Case against woman accused in death of adopted young son in Arizona dismissed, but could be refiled

PHOENIX (AP) — The case against a woman accused in the death of her adopted 10-year-old son in the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye won’t be moving forward at this time due to insufficient evidence, authorities said Tuesday.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice the case against 56-year-old Crystal Wilson, who was facing one count of unlawful transport of a dead body.

“At this time, there was insufficient evidence to move forward with the trial against the defendant,” said Karla Navarrete, a spokeswoman for the county attorney’s office. “If new evidence is discovered and brought by law enforcement in the future, the office is open to reexamining the case.”

Buckeye police said Jesse Wilson went missing in July 2016 and the boy’s remains were found nearly two years later on the side of a road about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) from his home.

Crystal Wilson told police her son had run away after she put him to bed for the night.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies unsuccessfully searched for months for the boy before his skeletal remains were discovered in March 2018.

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The county medical examiner’s office declared the cause of death as undetermined.

Police said Crystal Wilson had moved a few weeks before her son’s remains were found.

She was indicted by a county grand jury in December 2022 and arrested in Georgia -- where she’d been living for several years -- before being extradited to Arizona.

The woman pleaded not guilty in the case in March 2023 and was on supervised release and wearing an electronic monitor while awaiting trial.

A call to the county public defender representing Crystal Wilson seeking comment about the case wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

“This is an active homicide investigation and this department will not give up on Jesse,” Buckeye Police Chief Robert Sanders said in a statement, adding that “the bottom line is Crystal Wilson is the only person who knows what happened to Jesse.”