BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Palm Bay’s police chief on Thursday revealed new details of the investigation into a 12-year-old boy’s death, including an unconfirmed history of abuse, and plans to arrest the victim’s father’s girlfriend.
Chief Nelson Moya said the investigation into Noah Godleski’s death began on Oct. 22 when Jason Godleski went to the police department to report that his son had “died in his sleep.”
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“At 11:37 (a.m.) — just five minutes later — we arrived at the location. That location is the 900 block of Colonial Avenue SE here in our city,” Moya said. “What we discovered was horrifying. We found a body of a 12-year-old boy.”
The boy’s body was found in the laundry room with “evidence of trauma” and had been there for some time, Moya said.
“The subject in question (Jason Godleski) immediately invoked his right to remain silent,” the chief said. “He would not provide us any additional information regarding the whereabouts of his remaining family, which included three other children and (the father’s girlfriend).”
The chief said detectives were able to determine that Jason Godleski’s girlfriend, Samarial Dubose, 30, was in Connecticut with their three children. Those children have since been removed from her care by Connecticut’s child protective services, Moya said, and they are not in the care of other family members.
“Upon speaking to the female, we also began to discover inconsistencies and irregularities with her statement,” the chief said. “Our detectives, who were now sent to Connecticut, embarked on a series of interviews not only with her but with the children as well. We made some disturbing findings that we’re still trying to confirm.”
The chief said there is a “likelihood” that Dubose was arrested on allegations of child abuse against Noah Godleski in 2013 and that there was also a possible allegation of child abuse and neglect in Massachusetts in 2018.
“In March of 2020, there’s a confirmed allegation to our (Florida’s) Department of (Children and Families) — a case involving an allegation brought forth by a teacher at one of our local schools that Noah was the victim of child abuse and the hands of both the suspect and his girlfriend.”
The chief said Palm Bay police were never notified about that case and it was later closed out as “unfounded.”
He went on to say that investigators now have probable cause to arrest the father’s girlfriend, which he said could happen as early as Thursday.
Moya said part of the basis for the probable cause came from an intercepted phone call in which someone stated, “We hit him too hard in the face and the back of the head.”
The chief said that Dubose would face charges of aggravated manslaughter and failure to report a death, the same as Jason Godleski. He added that those charges could be elevated as the investigation continues.