Prosecutor: DJ Creato Killed Son Due to Relationship

PHILADELPHIA- WTXF - Prosecutors alleged in court Tuesday that David "D.J." killed his son Brendan because the boy got in the way of Creato's relationship with his girlfriend.

Investigators are learning more about the death of three-year-old Brendan Creato, who was reported missing by his father, D.J., in October of 2015.

A police K-9 found his body, hours after he was reported missing, in a wooded area in Haddon Township.

Monday, prosecutors announced they charged his father with his murder. But up until now, authorities had shared very little information about what may have happened.

Now, investigators say they know a whole lot more about the cause of death for little Brendan, based on three separate autopsies.

Perhaps more shocking, authorities now have a sense of the motive for the killing.

22-year-old D.J. Creato was silent, nearly motionless, as prosecutor Christine Shaw asked the question on everybody's mind.

"Why would someone kill their own child? There must be a reason for someone to do something like that.

Shaw laid out a circumstantial but detailed case that Creato had smothered, drowned or strangled his three-year-old son, and placed his body in a wooded area near Cooper River, a favorite spot for the father to visit.

The prosecutor methodically picked apart Creato's story of locked apartment door and a small boy wandering off on his own.

But it was the motive for the crime that stunned the packed courtroom. Shaw said that Creato had, in June of last year, entered into a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old Philadelphia girl who made it clear that she disliked children and hated the fact that Creato spent so much of their time with his son.

Shaw added that when the girlfriend went off to college and struck up a relationship with another man, Creato became jealous and paranoid. By the night of the murder, he was horrified that he might lose his girlfriend because of his child.

Defense attorney Richard Fuschino blasted the case as "weak," and lacking in specific cause of death. The defendant's parents were in court for the proceedings and afterwards, they voiced their support for their son.

"We love and our son and we support him through all of this," his father said.