JAMESTOWN, N.D. (VNL) – An emotional response from the father of a 4-month-old baby whose body was found near Woodworth, North Dakota nearly a week ago.
The boy’s mother, Justice Lange, has since been charged with manslaughter and child neglect and is currently being held in Stutsman County Correctional Center.
Valley News Team’s Crime and Safety reporter Bailey Hurley had a jail interview with the father of baby Tyr, Jason Wilde. Wilde says Justice Lange is not a monster. He says he didn’t know when he kissed his fianceé and his 4-month-old son goodbye last week, that it would be the last time.
Wilde says when he hadn’t heard from Lange after a few hours and he got worried.
“She’s like my other half. We’re both Geminis. Ever since we met we clicked,” Wilde said.
After almost 24 hours missing, Wilde asked officials to put out an amber alert and to track Lange’s last cell phone location.
But he says he felt like no one cared.
“Just seemed like every avenue I took to find my kid and my fianceé, I met with dead ends. It was heart wrenching because I just wanted to find my son. I wanted to make sure that they were both okay and it was hard,” Wilde said.
He says he drove over 1200 miles in four days searching the Woodworth area for Justice and Tyr.
“I went up to tree blinds, deer stands, just looking for vantage points to try and find the truck. I was so upset and distraught over the whole situation, that I wasn’t going to stop until i found my kid,” Wilde said.
Wilde led police on a high speed chase and was arrested on unrelated warrants and brought to the Stutsman County Corrections Center.
“And two days after that, they (police) pulled me out again and said my son was found dead,” Wilde said.
Justice Lange told police she doesn’t remember much of the four days she was missing or where she last saw her son.
“I want to believe her and I do believe her, It’s just hard. She’s always had these demons, she’s always said I’m not going to be like my mother, I’m gonna be there for Tyr,” Wilde explained.
Wilde says Justice does have a history of using drugs, but was clean during her entire pregnancy. He doesn’t think that drugs played a part in what happened.
“She’s always been a very attentive mother, always made sure Tyr had what he needed. That’s why I know in my heart she didn’t do any of this on purpose, something had to have been done to her,” Wilde said.
Wilde says everything he does from here out is for Tyr, but also says he feels he could have done more to keep his family together.
“I feel like a failure sometimes because I didn’t find her in time. I wasn’t there for her when I felt like she needed me the most,” Wilde said.
Bail has been set at at a quarter of a million dollars for Justice Lange.