Babysitter 'slit the throat of a four-year-old boy and sent a photo of his mutilated body to his own mother'

A babysitter has been accused of slitting the throat of a four-year-old boy and sending a photo of his mutilated body to his mother to prove that he had killed the boy.

Terry Joe ‘TJ’ Volner took a series of photos after allegedly killing the boy, including one showing the dead boy's chin propped up by a stick.

Prosecutors said the 22-year-old man took the gruesome ‘trophy’ photos to prove to his mother Tina Miller, that he had killed the Dusty Guenther, the only son of Gina Guenther who Volner knew very well.

Found dead: Four-year-old Dusty Guenther was found last week in an ice covered lagoon near his home in Wright County, Missouri

Charged: Terry Joe 'TJ' Volner was arrested and confessed to killing Dusty, who he was babysitting for at the time of the boy's death

Police say that he was jealous of Ms Guenther’s new boyfriend, though it is unclear whether or not she and Volner had ever dated.

Volner was arrested after being found in Guenther's home with a self-inflicted stab wounds.

Love letters from Volner to the boy's mother were found in the home where the killing took place.

Police said the mother's boyfriend had visited the house the night before the toddler was killed. Ms Guenther is the mother of four, and at the time of the alleged murder one of her daughters was in the house but was not harmed.

Mother-son bond: Gina Guenther is pictured with her son Dusty

Family: Dusty was the only boy son of Gina Guenther (center). At the time of his death, he and one of his sisters were being watched by Volner while the elder two girls were at school

Questions: The exact nature of the relationship between Gina Guenther and TJ Volner is unknown, but police think he was jealous of her new boyfriend

At the time of the incident, Ms Guenther was at work while her two eldest daughters were at school.

According to court documents, Volner used his cell phone to send pictures to his mother , though why he would want to prove that grizzly fact to her is beyond understanding.

He boasted that he had killed all four of the children as well as Ms Guenther’s new boyfriend, though the three daughters were untouched and no other bodies were found.

One of the pictures of the dead boy showed part of a man's arm with a tattoo, which helped investigators as they said Volner has the same tattoo on his arm.

Murky past: Volner was released from prison in March after a theft charge, and is thought to have stayed with the Guenthers on-and-off since

The victim was found last week in an ice covered lagoon near his home in Wright County, Missouri.

Volner, who was released from prison in March from a three year sentence for theft, had been staying with Ms Guenther on and off since his release.

Sargent Casey Jadwin with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that Volner confessed to him that he'd killed the child by stabbing him in the neck with a folding-knife.

Trouble at home: This is the Guenther's house in Wright County, Michigan

In addition to a murder charge, Volner faces charges of armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse.

He is being held in jail on a $1million bond.

Neighbours were left stunned by the boy's death.

‘It was very dreadful,’ neighbour Milt Granier said. ‘In fact everybody cried about it in the community.