A now-former North Carolina professor has been charged with murder after fatally abusing his adopted newborn son, authorities said.
Van Erick Custodio, 42, was charged with first-degree murder on Thursday in connection to the death of 6-week-old Lucas Birchim, the Gastonia Police Department said. Custodio was previously hit with child abuse charges, but those charges were upgraded after Birchim died at a local hospital on Wednesday. The baby had sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull and a broken rib.
Custodio is being held on a $500,000 bond at Gaston County Jail. On his personal website, Custodio describes himself as a “UX Consultant looking to tackle the next project” while working as an assistant professor in computer students at Belmont Abbey College. The school confirmed that he was hired in 2019 but was recently placed on family leave before he was ultimately suspended on Wednesday. A University of North Carolina-Charlotte spokesperson also confirmed that Custodio was hired on a “limited, temporary contract to teach one class this semester in an adjunct capacity.”
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“He has been placed on administrative leave, and another faculty member will cover this class for the remainder of the semester,” the UNCC spokesperson added. It was not immediately clear if Custodio has retained an attorney.
The former professor and his wife have long documented their adoption journey online, setting up a GoFundMe last January and even reportedly putting out a video to help with their adoption efforts, WSCO reported.
“We just felt like God put that desire in our hearts,” the couple said, according to the outlet. “We’ve always wanted to have a family. At the end of the day, it’s a calling, right, it’s also a scriptural thing, right?”
Last August, the couple even got involved with BothHands, which helps “Christian adoptive families fund their adoptions by coordinating a service project fixing up a widow’s home.” The organization confirmed to WCTI that they helped the Custodios raise money for the adoption.
“Our team is incredibly devastated about this news,” the agency said in a statement. “We find these actions atrocious and pray for healing for this child. We strive for all children to be placed in safe and loving homes, so our hearts are broken.”
Authorities say that on April 1 officers and emergency personnel responded to Custodio’s home after receiving reports of an “infant in cardiac arrest.” Birchim was ultimately taken to a local hospital, where authorities were able to determine that the infant’s injuries were “consistent with being physically abused.”
According to arrest warrants for Custodio first obtained by WSCO, Birchim suffered from a “skull fracture, broken rib, and multiple fractures in each leg.”
The warrant also details that Custodio’s friends told police that he had admitted to throwing “the child on the sofa and also squeezed the child, hearing a pop in the rib area.” The friend also told police that Custodio admitted he’s “jerked the legs of the child back and felt a pop in the child’s legs” while changing the infant’s diaper.
The injuries and witness testimony that Custodio had “admitted” to abusing his newly-adopted son prompted authorities to obtain an arrest warrant for felony child abuse with severe bodily injury. Two days after the charges were filed, he was arrested on April 11 in York County after authorities reportedly received a tip that he was hiding out in a house in Lake Wylie.
The charges were upgraded two days later after the baby died.
