Police in Laredo, Texas, arrested the parents of a three-year-old girl and charged them with trying to dispose of the child’s remains in a bucket filled with acid. Immigration officers also placed a detainer on the father who is allegedly in the U.S. illegally.
Laredo Police Department investigators arrested Monica Dominguez and Gerardo Zavala-Loredo, an illegal immigrant, for allegedly placing their three-year-old daughter’s body in a bucket filled with acid after she reportedly drowned. The arrest followed an anonymous tip, KTRK ABC-13 reported.
The parents told the investigators their daughter drowned “without adult supervision,” the news outlet reported. Police found the girl’s body in a bucket hidden in one of the home’s bedroom closets. The couple allegedly said they put the girl in acid to dispose of her remains.
“As you can imagine, it’s very difficult for all of us in law enforcement and for the first responders to be in a situation to come across a scene like we did yesterday,” Laredo and Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz told reporters in a press conference.
The ABC affiliate reported that a court previously placed Dominguez, the child’s mother, on probation on a charge of injury to a child. Officials said this arrest will violate her probation terms.
The district attorney’s office charged both parents with evidence tampering, endangering a child, and abuse of a corpse. Judge Leticia Martinez set bond for the mother at $175,000. Zavala-Loredo received a $125,000 bond. However, an immigration detainer filed by U.S. Immigration and Customs officers will prevent the release of Zavala-Loredo.
Breitbart News reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for additional information about the father’s immigration history. A response was not immediately available. Officials previously told Breitbart News that the issuance of an immigration detainer is an indicator of an illegal alien status.
Both parents remain in the custody of the Webb County Sheriff’s Office as of now.
The couple has four other children who are now in the custody of Texas CPS.
The investigation into the death of the three-year-old girl remains open.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.