The hoarder parents of an obese 7-year-old boy who weighed 255 pounds when he died of heart failure have been charged with his murder for their “extraordinary, terrible neglect,” according to prosecutors

Damien O’Brien, 40, and his wife Jessica O’Brien, 41, are additionally facing child abuse and torture charges in the death of their 7-year-old son, Casper — who had never been to school and only ever visited a doctor once.

“On the face of it, this is cruel and extreme suffering from this child caused by the neglect of the parents,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton told WJRT of the couple, who also have a 5-year-old daughter.

Police responded to a 911 call for a child in distress at the family’s dilapidated home in Flint Township, Michigan on Nov. 4, 2025.

Casper was rushed to a local hospital where he died a short time later from dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease that leads to heart failure, with a contributing cause being morbid obesity, according to a medical report.

He was 4-feet, 2-inches tall and weighed 255 pounds when he died — far exceeding what the CDC considers a healthy weight for a 7-year-old boy of the same height, which is between 50 and 73 pounds.