It was late February and the ice surrounding the Canadian township of Amaranth was melting quickly and causing massive flooding through the area.
Shortly before 1 a.m. on Feb. 21, Michelle Hanson allegedly failed to stop her minivan at a road closure. Her 3-year-old son was also inside the vehicle, which was swept into the Grand River, according to officials.
Hanson, 35, held onto her son, Kaden Young, but the rapids were too strong.
“Kaden was swept away from her arms,” Constable Paul Nancekivell, spokesman for the Ontario Provincial Police Department, tells PEOPLE.
In the following months, dozens of volunteers searched for the boy, according to CityNews Toronto. On April 21, a fisherman found his body underneath a bridge in a neighboring town.
“It has been a long, extremely draining two months of searching and now has finally come to an end,” Hanson wrote afterward in a Facebook post, according to the news outlet. “The amount of support was absolutely incredible and we really can’t thank everyone enough.”
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Now police have charged Hanson in her own son’s death: On Thursday, after a thorough investigation, they accused her of impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death.
“Police will not comment on specific details of the allegations to protect the integrity of the ensuing court process,” according to a report released from the Ontario police.
It is unclear whether Hanson had obtained an attorney, but she is scheduled to make her first appearance in front of a judge on Nov. 6, Nancekivell says.
He says she placed her son in danger after she allegedly drove through some barricades.
“A closed roadway is closed for a reason,” he says. “She’s paying a very dear penalty.”
Source: Read Full Article