A 7-year-old boy who was hospitalized after being found unresponsive with multiples bruises, cuts and burns earlier this week has died, turning a case of alleged child abuse into a homicide investigation.
The child, whose name hasn’t been released, died Wednesday evening, Sandy police Sgt. Jason Nielsen said.
Police went the child’s home in Sandy on Monday after his mother, 31-year-old Reyna Elizabeth Flores-Rosales, called 911 and said she found the 7-year-old unresponsive in the shower, according to a probable cause statement.
When medics arrived, the child wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. His nose was bleeding, and medics noticed numerous injuries, including burns, scrapes, cuts and ligature marks on his neck, according to court documents.
At the hospital, doctors learned the 7-year-old had significant head trauma, which they said was caused by a person in a “single event" — and that it wasn’t an accident.
A witness told police they suspected Flores-Rosales had been abusing her son because the child “constantly had new bruises, marks and injuries," and had reported her to the Department of Child and Family Services, according to the probable cause statement.
Flores-Rosales said she and her 10-month-old child are the only other people who live in the Sandy home.
She was booked into Salt Lake County jail on Tuesday on suspicion of child abuse, child endangerment and drug possession.
