Crime & Safety

Unsealed Warrants Suggest Farrey Baby Choked to Death, Buried by Mom

Court documents unsealed Thursday in Texas indicate Jeffrey Farrey told his father that Jackson Farrey choked to death.

Media in Texas and New Mexico are reporting that records unsealed Thursday in Texas allege that a day after he and his family disappeared, Jeffrey Farrey told his father that his infant son had choked to death and was buried by his wife in the New Mexico desert.

The El Paso (Texas) Times andKFOX14 TV, both in El Paso, as well as the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News, which picked up the El Paso Times story, were reporting Thursday that the warrants used to to search the Farrey family home, their cellphones, vehicle, and Jenna Farrey’s Facebook account, offered a glimpse at what authorities believe happened to 5-month-old Jackson Farrey. The warrants had had been sealed for 30 days and were made available to the media Thursday.

The warrants were issued in the wake of the Nov. 15, 2013 disappearance of the family of four. Authorities located Jeffrey and Jenna Farrey, 22 and 20, respectively, and their then-19-month-old son Blake at a hotel in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but could not fine 5-month-old son Jackson.

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The husband and wife, formerly of St. Charles, were arrested in Escanaba, MI, where they were found in a local hotel.

New details emerged from the warrants, as detailed by the El Paso TimesKFOX14 TV, and the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-Newsinclude:

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  • Prior reports indicated the family disappeared Nov. 15, but the warrants revealed that the family may have gone missing two days earlier, when the military listed Jeffrey, an Army specialist based in Fort Bliss, TX, as absent without leave. The Army sent a squad to the Farrey home on Nov. 15, when it then reported the family missing.

  • It was a journal entry by Jenna Farrey, not a suicide letter as previously reported, that alarmed authorities and prompted the intensive search for the family.

  • Jenna Farrey rented a U-Haul trailer on Nov. 1.

  • On Nov. 13, Jeffrey Farrey was photographed at 4:36 a.m. at a Border Patrol checkpoint.

  • On Nov. 16, Jeffrey Farrey told his father, Jeffrey Farrey Sr., that Jackson had choked to death, possibly on his own fluids.

  • Police also sought permission to track Jenna Farrey’s cellphone to help them as they searched for Jackson’s body.

  • When the couple was located in Michigan on Nov. 17, they initially told authorities that Jackson was with his grandparents, who told police that was not true.

  • A body believed to be Jackson Farrey’s was found buried in the New Mexico desert, although New Mexico authorities have yet to announce confirmation of the identity of the remains or the cause of death.

    Both Farreys have been returned to El Paso since their arrests in Michigan, and Michigan authorities recently returned 20-month-old Blake to the Texas child services agency, according to a report earlier this week.

    Jeffrey Farrey has been indicted on a charge of injury to a child by omission. Jenna Farrey, who is being held on a warrant for violating probation on a child abandonment conviction, has yet to be charged in her infant son’s death.


    Read more details in the stories by the 
    El Paso TimesKFOX14 TV in El Paso, and the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News.



    Related:


  • Nov. 22, 2013: Jeffrey Farrey’s Attorney Says His Client Did Not Kill His Son

  • Nov. 21, 2013: Former St. Charles Man Charged in Infant Son’s Death in Infant’s Death in Texas


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