Mother charged after 5-year-old son dies from 17-story fall

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/Gray News) - Corrinne O’Connor, 27, was arrested on Tuesday and charged in connection with the death of her son, who died in November.

Authorities say on the morning of Nov. 27, someone passing by the Grand Boulevard Lofts apartments near 10th Street and Grand Avenue found 5-year-old Grayson O’Connor’s body on the ground and called police.

When officers responded to the scene, they saw an apartment window from the top floor open, the only one on the entire floor. According to investigators, the boy fell from the 17th floor of an apartment.

Corrinne O'Connor and her son Grayson.(Instagram)

Authorities said O’Connor’s apartment was covered in filth and trash. Investigators wrote in a probable cause document that an open window of the living room had “a copious amount of chocolate on the sill and exterior ledge of the window. The chocolate on the interior window sill appeared to have been smeared as I observed what appeared to be child hand imprints in the chocolate. The chocolate on the exterior ledge of the window was dripping over the edge down to the ground seventeen stories below.”

According to court documents, Grayson had fallen and struck a covered walkway over the alleyway before falling to the ground.

“It should be noted that [Corrinne O’Connor] did not call emergency response for the incident, and the body was discovered by a citizen walking out a basement door of the building,” the probable cause statement read.

A probable cause document indicated Grayson died from “massive trauma to the head,” along with other severe injuries. His death has been considered “suspicious,” according to information provided by investigators.

Corrinne O'Connor was charged with a felony in connection with the death of her son, Grayson.(Jackson County Detention Center)

O’Connor was charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and booked on a $100,000 bond into the Jackson County Detention Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

The landlord of the Grand Boulevard Lofts apartments filed an eviction petition in court against O’Connor earlier in January. The landlord claimed she removed a safety device from an apartment window, according to court records. The petition said the landlord found out about the window stop being removed on the same day Grayson was found dead.

O’Connor has been scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

In Missouri, endangering the welfare of a child, which leads to the child’s death, is a class A felony and comes with a sentence that can range from 10 to 30 years, or life in prison.