Mom Lets Creepy New Boyfriend Kill Her Daughter

Mom Lets Creepy New Boyfriend Kill Her Daughter

In her obituary, the four-year-old’s family says she will be sadly missed. Prosecutors say her final months inside this South Milwaukee home were filled with pain, her body covered in bruises inflicted at the hands of 22-year-old Jerome Milan. The girl was found dead there on a Friday; Milan had beaten her, held her underwater, and even bitten her. Authorities say the girl’s mother failed to get help.

On Friday, February 28, 2020, at 7:00 a.m., police officers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were dispatched to a two-story home on the 400 block of Montana Avenue in South Milwaukee. Police were greeted by 21-year-old Christina Colado, who advised the responding officers that her daughter did not have a pulse, was not breathing, and that she had found her in this state. The four-year-old in question was Autumn Marie Horic, an adorable little girl with bright eyes and curly red hair. Although first responders attempted life-saving measures, Autumn was beyond help and pronounced dead at the scene.

The death of a little girl who had not even had the chance to go to school, make friends, and grow up is beyond tragic. But what police and first responders encountered was much more than just an unfortunate, accidental death. Dressed in only a diaper, little Autumn’s pale skin was littered with purple bruises, including a large bruise on her head, circular bruises on either side of her jaw, and bruising on her forearms and sternum. Additionally, Autumn had a large burn on her knee and what police described as human bite marks on her thigh.

Like many mothers covered in past episodes, Christina first tried to explain away her daughter’s injuries to police as mere accidents. However, she eventually admitted that her boyfriend, 22-year-old Jerome Milan Jr., had been systematically harming Autumn. Christina told police that she had seen Jerome bite Autumn two separate times and admitted that if she had properly protected her daughter, the little girl would still be alive.

We have a situation where the mother’s boyfriend was causing harm to her children. Aside from four-year-old Autumn, who was deceased, Christina shared a one-year-old son named Grayson with Autumn’s father, Kyle Horic, and was currently pregnant with Jerome’s baby. It is important to note that 21-year-old Christina and 22-year-old Jerome had only been dating for eight months at the time of Autumn’s death, and Christina was already at the end of her second trimester, according to a post she made on Facebook three days prior to her daughter’s death.

Christina went on to describe to the officers the scene that played out that morning. She went to make a bottle for her son, heard a loud banging noise, and described seeing Jerome going too far while trying to force Autumn to go to sleep. What Christina meant by “going too far” was that Jerome was slamming her daughter’s head into the floor twice, and then he proceeded to smother her with a pillow.

Jerome took off prior to the 911 call and was later apprehended at a friend’s house. When officers questioned him about what happened, he admitted to harming Autumn and told them specifically that he had covered her mouth on multiple occasions in an attempt to get her to sleep. When police informed him that she was dead, Jerome’s response was, “So my life is over.” He then went on to say, “If all the injuries caused her to die, it’s my fault. If she suffocated, that is my responsibility and I killed that child.” An autopsy performed by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that Autumn’s death was a homicide caused by suffocation.

Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbinson said that if allegations against Jerome and Christina are true, Autumn was tortured over a period of months. It was not just Jerome and Christina who failed Autumn; a whole cast of characters knew that Jerome had been hurting this little girl and no one did anything to stop it. According to police, Christina’s father, Jason Colado, had told them he thought Jerome had been harming his granddaughter for some time. Jerome’s own mother told police that her son sometimes disciplined Autumn harder than he should have.

One of the most egregious cases of failure to report was that of Jerome’s own sister, who told police that she often heard Jerome yelling at Autumn and striking her, followed by the little girl bursting into tears, and that she often saw bruises on her body. The sister also mentioned to police that Jerome threatened to cut out the little girl’s tongue when he thought she was lying. She told police, “I knew something like this was going to happen.” Allegedly, about a month prior to Autumn’s death, she tried to bathe the little girl, who began to “freak out.” This was not the normal protest of a toddler who did not want to take a bath. Autumn told Jerome’s sister that she was afraid of baths because Jerome would hold her head underwater so she could not breathe. The sister told police she had never confronted Jerome about the misconduct or reported it to authorities because she was afraid of him. She then went on to state, “Autumn is dead, and I guarantee my brother did it. He deserves to be behind bars. It was way overboard. I should have called CPS, because maybe she wouldn’t be dead.”

Jerome was charged with child abuse resulting in death. Christina was charged with chronic neglect of a minor resulting in death, which is a Class B felony. Ultimately, Jerome was found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide along with two counts of child abuse intentionally causing harm. According to the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections inmate listing, Jerome’s release date is scheduled for November 25, 2038, with a maximum discharge date of May 25, 2067. Christina was found guilty of felony chronic neglect of a minor causing death. She is due to be released on February 25, 2025, with a maximum discharge date of February 25, 2030.

Autumn’s father, Kyle Horic, gave an emotional statement in court stating, “They ruined more than one life. They ruined so many people’s [lives]; she was their first grandchild, first niece. So many people [are] confused, so many kids her age, and I just don’t feel like 45 years is enough.” Kyle also told news sources that Christina was keeping Autumn from him and that he had not seen his daughter since late January. They had no idea she was being mistreated by Jerome. He said, “I want people to know her memory because I don’t want her memory to ever go away. I know it won’t with me and my family, but people need to know that, too. She was the best little thing ever. She didn’t deserve this.”

As mentioned previously, Kyle and Christina also had a one-year-old son, Grayson, together. At the time of Autumn’s death, Grayson was placed in foster care, and Kyle fought to regain custody of his son. Although there are not any official reports confirming this, it appears that Kyle succeeded in regaining custody based on pictures he has posted on his Facebook page. Kyle’s family started a fundraiser on Facebook to cover some of Autumn’s funeral costs, which raised $5,616 of its $7,500 goal.

Five adults failed Autumn Horic. These were not adults who just had a hunch; these were adults who witnessed this young girl being harmed. Autumn’s grandparents both saw it with their own eyes. Jerome’s sister even admitted she knew that eventually Autumn would be killed and that Autumn had even confided in her what had happened. Still, the idea that she was about to be killed was not enough of a reason for Jerome’s sister to make that call to save her.

Autumn was born in Milwaukee on October 6, 2015. Autumn’s family described her as a chatterbox who loved talking to anyone and everyone. She enjoyed taking trips to the zoo and days spent playing at the park. Autumn had a creative imagination and loved books and being read to. She liked to watch “Paw Patrol” and educational videos on YouTube, and she adored Minnie Mouse. Above all, Autumn loved spending time with her favorite and most important person, her baby brother, Grayson, who unfortunately will probably not have much of a memory of his older sister as he gets older.