March 30 (UPI) — The mother of a 4-year-old Washington state boy has been arrested and charged with murder after the missing boy’s body was found along a highway this week.
Janet Garcia, mother of 4-year-old Ariel Garcia, was arrested Friday night in Vancouver, Wash., and charged with multiple felonies in the boy’s death, according to police.
Garcia, 27, is charged with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree assault of a child in Snohomish County after Everett, Wash., police received a call from someone who found the boy’s body along Interstate 5 in Pierce County, Wash., around 6 p.m. on Thursday.
“I am completely heartbroken for the family and friends of Ariel Garcia,” Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said in a statement. “They will remain in my thoughts as they grieve this unbelievably tragic loss.”
A relative reported the boy missing at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, and Everett police, FBI and other law enforcement agencies began searching for him.
The search involved 100 law enforcement officers and agents, who determined the boy last was seen Wednesday morning. Investigators said he disappeared “under suspicious circumstances,” KATU-TV reported.
Everett police said the boy’s grandmother told investigators she was concerned about the missing boy.
Court documents indicate Garcia claimed she and her son stayed with a friend in Everett, but the friend found a significant amount of blood on the floor and the mother and boy were missing from the apartment, according to KOIN-TV.
An officer said Garcia had blood on her shoes and shirt during the investigative interview and claimed her son fell and struck his head.
Garcia told the officer she took her son to an Everett hospital, but left due to a long wait time, dropped him off at her friend’s apartment and then sought alcohol treatment in Ridgefield, Wash.
The mother further claimed she left her car in Seattle and took a bus to Ridgefield, but police found her car parked outside a bar in Ridgefield. The bar’s video surveillance shows someone who looks like her arriving in her car, exiting it and walking north along an adjacent road.
“This is not the outcome we had hoped for,” Everett police chief John DeRousse said. “We will do everything we can to ensure there is justice for this young boy.”
Garcia initially was arrested for making false and misleading statements to investigators, but those charges were dropped so she could face the more serious charges against her in Snohomish County.
