Father Confesses To Throwing his 3 Year Old Son Over the Key Bridge In MD

By Brent Jones Sun reporter
8:42 PM EST, February 14, 2008


A West Baltimore man has emerged from a coma and confessed to throwing his 3-year-old son off the Key Bridge into the Patapsco River, Maryland Transportation Authority Police said Thursday.
After his confession Wednesday, police obtained an arrest warrant charging Stephen Todd Nelson, 37, with first-degree murder.

Police have not recovered the body of the boy, Turner Jordan Nelson, but said the search will continue indefinitely.

Turner's mother, Natisha Johnson, said Thursday afternoon that she was prepared for police to charge Nelson with

murder but that she still hopes that the boy is alive.
"I'm always going to have that hope," Johnson said. "Until his body is found, I'll still hold on to that hope even though his father blatantly said he did it."

Johnson said the family is planning a candlelight vigil for Turner at 6 p.m. Saturday at the family's home, 6750 Ransome Drive in Gwynn Oak.

A call placed Thursday night to the home of Nelson's mother was not returned. The family had previously released a statement saying Turner was "Stephen's world, and he was trying very hard to spend as much time with Turner in the daytime as well as on weekends."

Nelson, who lives in the 2900 block of Walbrook Ave., had been in critical condition in an induced coma at University of Maryland Medical Center after ingesting household cleansers in an apparent suicide attempt at his home shortly after the incident Feb. 3, police said.

By Wednesday, Nelson had recovered enough to confess to police that he threw Turner off the bridge, said Marcus Brown, chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Brown said at a news conference Thursday that police would charge Nelson with murder when he leaves the hospital. Police are not sure when that will be.

Brown said Nelson is stable. Police are not releasing details of his confession.

Police said that on Feb. 3 they received a call about a man standing on the bridge, flailing his arms and screaming, "No, no, no." Officers arrived in about two minutes, but Nelson had left by the time they arrived, Brown said.

Police sources had said earlier that Nelson's mother called 911 several times that day, saying that her son had thrown her grandson off the Key Bridge. She told police that her son and Johnson have had domestic problems.

In an interview days after the incident, Johnson told The Sun that Nelson had never struck her and was not violent toward Turner. She said she left Nelson about three years ago because she no longer loved him and was in timidated by his drinking problem.

She said she did not want her son growing up around that kind of behavior.

The couple met in 2000 and lived for a couple of years in Rock Hill, S.C., before moving back to their native Baltimore. They were together, she said, until about six months after the birth of their son.

The couple argued over who should have primary responsibility for Turner, according to court documents.

Despite having established visitation rights, Nelson complained in February 2006 that he was being prevented from seeing his son on weekends. A month earlier, Johnson had requested full custody of Turner on grounds that his father saw the child only "when it is convenient for him," documents say.

Johnson did not completely move out of Nelson's home on Janper Court in Baltimore County until she was granted custody of Turner in May 2006.

After leaving Nelson, Johnson moved in with her mother, where she was raising Turner along with her twin 12-year-old nieces.

Brown said numerous local agencies are looking for the boy's body.

"The recovery effort is continuing. Our marine unit continues to patrol the area around the Key Bridge," Brown said.

brent.jones@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun

This is one of the saddest stories I've heard in a long time. I just don't understand this world anymore. I'm really a lost for words on this one. It's a damn shame. I don't understand how people hurt children like they do nowadays. I couldn't even imagine that someone would have the guts or heart to throw their own child over that high ass bridge like that. I hope that they find this child, and I really hope this is not true. Chances of that is probably slim to none. I've been following this story for a few weeks now. Hoping & praying for this child & his mother. May god be with them @ this tragic momemt and time. :(