Surveillance footage taken on April 2, 2021 shows multiple nurses and a doctor rushing to comfort Christopher Gregor as he collapses into a chair outside his son's room, unaware that he allegedly beat the 6-year-old boy to death.
Concerned staff at a New Jersey hospital comforted a seemingly distraught father after he brought his son into the emergency room on the day of the boy's death.
Surveillance footage taken on April 2, 2021 shows multiple nurses and a doctor rushing to comfort Christopher Gregor as he collapses into a chair outside the room of his Corey Micciolo at Southern Ocean Medical Center.
The staff had no idea at the time that Gregor had allegedly beat his 6-year-old son to death.
Gregor then goes into his son's room for less than a minute before returning once again and leaning over a chair as a nurse pats his back in the footage, which was played in court for jurors at Gregor's murder trial.
That video then shows Gregor leaving the hospital at 4:36 p.m., 27 minutes before his son died in the emergency room, according to testimony from one of the nurses treating Corey that day, Lindsay Carnevale.
Christopher Gregor "Emotionless" in ER, Says Nurse
In her testimony, Carnevale said that Gregor "showed a lack of emotion" when she first encountered him at the hospital.
Gregor then told the staff that the bruising on Corey's body was from riding his bike and playing football, said Carnevale.
He also told hospital staff that they were not to call Corey's mother, Bre Micciolo, according to Carnevale.
Bre previously told Inside Edition Digital that Gregor did call to tell her he was taking Corey to the hospital but would not say which one, setting her off on a frantic search for her son.
Carnevale testified that Corey had multiple seizures upon arriving at the hospital, and things only got worse from there.
"His heart stopped, he had stopped breathing. So we initiated CPR. [The doctor] intubated, where he put a tube in his trachea and into his lungs, and ventilation is provided along with CPR," said Carnevale.
She testified that Corey managed to mumble a few words to her at one point before having another seizure.
Those would be the last words Corey ever spoke.
In the end, Micciolo did not find the hospital in time and surveillance footage shows Gregor leaving the facility at 4:36 p.m., meaning that Corey spent the final minutes of his life surrounded by strangers.
Mother Acuses DCPP of Mishandling Corey Micciolo Case
Micciolo said that she first called the Department of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) to report an allegation of child abuse in September 2019, shortly after Corey began spending time with his father.
The first report came after Corey allegedly returned home with a "busted lip" and "swollen face." Corey would not say what happened, and Micciolo said she took pictures of his injuries and submitted them to DCPP.
From that time on, Micciolo said she made sure to document any injuries and file a report with DCPP.
She made additional reports of child abuse in April 2020, July 2020, and one final report on April 2, 2021, the day her son Corey died.
Micciolo provided Inside Edition Digital with some of her communications with DCPP.
In April 2020, she wrote: "I talked to someone on Friday about my son being abused, and no one continuing to investigate it. He’s got abused once again, and I found out about it yesterday. Many reports are made and nothing has been done. It’s a bruise very similar to the one made in December by his father. My family documented the bruise and my son saying he was hit at his father's household. We fear that he needs medical attention because I was told he seemed like he was in pain and had trouble doing anything like running or moving too much. Is someone going to do something about this abuse or are we going to allow his father to continue to hurt him? I have pictures of injuries that began in September which is when His father came into life. Please get back to me. Thank you."
At other times, Micciolo submitted photographs showing Corey with bruises, scrapes, black eyes and what she identified as a "bite mark" in one email from July 2020.
DCPP responded by sending case workers to interview Corey, but always while he was at his father's home, said Micciolo.
"[H]e’s afraid of his father," Micciolo wrote in an email to DCPP after one of those interviews.
Micciolo says she filed seven reports with DCPP in a span of 20 months, including one after an incident on March 20, 2021.
On that day, she picked Corey up from school after he spent the night at his father's and noticed injuries on his face.
Micciolo later told DCPP that her son had been forced to run on a treadmill by his father, and was physically picked up every time he fell and placed back on the machine.
She also told them that there was a video that could substantiate her claims.
Bre Micciolo Emergency Custody Bid
Micciolo has shared the texts she said she sent to Corey's case worker at the time with Inside Edition Digital.
"Since I’m in the area I’d like to meet with you if possible for an interview or if need be I’ll drive back to my house," Micciolo wrote the case worker on March 25.
Micciolo said ther was no response to that text, and five days later, Micciolo again sent a message to the case worker. "It’s Breanna I just wanted to let you know the incident took place Saturday March 20th around 4-5 p.m. to be more precise," Micciolo wrote.
That text directed the case worker to the surveillance footage at the fitness center inside Gregor's New Jersey apartment building, which captured the treadmill incident.
The probable cause affidavit filed by police in Gregor's murder case describes what happened in the video.
"At approximately 1618 hours, [Corey] begins running on a treadmill. At approximately 1627 hours, Gregor approached the treadmill and appears to increase the speed," the affidavit said. "At approximately 1628 hours, [Corey] falls off of the back of the treadmill. Gregor subsequently picks [Corey] up by grabbing his shirt, putting him back in the moving treadmill. [Corey] appears to struggling to gain footing, while Gregor appears to be biting on the top of [Corey's] head.
"[Corey] regains footing and continues running on the treadmill," the affidavit continues. "Gregor appears to adjust the speed of the treadmill as [Corey] again falls off of the back. [Corey] attempts to run onto the moving treadmill four more times, falling off the back each time, while Gregor stands next to the treadmill."
Micciolo later told police that this happened because Gregor was mad at Corey.
"[Corey] told Micciolo that Gregor made him run on the treadmill really fast because Gregor was mad. While running on the treadmill [Corey] fell and hit his head," the affidavit said.
Inside Edition Digital reviewed Corey's medical report from his visit to the pediatrician after this incident. It noted that Corey had bruises all over his body, and he told the doctor that some of the bruises were the result of him falling on the treadmill and others were from playing on turf.
Micciolo says she took Corey to a local hospital that same day for X-rays and bloodwork to make sure there were no internal injuries. That visit yielded good news, as medical records showed that Corey had no internal injuries.
On March 31, 2021, Micciolo filed an Order to Show Cause seeking emergency custody of Corey while DCPP investigated her latest allegation of abuse.
DCPP had seen the video, and a case worker later told police that he photographed and investigated bruising on Corey six days after the alleged incident.
The preliminary findings submitted by DCPP about the March 20 incident played a crucial role in the judge's decision, says the ruling, which was obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
The ruling notes, however, that the court "does not find that ... Corey is in danger of imminent and irreparable harm. Therefore, the Court does not find a temporary modification of the parties' custody and parenting time arrangement appropriate at this time."
Micciolo dropped off Corey at Gregor's home at about 9 a.m. on April 2, 2021. She told police she last heard from Gregor at about 3:30 p.m., when he told her he was taking Corey to the hospital.
Two hours after he arrived at the hospital, Corey passed away.
Christopher Gregor Defense
An autopsy determined that Corey's cause of death was blunt force injuries including blunt force trauma with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.
In March 2022, prosecutors formally charged Gregor with murder and ordered him held without bond at the Ocean County Jail.
The defense disputes the findings of this autopsy report and said in their opening statement that Corey died of pneumonia.
It is a defense that Gregor's lawyer first shared with Inside Edition Digital over a year ago.
"Corey Micciolo died from complications from pneumonia. Our expert and even the Ocean County Medical Examiner agreed on this early diagnosis, while it is a tragedy it is not a homicide," Galucci tells Inside Edition Digital. "My client completely denies all the allegations and is looking forward to a trial in a courtroom and not a trial by social media, as the Micciolos have been so diligently attempting to do.”
Gregor is currently being held without bond at the Ocean County Jail.
He entered a plea of not guilty to both charges and denies ever hitting or abusing his son. When asked about his son's bruises, he allegedly told Bre that Corey needed to be “tougher" in text messages seen by Inside Edition Digital.
Gregor faces life in prison if convicted in what some are now calling the treadmill abuse murder trial.
