SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah — A Sandy mom has been formally charged with murder, sexual abuse and child abuse in the death of her 6-year-old son.
Reyna Flores-Rosales, 31, was arrested last month on suspicion of child abuse after her son suffered severe injuries and later died.
Charging documents indicate the boy had severe injuries in various states of healing when he was found, and those wounds included a “full thickness burn” over large portions of intimate areas.
He also had several old scars and numerous other burn marks on his extremities, as well as bruising and swelling on his head.
The child also had linear scars in a horizontal pattern on his neck, and he had open sores on his hands and feet.
Further testing revealed a rib fracture and swelling of the brain. That hemorrhage is ultimately what contributed to the child’s death.
Medical experts told investigators, “that there is not an accidental explanation for all of the above injuries and that all of the injuries [victim] suffered were the result of inflicted trauma,” charging documents state.
The woman is a single mother and the sole caregiver to her child. Police had previously stated the boy is 7 but court documents indicate he was 6 when he died. The woman’s 10-month-old child also lived at the home.
Booking documents indicate a witness told police they had reported the woman to the Division of Child and Family Services in the past because they suspected abuse after seeing the child with new injuries “constantly”
Another witness reported they often heard the woman screaming and yelling, and they suspected she was abusing her child.
Flores-Rosales faces one count of aggravated murder as a first-degree felony, one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child as a first-degree felony, and one count of child abuse as a second-degree felony.
Flores-Rosales is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail. A booking document states she has a criminal record and a “history of being a fugitive from justice.”
She has been extradited in the past and also has a prior charge for giving police false information, police wrote.
