35-year-old San Jose, California woman Samantha Moreno Rodriguez is accused of killing her 7-year-old son and then dumping his body, and police say she did it to start “a new life.”
KLAS reports that Moreno Rodriguez is believed to have killed her son, Liam Husted, and later dumped his body in Mountain Springs just outside of Las Vegas. She was arrested earlier this month in Denver, after hikers in the area discovered the body of a then-unidentified child near some bushes by a dirt road. She also left a message to the father of her child before Husted was found dead, in which she wrote, “I’m going to try and get a house for Liam and I, and we can talk about this in the future.”
“There’s every indication that when she left San Jose that she was intending on starting a new life," authorities from the Las Vegas Metro Homicide team explained. When she was arrested, homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said that she "was dressed up and had makeup." She was arrested earlier this month while eating at a restaurant with a man.
Two weeks before her arrest, however, she had checked into a Las Vegas hotel with her son. He was found dead in Mountain Springs just one day later, and authorities were able to track her down to Colorado. "We were very fortunate that that hiker went behind that bush that morning," added Spencer. It is believed that she killed him on May 28 and left his naked body behind a bush, with authorities explaining that an examination of the boy’s body led them to believe “someone was having a difficult time moving him.” The official cause of death was not revealed, but police noted his body had multiple scrapes and bruises.
"“At the end, when everything comes out about how much work went into this case, it’s just an unbelievable effort by this police department to hold someone responsible for what they did," Spencer continued, noting how 24 detectives working on the case received at least 500 tips.
