Sonar, cadaver dog alert investigators to Ohio River area during search for Middletown boy’s body

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser is in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, this morning while search teams work to recover the body of 6-year-old James Hutchinson of Middletown from the Ohio River.

Gmoser said sonar and a cadaver dog alerted investigators to an area in the Ohio River, and a retrieval is being attempted.

“We have a high degree of probability that a body has been located. Now, whether it’s the body, we can’t say,” Gmoser told the Journal-News. “But we have technology indicating there is a body in a certain location through sonar and a cadaver dog that has alerted on a special area, so we have a high level of confidence at this point that we have located a body.”

The 6-year-old Middletown boy was allegedly run over and killed Feb. 26 by his mother, Brittany Gosney, at Rush Run Wildlife Area in Preble County as he clung to her minivan when she attempted to abandon him and his two siblings.

Gosney reportedly confessed to her son’s death and said she and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, took the boy’s body on Feb. 28 to Lawrenceburg and threw him in the Ohio River.

Gosney, 29, and Hamilton, 42, were indicted this month by a Butler County grand jury on 31 combined charges alleging crimes against all three children, including murder, involuntary manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse and endangering children for Gosney and kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse, kidnapping and endangering children for Hamilton.

Searches have been challenging since the body was dumped into the river due to the high water level and current of the river. Searchers have been unable to search on many days.

Law enforcement from the region, including the Preble County Sheriff’s Office and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, and the Hamilton County Police Association Search and Recovery Unit have combined efforts.

About the Author