Alabama woman to stand trial after son died in car while she was allegedly ‘dumpster diving’
A trial has been set for a woman accused of capital murder in the 2019 death of her 13-month-old infant son.
According to court records, trial for Elizabeth Anne Case is set for May 15 at 9 a.m. A docket hearing is scheduled for May 5 in Limestone County.
Case, 39, is charged with capital murder in the death of Casen Case, who was left in a hot car for as long as eight hours.
According to investigators, on Oct. 4, 2019, Elizabeth Case left her residence between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. the night before the child’s death, with him buckled into a front-facing car seat without strapping the seat to the vehicle. Case traveled to both Limestone and Madison counties where she was “dumpster diving” while the child was in the vehicle, officials said.
She then returned home around 5:40 a.m. and left the baby in the vehicle when she went inside the home and went to bed. Case awoke around 1:30 p.m. when the baby’s grandmother was banging on the door because she couldn’t find her grandchild.
They searched for the baby and found him in the car. Case then took the child in the home and placed him in the shower. The grandmother called 911, loaded the child in the car with Case, and met Athens Police at the Recreation Center at Highway 251 and Highway 31. The outside temperature was approximately 97 degrees when he was found.
Casen was transported to Athens-Limestone hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The case is also the subject of a civil suit filed in 2021 against Elizabeth Case, the State of Alabama Department of Human Resources, and the director and program director of the Limestone County Department of Human Resources.
The suit, filed by the child’s aunt, contends that Casen Case’s death could have been prevented if DHR investigators had acted on multiple reports that the child’s mother was abusing and neglecting him.