French police charged a man with murder this week after he allegedly put his 3-year-old son into a washing machine and turned it on, according to reports.
Neighbors said the man was punishing the boy, named Bastien, for misbehaving at nursery school, Le Parisien (link in French) newspaper reported.
Christophe Champenois, 33, was charged with "murder of a minor" and the mother charged with failing to prevent a crime and assist someone in danger, the AFP reported. Both were denied bail.
The incident occurred in the city of Meaux, which is around 25 miles northeast of Paris.
Bastien reportedly died from a blow to the head, a source close to the case told The Telegraph newspaper. A neighbor said the boy's mother came to her for help after the incident on Friday.
"I took the little boy in my arms, he was frozen, completely naked," the neighbor, who only gave her first name Alice, told the Telegraph.
"He was all white, limp, practically like a toy," she said.
Le Parisien quoted the boy's grandmother as saying Bastien was an "unwanted child" and that Champenois had gone drinking with his friends the day he was born.
Bastien had been locked in the washing machine on other occasions, Le Parisien reported.