A busload of people in Bloomington, IN, were alarmed recently when one of the passengers unzipped a suitcase she had brought on board 18 minutes earlier, and a 2-year-old boy emerged. The boy’s mother, 29-year-old Ashley Gibson, was arrested and charged with neglecting a dependant and recklessness. She pleaded not guilty.
The Gibson case is just one of a few bizarre true crime developments from Indiana and around the U.S. in recent weeks. According to court documents viewed by Indianapolis news outlet Fox 59, the incident happened on Dec. 12 last year. Gibson boarded the bus with the suitcase at about 1:45 pm that day and sat near the front. About 18 minutes later, the driver reportedly heard Gibson say her son was in the suitcase and stopped the bus. It’s unclear if Gibson told the driver or another passenger. The bus security camera showed Gibson unzipping the suitcase and removing the boy.
Police were called to the scene, and Gibson told the responding officer she put the boy in the luggage to “keep him warm” and added her family caseworker told her it was “okay to do” so. The police, however, noted the boy was dressed appropriately for winter weather. Bloomington daytime temperatures that day were around 25° Fahrenheit.
The Sarah Boone trial proves zipping someone in a suitcase can be deadly
Thankfully, the boy is okay, but he could have suffocated. The same month Gibson was arrested, Sarah Boone, 47, from Florida, was sentenced to life in prison for zipping her boyfriend, Jorge Torres, who weighed just 103 pounds, in a suitcase in 2020, leaving him there overnight, and letting him suffocate. Boone says she didn’t intend to kill him, it began as a game, the couple had been drinking that night, and she had been abused in the relationship, according to NBC News.
The Gibson case wasn’t the only strange true crime news to emerge from Indiana, either. About a month after Gibson’s arrest, 48-year-old Jennifer Wilson was sentenced to five years in prison with one year suspended for sitting on her 10-year-old foster son in April last year, Chicago’s WGNTV reported. Wilson reportedly weighs 250 pounds, and her late foster son, Dakota Stevens weighed only 90.
Neighbors’ security camera captured Wilson sitting on top of Stevens for at least seven minutes, and Wilson said she sat on the boy to stop him from misbehaving while she contacted his caseworker. The boy’s cause of death was declared homicidal mechanical asphyxiation.
As for Gibson, she’s currently free on her own recognizance, but now faces a mix of felony and misdemeanor charges. Her trial is expected to begin in April. The size of the suitcase and the boy have not so far been reported, and it’s confirmed he had been in the suitcase for at least 18 minutes if not longer.
Published: Jan 25, 2025 02:17 am