The Case Files: Julissa Thaler
The boy failed by the system, and the father who tried to save him from the sadistic mother hell-bent on keeping her son at all costs — even if it meant murder.
Trigger warning: this story contains graphic content about a child’s murder.
May 20, 2022 was a seasonally warm spring day in Mound, Minnesota, about 22 miles west of Minneapolis. Officers from the Orono Police Department (OPD) responded to a citizen’s call about a Chevy Impala being driven without a front tire, riding straight on the rim, and a shattered back window. When they pulled the car over at Shoreline Drive and Bartlett Boulevard, they had no idea that in mere minutes, the rim and window would be the least of their worries.
According to the affidavit, officers approached the vehicle and spoke with the driver. Julissa Thaler was a 28-year-old woman, her long hair dyed white with the natural dark undertones and roots, parted to one side, and on the other, locks of hair braided along her scalp. The longer ends at the back had been tied into a messy pony tail. Her dark brown, piercing eyes withheld the secrets of what she had done the night before, that of which the cops were about to discover. And she must have known it was over. She had to have known.
