WEST JORDAN, Utah, Jan. 14, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — West Jordan police have arrested a 47-year-old man after he was found in a residence with a deceased, partially clothed woman and their two young children, who were alive.
Officers responded to the residence, near 7800 South and 7100 West, for a welfare check on 39-year-old Autumn Mercado, after a caller alerted them that Mercado did not show up for work or respond to her phone, and had domestic violence in her history, says a probable cause statement for arrestee Carlos Mercado.
Carlos Mercado ultimately answered the door to police, his affidavit says.
“Carlos invited the responding officers into the residence, where they noticed Autumn lying deceased at the bottom of the stairs,” the police statement says, adding there were physical signs she had been deceased for a significant period of time.
“Carlos had an excited utterance saying he thought Autumn was ‘passed out’ due to her having vertigo and falling down the stairs. Carlos did not specify when the victim fell down the stairs. Officers could smell the odor of alcohol coming from Carlos’s breath and noticed he had a hard time maintaining his balance,” the charging document says.
Officers noted that two small children, approximately ages 1 and 4, were in the residence, “and within view of their deceased mother.”
“Carlos admitted to drinking alcohol heavily with Autumn the night before until he fell asleep sometime around 4 or 5 in the morning,” the document states, and “he woke up around 8:39 a.m. and attempted to wake Autumn up for work. Carlos said that Autumn was asleep at the bottom of their stairs.”
“Carlos said he covered Autumn with a blanket and left her at the bottom of the stairs.”
Mercado said he ran out of alcohol that morning, so called for a rideshare service car to take him to the gas station for beer at about 10 a.m. A receipt and video footage from the gas station show he purchased beer from Holiday Oil at 8166 S. U-111 at 9:39 a.m. on Monday.
“Carlos admitted that he left his 1 year old unsupervised in a crib and his 4 year old was in the living room in close proximity to Autumn, where she remained unresponsive and incapacitated, in a condition that Autumn was not able to care for the children in Carlos’s absence. Autumn was later confirmed to be deceased by police.”
Mercado was booked into jail for investigation of two counts of child abandonment, a third-degree felony, and one count of abuse or desecration of a dead human, a class B misdemeanor.
Mercado was ordered held without bail.
Additional charges could be filed after the completion of a Medical Examiner’s report.
