Mom who reported 2-year-old missing charged after police find body in Texas dumpster
The mother of a 2-year-old boy whose body was found in a church dumpster after a large-scale search has been charged in his death, Texas police say.
Laura Sanchez, 35, told police her toddler son Frankie Gonzalez vanished from a park in Waco on Monday after she looked away briefly, police said.
That set off a large search, including an Amber Alert for a suspected abduction. The fire department searched a nearby river with boats, a sheriff’s office flew overhead with its helicopter and police searched the area with a drone, KCEN reported.
The child’s mother told investigators she last saw him near some restrooms by a splash pad when she looked away for a moment and he vanished, KWTX reported.
But police say Sanchez lied.
“We believe that was probably a complete coverup from mom,” Waco police spokesman Garen Bynum said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon that was live streamed on Facebook by KWTX.
The boy actually died Thursday, and Sanchez kept his body in her home until Saturday before putting the dead child in a dumpster at a church, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Waco Tribune-Herald.
Sanchez is charged with first-degree felony injury to a child.
Bynum did not disclose the nature of the child’s injury. He said the boy did not die of natural causes, but investigators will wait until an autopsy is completed to disclose the cause of death.
Police investigated the case through the night until Sanchez eventually admitted her son was no longer alive and led them to the church dumpster, where they found Frankie’s body, Bynum said during the news conference. Before Sanchez led police to her son, family members called police to tell them she had confessed to them that Frankie had died, Bynum said.
Sanchez was in McLennan County jail. The investigation is ongoing and more charges may be filed against the mother, Bynum said.
“This is the charge we’re going with because it’s what we can prove,” he said.