Twin Cities Mom Sentenced For Causing Son, 8, To Freeze To Death

BROOKLYN PARK, MN — A Brooklyn Park mom Tuesday was sentenced to 103 months in prison for causing her 8-year-old son to freeze to death.

Tasha Tennin, 39, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Nov. 30, 2021.

According to the criminal complaint, Tennin contacted police and paramedics on Feb. 1, 2018, at approximately 7:30 a.m. to report her son was unresponsive.

Police found her son lying on the living room floor with no pulse and extremely cold to the touch.

Tennin told the police she attempted to wake her son for school that morning, but he was unresponsive and she carried him from his bedroom to the living room, the complaint states.

Authorities described the boy's body as being "ice cold," and "very cold, as if he had been outside." Despite the efforts of police and paramedics, the boy was pronounced dead at 8:14 a.m., according to the complaint.

Tennin told Brooklyn Park detectives that her son came home from school sick, lethargic, and without an appetite the day before. However, staff members at the boy's school told investigators that he had been playing and jumping on a trampoline, the complaint states.

The medical examiner's autopsy found no anatomical cause for the boy's death. On the boy's back were multiple lesions and scars, which a doctor said were indicative of physical abuse.

Months after the boy's death, his siblings told foster parents more about what happened. According to authorities, one of the children said the boy got into trouble on Jan. 31, 2018, and was told by Tennin to sit outside in the garage.

Tennin locked the garage and the boy was left outside for the night, authorities said. The complaint states the boy was found unable to breathe the next morning.