grantsville at 5:28 p.m. Friday to attend to an infant who was reportedly unconscious and not breathing. Visser had allegedly started CPR, and first responders began care upon arrival.
The child was first transported to Mountain West Medical Center and then taken by Life Flight to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, according to court documents.
While care was being delivered, an officer photographed several injuries to the infant’s face, eyes, feet and hand, according to the probable cause statement. Multiple internal injuries were later discovered during an assessment at the hospital.
The victim’s injuries were “both new and preexisting,” court documents state.
An officer with the Grantsville Police Department attended forensic interviews with three of the infant’s siblings, who allegedly said that Visser was abusive and “very upset” by being woken up by the infant and his twin brother on the day of the incident, as well as by a call he’d received from the child’s mother asking for help at work, the documents state.
The siblings said the infant was “constantly getting injured while inside the master bedroom with the father,” according to the documents. One of the siblings also remembered “hearing a loud thud followed by the victim crying and then hearing their father’s voice,” according to the probable cause statement.
Officials interviewed Visser at the Grantsville Police Department, where he denied knowing what caused his son’s injuries and then gave myriad explanations, “none of which appeared consistent,” according to the probable cause statement.
Visser was booked into the Tooele County Detention Center on Saturday evening.
