Share and Follow
Background: A section of the 100 block of Miami Circle in Cheyenne, Wyoming (Google Maps). Inset: Juliette Martinez (Laramie County Sheriff”s Office/Cowboy State Daily).
In Wyoming, a tragic case has emerged involving the suspected abuse of a 4-month-old boy, coinciding with a search found on the mother’s phone querying whether symptoms of shaken baby syndrome could dissipate, according to authorities.
Juliette Martinez, 23, and Joseph Hanson, 24, have both been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, as stated by the Cheyenne Police Department in a recent press release. The couple is currently being held at the Laramie County Detention Center, as confirmed by court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.
On August 8, 2025, around 5:45 p.m., medical staff at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center received a 4-month-old infant, identified in reports as TH. The child was brought in by Martinez and Hanson, the police report details. Upon evaluation, it was determined that the infant required more intensive medical care at Denver Children’s Hospital, necessitating an emergency airlift. However, hospital staff struggled to reach the parents for coordination.
A Cheyenne police officer was dispatched to the hospital and subsequently visited the parents’ residence on Miami Circle to facilitate communication with the hospital team. Once transferred to the hospital in Denver, the child underwent medical assessments that revealed extensive injuries.
The boy suffered from severe fractures and critical brain trauma, injuries that authorities believe resulted from physical abuse. Despite medical efforts, the child was placed on life support. Tragically, on September 8, 2025, he was removed from life support and pronounced deceased.
The circumstances of the child’s death were investigated. According to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Cowboy State Daily, Hanson had told a nurse that Martinez had “twin resentment,” and that TH had a twin and an 18-month-old sister.
Officers interviewed both parents. Martinez reportedly said that before TH’s initial hospital visit, she and Hanson “both agreed TH’s ‘breathing was off.’” When they picked him up, they noticed the boy was shaking.
They are said to have brought him to the hospital about 45 minutes later.
Martinez allegedly revealed more in her discussions with officers. She said that on that same day of the initial hospital visit — Aug. 8, 2025 — she slept until about 11:20 a.m. When she woke up and noticed TH’s breathing, she said she recorded a video and sent it to Hanson’s mother, who told them to take him to the hospital.
Hanson said he was awake the previous night with TH in the living room, per the affidavit. He recounted that he left the house at about 7:30 a.m. to go to work and left the child in Martinez’s care.
Investigators also searched both parents’ cellphones. When they did so, they apparently had questions concerning Martinez’s story.
For example, though she claimed she was asleep at the time, the search found that her phone was active on Snapchat and TikTok between 8:03 and 9:29 that morning, according to the local newspaper. Her phone also had “58 missing text messages between 6:42 a.m. and 11:45 [a.m.],” the affidavit stated.
Her phone’s internet search history also allegedly showed several searches having been made after the parents said they saw their son shaking, including: “Shaken baby syndrome symptoms,” “Shaken baby syndromes symptoms go away,” “Signs father gave baby shaken baby syndrome,” and “Seizures in 5 month old baby longer than 5 minutes.”
Detectives received the completed autopsy for TH on March 20, Cheyenne police said, noting the chief coroner involved “determined the cause and manner of death to be homicide.” The parents were arrested on April 8, 2026.
Martinez and Hanson appeared in court on Thursday and are set to return on April 17.