Unholy Hands

As the night fell on the evening of February 25, 2021, Brittany Gosney and her boyfriend James Hamilton were arguing. Again. It was the same old argument the couple had many times before, with James insisting that Brittany get rid of her three children from previous relationships. She finally gave in to his demands in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 26, 2021, and agreed to sacrifice her children for the sake of her relationship.

James Robert Hutchinson was six years old when his mother and her "hobeau", James Hamilton, decided that he and his siblings were simply in the way of a good time and were no longer wanted. After almost a month of James Hamilton demanding that she "get rid of those fucking kids," then threatening to kick all of them out of the house, Brittany caved. At three in the morning with the temperature just twenty-five degrees, Brittany loaded her three children into her van and drove them sixteen miles to Rush Run Wildlife Area. The plan was simple, drop the kids off in the park, tie them up, and abandon them there. Because of the location of the boat dock, the woods surrounding it, and the relative seclusion of the area, James Hamilton hoped that the children would be repast for the local coyote population. Things turned from bad to stomach-churning worse when James reached for the door handle of the van as his mother accelerated away from the dark parking lot in her attempt to abandon her children. While Brittany watched in the mirror little James was thrown to the ground and drug along the pavement as she accelerated away. That didn't stop Brittany though. She proceeded to drive out of the park, leaving her two oldest children alone in the dark with their dead little brother. When asked by detectives if she heard James scream, she responded "I didn't hear anything; I had the music on." Further expounding in a matter-of-fact manner that all she knew was that her son eventually let go of the handle. She later explained that while she didn't hear James, she heard the other children screaming and a noise that she didn't give a second thought because the rear wiper in the van squeaked.

At ten that morning, Brittany Gosney and James Hamilton walked into the police station and reported little James as missing. When their story didn't make sense, they were separated and questioned individually. It didn't take long for the story to come out, though it was filled with half-truths and whole lies at first.

Brittany Gosney

Brittany Gosney was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 2, 1992. Her parents separated when she was young and custody went to her father. Brittany lived with her father and his girlfriend until she was twelve years old and was found to be pregnant. The investigation into her pregnancy resulted in her admitting to being a victim of multiple counts of sexual abuse and she was immediately removed from her father's custody. Her mother still wasn't an option at that point and Brittany gave her baby up for adoption and was forced to live in foster and group homes throughout Ohio and Kentucky for the following six years. Upon Brittany's eighteenth birthday, she was legally and officially emancipated from the care and custody of the State of Ohio. Though the first child was a product of rape and was given up for adoption, when Brittany was just twenty years old she happily gave birth to her second child, another little girl she named Rachel. Two years later, and with yet another father, Brittany was pregnant again. The birth of her third child brought her first son, Lucas. One year later and with father number four, Brittany gave birth to James Robert Hutchinson. Little James would never know peace inside his home, as his mother was incapable of keeping a safe place for her children to live. When she and her current boyfriend, Lewis Hutchinson found themselves homeless once again, Lewis turned to his sister to ask for shelter for himself, Brittany, and the three children. Lewis' sister is Priscilla Hamilton, wife of James Hamilton. When it was noticed that Brittany and James were spending a bit too much time together, Priscilla confronted the two. After Brittany and James admitted to the affair, Priscilla threw them out of the house immediately and Hamilton took Brittany and the children to a hotel The three children were in and out of motel rooms and family homes and had just moved into the Crawford Street home on the first day of February 2021. The move into the Crawford Street home was everything Brittany had dreamed of, and an absolute nightmare for her children.

James Hamilton

James Hamilton is a small-time loser with a short temper. To be fair, Hamilton seemed to have a much longer fuse if a man was present as opposed to the extremely short one that was instantly lit in the company of women or children. His voice wasn't quite so demanding with his male coworkers or his boss. He had been married to Priscilla for seventeen years by then, and he was father to a stepdaughter when he met Brittany. Sex seemed to be the center of the relationship with Brittany, and them being kicked out of the house and moving into a hotel room with three kids did nothing for the advancement of their knowledge of one another. Had they taken the opportunity to know one another before starting a relationship, perhaps Brittany would have been hesitant to move her children in with Hamilton. He had previously been accused of abusing his stepdaughter, and though he beat any charges the incident nonetheless happened. James and Brittany's path to destruction and death all happened fast and left several broken hearts behind their path of destruction.

James Robert Hutchinson's Last Hours

James Hamilton liked his peace and James Hutchinson didn't know what peace was. Discipline didn't exist. Boundaries had never been set. Stability wasn't something the children knew or understood. Structure in the lives of the children was a foreign concept. Out of control and begging for attention in any way they could get it was the order of the day for the children in the household of James Hamilton and Brittany Gosney. Days were long and loud, except for Monday and Tuesday when the kids went to Rosa Parks Elementary School. Evenings were loud, the behavior of the children echoing their chaotic upbringing, and bedtime was a favored event for the adults in the house. With a firm hand and a loud mouth, James Hamilton attempted to take control of the children with violence, and Brittany not only encouraged James to beat her children, but she also joined in the activity. When James was asked by detectives where they would find bruises on little James when he was found, the senior James admitted to punching James in the ribs, legs, back, arms and stomach. After spending weeks threatening to hog-tie the children and stuff them in a closet, that's exactly what Brittany and James did. With premeditation, James drove to Walmart and bought red and black nylon rope. returning and giving the rope to Brittany. When Brittany attempted to tie up Rachel, she got frustrated and asked James to help her. He helped with tying Rachel up and then tied up Lucas and James by himself. When they were finished tying the children up, they shoved dirty underwear into each of their mouths and they shoved them in a small closet in Rachel's bedroom. James and Brittany then went to bed and went to sleep. When little James woke, still hog-tied in the closet at about two in the morning, his hands purple from lack of circulation and his little bladder full to bursting, he started to yell for his mom. That woke up his brother and sister and they, too, started yelling for mom. Brittany reluctantly rolled herself out of bed to go upstairs and untie her children when James Hamilton instructed her to do so. He didn't send her to untie the children and release them from the closet because he felt bad for them; he just wanted them to shut up. James and his siblings were allowed to use the bathroom and then the older two children were put to sleep on the floor in front of the television in the living room. James was sent back upstairs. The children downstairs wouldn't get any sleep anytime soon, as Brittany and James were arguing again. He was insisting, once again, that she get rid of the kids. He was tired of dealing with them and he told her that if she didn't get rid of them she could leave with them and nobody would have a place to live. Facing eviction and a broken relationship, Brittany agreed to abandon her children.

Brittany dressed the three kids in shoes, socks, hats, and jackets over their pajamas and loaded them up in the minivan she shared with James at three in the morning. It was decided that Brittany would take the three kids to Rush Run Wildlife Park in Somerville, Ohio, leave them tied up, and allow the coyotes to eat them. Brittany was initially unable to find the agreed-upon place at Rush Run and she called home to James, who told her to just turn around and "bring the little fuckers home" before she finally found the right spot. The parking lot that Brittany and James Hamilton chose to leave the kids in was for the boat dock and fishing area of Rush Run. There are no lights in the lot, and there is a single portable toilet beside the parking lot. There are no neighbors within hearing distance. Nobody to hear the children and their terrified screams. Brittany parked the van beside the portable toilet and instructed the children to get out. She told them that they all needed to go to the bathroom, that she would be right there when they came out. Rachel and Lucas did as they were told and got out of the van. Little James resisted, knowing that his mother was planning something nefarious. Brittany got out of the van and physically lifted James out, sitting him down on the pavement outside of the van and slamming the door shut before running back to the driver's seat and throwing the van into drive. A terrified six-year-old James screamed for his mother to not leave him and reached for the handle of the van door. As Brittany watched in the side view mirror as she accelerated away, little James fell to the ground, smacking the middle of his forehead. He mustered the strength the raise to his knees before collapsing once again to the pavement. Rachel and Lucas ran to aid their brother in the fading taillights of the van driven by the woman that bore them. For a horrifying thirty to forty-five minutes, nine-year-old Rachel and seven-year-old Lucas waited in the pitch-black night in below-freezing temperatures with their little brother dead at their feet before Brittany had her change of heart and returned to pick them up.

Brittany pulled back into the parking lot, her headlights illuminating the scene before her. A dead James was lying on the parking lot, one shoe missing and his glasses gone from his little face. Rachel and Lucas were scared, cold, and in shock. While Brittany picked up her six-year-old son's tiny, battered body and "nicely and easily" placed him on the backseat of the minivan, the other two children took the middle seats for the ride back to the home they shared with their mother and the man that claimed to investigators to be a loving stepfather. Once back at the Crawford Street home, Brittany carried little James back into the house and laid him on the floor of the living room, where he stayed until James Hamilton "got tired of looking at him" and moved James' body to the floor of his empty bedroom, directly under the window. The adults put the kids to bed and got some sleep themselves.

Upon waking the following morning, James and Brittany took down all of the video equipment, removed all of the guns he and Brittany had throughout the house, threw James' glasses into a five-gallon bucket with some other illegal odds and ends, and took it all to a garage that he broke into. James had apparently been breaking into the garage on a regular basis to hide things that were of importance to him but he didn't want to be caught with, and police gathered several items from the back corner of the garage. Once all of the evidence was gone, the only thing left was the body of James. Brittany put his hat back into his jacket pocket, put his shoe back on, and whisked him out the door. Without hesitation, the decision to drop little James off of a bridge and into the Ohio River was thought to be in everyone's best interest, and while the other two children still slept, James and Brittany loaded James' body into the minivan and drove away from the Crawford Street home.

Just under one hour later, James Hamilton pulled over to the side of the road and grabbed a block he had the forethought to steal from the alley behind his house. Using the very rope that the couple hogtied the children with the night before, James Hamilton tied the concrete block around the chest of little James. Hamilton and Gosney drove to the middle of the Carroll Lee Cropper bridge and stopped the van. Brittany got out of the passenger seat and slid open the side door of the minivan while Hamilton climbed through the van to get to the back. Brittany grabbed her six-year-old son's feet, Hamilton grabbed his little body by the shoulders and the two of them heaved little James over the railing and into the Ohio River below. Brittany giggled about being able to hear little James hit the water as she assured Hamilton that it was over. Little James was gone forever.

After another hour's drive back to Middletown, James Hamilton and Brittany Gosney walked into the Middletown Division of Police and calmly reported James Robert Hutchinson missing. The detectives immediately knew something was wrong. Parents don't calmly walk into a police station and report their child missing. The report is most often made in a panicked 911 call, and most parents wouldn't dare leave an empty house, lest the child comes wandering back home. While the police went to the Crawford Street home and picked up the other two children that were left alone in the home sleeping, multiple agencies responded to the search for little James including 50 volunteers from Northstar International and Ohio Land Search and Rescue, a helicopter, and mobile command unit, as well as from the Sherriff's Office Emergency Services Unit (ERS). With Gosney and Hamilton separated in interrogation rooms with different detectives speaking to them, the real story started to come together. It didn't take long for the couple to flip on one another and start pointing fingers, turning the search effort for little James into a recovery effort so that he could finally rest in peace. The Ohio River was raging and though Middletown detectives along with other agencies and private citizen volunteers have spent countless hours searching for any trace of James Robert Hutchinson to no avail.

Hutchinson’s mother, Brittany Gosney, 29, and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 42, are both faced charges in the death of young James. Gosney faced preliminary charges of murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. Hamilton has been charged with the abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. James Hamilton would plead guilty in August of 2021, to gross abuse of a corpse and two counts of child endangering. Though he freely admitted to investigators that he hogtied, hit, kicked, and punched all three of the children, James only received nineteen years in prison. The judge addressed James, saying that the hands that murdered and then dumped little James Robert Hutchinson into the Ohio River were "unholy hands" and couldn't be anything more than evil. Gosney pleaded guilty to one count of murder and two counts of child endangering and was sentenced to life in prison with the eligibility for parole after twenty-one years. Should Brittany achieve parole, she will be required to register as a violent offender for the remainder of her life.

Rachel and Lucas were placed into foster care and are doing quite well. As of this writing, the body of James Robert Hutchinson has yet to be recovered.