A Florida mother has been charged with murdering her four-year-old son, more than a decade after the boy was found dead in her apartment.

Destene Simmons is accused of murder and aggravated child abuse, WFOR reported.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office has not explained why it waited to file charges 11 years after the June 10, 2013, death of Antwan “AJ” Hope.

According to WTVJ, the boy’s father had custody at the time of his death, but he was at his mother’s apartment. She called 911 three times that day, hanging up twice without giving an address – using a cellphone that could not be traced – and the third time she gave an address but did not answer when police arrived.

Eventually, police entered the apartment and found the boy dead. Simmons was questioned about the boy’s death but was later released.

The child’s father filed two wrongful death lawsuits in the years following the boy’s death, but both were dismissed by the courts. The lawsuits alleged that Simmons killed the boy during an unsupervised visit or neglected him due to her mental illness. The father also claimed that Simmons had tried to smother the boy with a pillow two years earlier.

That act had led to her involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital after her mother called police to report the incident, WFOR reported. The mother told officers that Simmons had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression and had been hospitalized three times in the months before her son’s death.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said in 2013 that the father had custody but that preparations were underway to reunite the mother and child. The boy was found dead during Simmons’ first unsupervised visit with him since she lost custody.

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(Featured image: Destene Simmons/Broward County Corrections and Antwan Hope/Family Handout)