Local man’s son slain
PHOTO PROVIDED
Michelle Harspter, 29, a former Venice resident, is accused of killing her 2-year-old son, Joshua Callahan, on Sept. 26 in a hotel room in North Carolina. The boy's father, Mark Callahan of North Port, says he has been fighting through the court system to have his son brought back to Florida so he could see him on a regular basis and pay child support.
One day after a judge reversed a decision for Mark Callahan to finally have a court hearing to get regular visitation rights to see his 2-year-old son, his estranged girlfriend allegedly murdered the toddler in a hotel room in North Carolina, then tried to kill herself.
The North Port father says his son’s death could have been prevented if the court system had worked properly. For a year and a half, Callahan, 35, had been trying to get two different judges to allow him a paternity hearing to prove he was Joshua Callahan’s biological father and to begin paying child support to the boy’s mother, Michelle Danielle Harpster, 29.
