Hours after the 12-year-old boy they were trying to adopt stopped breathing in the basement of their Burlington home, a married couple told police they had spent years desperately seeking professional help for his “behavioural problems” — a claim that starkly contrasts with the prosecution’s assertion that they deliberately orchestrated his murder.

Audio recordings of Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber’s separate police interviews, played in court this week, marked the first time the judge in the first-degree murder trial has heard them describe the events of Dec. 21, 2022 — when firefighters, police and paramedics responded to their 911 call but were unable to save the boy.

“We, honestly, Brandy and I have done our, like, darndest to try and keep this kid literally alive,” Hamber told a H

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