The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Joseph Gregory Antonsen, 38, is facing charges of negligent homicide and child abuse. He is being held on a $500,000 bond.
The PCSD said deputies went to the home near Orange Grove and Sandario for a rescue follow-up.
The 9-year-old was found dead on a couch in the home. Investigators said the child has been dead “for an extended period of time.”
Antonsen told investigators his son became ill on July 12 and was going to take him to see a doctor. But he said his son was “shuttering and going limp.” He claimed his son did not have a pulse and was not breathing.
Antonsen told deputies he knew he should have called someone., but instead he left the home for two days with the body left inside.
The PCSD said the home was cluttered with piles of garbage around and near the couch. There were “empty beer cans, large piles of soiled diapers, rotten food, bottles full of what appears to be urine, lots of insect activity and spiders.”
There were spiderwebs everywhere, according to the interim complaint, and the home had no running water or working toilets.
The boy was left in a sitting position on the couch and his body was already decomposing, according to court documents.
