Ohio mom who crushed baby's skull before leaving body to decompose learns sentence

A mother who crushed her 4-month-old baby's skull and left his body to decompose before calling police will serve at least 20 years behind bars.

Melissa Thorp, 40, entered a guilty plea to a charge of aggravated murder on Thursday. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Julie Lynch ordered Thorp to serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years.

On Sept. 12, 2022, Thorp called Columbus police to report that her 4-month-old son, Aaron, was not breathing. Officers who arrived at Thorp's Jefferson Avenue home on the Near East Side found the boy in a state of decomposition.

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Dan Meyer said it's not clear how long Aaron had been dead but it appeared longer than Thorp told police when she said he'd been fine the night before. The boy had likely been dead for several days, court records say.

An autopsy revealed Aaron died from either blunt force trauma or having the right side of his skull crushed between two objects.

bbruner@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio mom who crushed baby's skull before leaving body to decompose learns sentence