Creato said he told his girlfriend that Brendan, 3, would always be a part of his life.
CAMDEN -- Jurors in the murder trial of David "D.J." Creato Jr. Wednesday watched on video as Creato, in an interview room at the Haddon Township Police Station, heard from police that his son was found dead after Creato reported him missing.
His reaction was a long string of 'no's and sobs.
"You can't tell me that. He's my best friend. I love him so much. What happened?" Creato said through tears.
Prosecutors believe that Creato knew exactly what had happened to his son, Brendan, 3.
David "D.J." Creato Jr. is informed that his son has been found deceased by detectives Don Quinn (left) and Michael Rhodes while being questioned last October. Video recordings of D.J. Creato's interview with detectives, the day his son went missing, are played in court Tuesday June 14, 2016. Creato, 23, is charged with murdering his son and dumping his body on the side of the Cooper River in the park near his home Oct. 13, 2015.
Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah told jurors during her opening statement Thursday that he did it because his girlfriend disliked Brendan and didn't want him in Creato's life.
It's a statement Shah said she can back up with thousands of their text messages -- and statements Creato made to investigators, minutes after they told him his son was dead.
In the recorded statement, he told police while in the interview room that his then-girlfriend of four months "doesn't want anything to do with" his son. On the weekend before his son's death, she gave him an ultimatum: she would leave him if he continued to see his son.
Julie Stensky had said it before, Creato told police, but he always answers that his son will always be part of his life. "We've almost been breaking up over this a few times," he said.
Stensky is not a suspect, Shah said in her opening statement, because there is proof that she was at college in New York when Brendan died.
Creato also told police that he had tried to call Stensky nine times the night before Brendan died because he was jealous that she was talking to a male classmate.
He told police he put Brendan to bed and went to bed himself at 10 p.m., but Detective Michael Rhodes of the Camden County prosecutor's office testified Wednesday that Creato's cell phone shows that he was looking at Stensky's snapchat social media account around 1:30 a.m.
Judge bans media from jury's scene visit
Creato has denied killing his son. He told investigators in the video that he worried someone might have come into the apartment and taken his son, perhaps if he left the door unlocked. Or, he suggested, his son may have left the apartment by himself, though it would be out of character.
Samantha Denoto, his ex and Brendan's mother, testified last week that she secretly recorded Creato in November 2015 when he suggested spirits may have drawn Brendan to the river because it was a "sacred" spot.
Distraught dad or good actor?
The jury watched the video of Creato on the third day of testimony in the trial.
The jurors knew what Creato didn't when the first part of the video was taken: that his son's body had been found nearly two hours earlier, and police were delaying telling him the news. Instead, an officer questioned him while assuring him they had no new information about his son's disappearance.
The K9 officer who discovered Brendan's body testified Tuesday that her dog began tracking the boy's scent at 8:20 a.m. The body was roughly three-quarters of a mile from the home, Shah said.
Rhodes testified that he spoke to Creato at the police station at 10:17 a.m., delivering the news that Brendan was dead.
Before Rhodes arrived, a Haddon Township officer questioned a crying Creato, telling him he needed to pull himself together so they could get any information that might help Brendan.
"We've got bulletins out. We're doing everything we can," the officer tells Creato in the video. He told Creato that he didn't believe he was telling him everything, which Creato denied.
"I'm the one that called the cops," Creato said. "I have nothing to hide. I just want him found."
Also on the video, minutes after being informed his son was dead, he appeared to calm down and answered dozens of questions from Rhodes about what happened the weekend and night before Brendan died. He told Rhodes he read his son three Dr. Seuss books before bed: "Yertle the Turtle," "Oh, the Places You'll Go" and "The Lorax."
He told Rhodes in the interview that while he often went to the park with Stensky, he only took Brendan a few times and never went to the part of the park where his son was found.
He occasionally started to cry and get upset again, but Rhodes quickly calmed him down each time and kept him talking.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.