The day after his fourth birthday, Zachary Dutro-Boggess was rushed to a hospital in Portland, Oregon, suffering from suspicious internal injuries. After Zachary died on August 16, 2012, his mother, Jessica Dutro, and her boyfriend, Brian Canady, were charged with murder, accused of beating Zachary to death as well as abusing two of Jessica’s other children. 

During Jessica’s trial in 2014, Zachary’s story went viral after a Facebook message was introduced into evidence in which Jessica referred to her toddler son using a homophobic slur, telling Brian that Zachary walked and talked as if he was gay and that Brian would need to “work on” her son. The prosecution was convinced that her homophobia was Jessica’s motive for abusing Zachary more severely than the other children, eventually murdering him.

This is the disturbing story of Zachary Dutro-Boggess.

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