A Houston woman accused in the death of her boyfriend’s 5-year-old son has been charged with capital murder, more than a month after she was allegedly found in a Jasper motel room with the child’s body, officials said.
Theresa Balboa, 29, was arrested in early June and had been charged with tampering with evidence. A police affidavit says 5-year-old Samuel Olson’s body may have been kept in a storage unit for more than two weeks.
Balboa has been charged with capital murder in “the atrocious death,” the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday says Balboa used a blunt object to kill the boy May 12.
The child was not reported missing until May 27, around two weeks later.
Balboa is being held without bond, according to online records. A message left with an attorney who has been listed as representing her in the earlier charges was not immediately returned Friday night.
Balboa was arrested June 1 at a motel in Jasper, which is about 110 miles northeast of Houston. The 5-year-old’s body was in a black tote with a yellow lid secured by zip ties, police said.
A police affidavit previously filed in the case says that Balboa’s roommate told investigators that after the child died, on May 13, he bought a plastic tote and duct tape. The roommate said they then wrapped the boy’s body, put it in the tote and took the tote to a storage unit, the affidavit says.
The boy was then allegedly moved to the Jasper motel room with the help of another man, who told police that Balboa asked for his help, but that he called Crime Stoppers and reported her location after after he drove her and the box to the motel, according to the police affidavit.
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The case was initially a search for Samuel after he was reported missing May 27. But questions about the circumstances of his disappearance were soon raised.
Balboa allegedly claimed that Olson’s mother showed up with someone representing to be a police officer and demanded custody of the boy. But the boy’s mother denied that, and video showed she was at her home the whole time, police have said in court documents.
The roommate, Benjamin Rivera, has been charged with tampering with evidence, human corpse. The man who allegedly drove Balboa to the motel room, Dylan Walker, was also charged in Jasper County with tampering with evidence, NBC affiliate KPRC reported.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
