Here on Stolen Lives, we discuss brutal and heartbreaking crimes against children.

Themes may include child murder, torture, and sexual domestic and child abuse.

I do try my best to remain respectful for the babies in these stories

and leave out unnecessary details that honestly, none of us need to know to understand the frustration

of why and how this ever happened.

However, if you find any of these themes triggering this podcast may not be for you.

Listener discretion is advised.

This week's story is a listener's suggestion.

Thank you to Julia for bringing Brendan's story to my attention.

No, not the Julia in the story.

Complete coincidence.

Unfortunately, there wasn't justice in this story we are talking about today,

with Brendan's killer eligible for release eight and a half years after taking

his son's life. Thankfully, the first parole application was declined, but DJ will see freedom

while he's still in his 20s, able to live a full and happy life, while Brendan's never really

got the chance to start. October 2015, Haddon Hills, New Jersey. A three-year-old boy has an overnight

visitation with his father, a man later described as loving and gentle by the boy's mother. The

following morning, the father called 911, panicked that his son was missing and not in the home.

The boy found shortly after, less than a mile away next to a creek bed.

What police would uncover was a string of text messages from the father's girlfriend,

speaking of her desire for him not to have a child.

This is Brendan's story.

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