Wilson County mother accused of murdering 5-month-old son now charged with crimes against nature
The mother accused of murdering her 5-month-old son is now facing new charges.
Aside from being charged with murder, felonious child abuse and concealment of a death, Elyssa Kucharski is now also being charged with six counts of crimes against nature.
Arrest warrants accuse Kucharski, 27, of suffocating her baby, which was believed to contribute to the child's death. The official cause of death is still under investigation pending results from the State Medical Examiner.
On the night of Sept. 28, Wilson County deputies were called to an outbuilding on Little Rock Church Road in Lucama.
When deputies arrived, Kucharski was performing CPR on her child. The 5-month-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the Wilson County Sheriff's Office, the child had been dead for some time before anyone called for help.
Kucharski told Wilson County deputies on Sept. 28 she left her son, Ragnar, napping in an outbuilding behind a Lucama home belonging to her boyfriend's family and returned to find him lying face down and unresponsive.
Kucharski's boyfriend, Taylor Dale Lucas, 33, is charged with accessory to murder, child abuse and concealing the child's death. He is not related to the child.
WRAL News interviewed Lucas at the scene the day of the incident. Lucas said after Kucharski found her baby unresponsive he tried to perform CPR on the boy and told the mother to call 9-1-1.
According to court documents, Lucas is accused of lying to investigators at the scene about what exactly happened. Wilson investigators said they were called to the home by Wilson Social Services, not by Lucas or Kucharski.
Kucharski pleaded guilty to negligent child abuse with serious bodily injury related to an incident in January 2021 and had surrendered two other children to the county department of social services.
Kucharski is set to appear in court on Monday for the charges related to crimes against nature.
For the charges related to the murder of her infant son, Kucharski is scheduled to appear in court on July 4, 2024.
