On Thursday, December 19th, the mother of eight year old Noah McIntosh, Jillian Godfrey pleaded guilty to two felony counts of child endangerment in the Riverside County Superior Court.
The details of her plea were sealed by the judge so the details of her charges and the agreement she reached with the prosecutors is not available to the public.
On March 12th of this year, Noah was reported missing, allegedly four days after Godfrey had been told by Bryce McIntosh, 33, that the boy had gone missing two days before. Godfrey told the Department of Public Social Services worker she contacted for a welfare check on her son that McIntosh had told her he would "handle it."
The following day, March 13th, both McIntosh and Godfrey were arrested on suspected child cruelty charges, but it was only a matter of days before McIntosh was charged with murder.
Noah's body was never found, but what was discovered painted a very disturbing image of abuse and torture.
Detectives believe that in the days following the last time Noah was seen alive McIntosh purchased a 32 gallon trash can, four gallons of muriatic acid, several bottles of drain opener, bolt cutters, and long cuffed gloves.
Investigators used data obtained from McIntosh's cell phone to track his movements and ended up in an unincorporated area of Aguanga. There, they found a trash can that seemed to match one that McIntosh was seen purchasing on store cameras.
Inside the trash can, investigators evidently found a paper with "Noah M" written on it, several purple latex gloves, parts of a Ninja blender, other cleaning supplies, and a bag that reportedly contained a residue consistent with blood.
In August records were revealed which showed that DPSS had eighteen months of records related to Noah which detailed abuse and neglect that he and another family member had been subjected to.
Despite numerous instances of abuse that were submitted for investigation, all but two of them were deemed to be “unfounded,” "inconclusive," or left open without any determination at all. In the end, social workers did not consider that children were in danger and did not see fit to remove Noah from McIntosh's custody.
A civil suit has been filed on behalf of Noah's estate and his sister against Riverside County. Filed in October, the suit is seeking undisclosed damages and is still under review by the Riverside County Counsel's Office.
McIntosh's pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 20th.
Godfrey is scheduled to be sentenced April 3rd.