Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Parents starve toddler son to death, leave body in toy chest

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

Raquel and Martiin Barreras are accused of isolating, abusing, and starving their 3-year-old son Roman. When the parents moved out of their home, a clean up crew made a gruesome discovery in an old toy chest.Nancy's Expert Panel Weighs In:Dr. William Morrone: Deputy Medical Examiner in Bay County Michigan  Kenya Johnson: Atlanta prosecutorJoseph Scott Morgan: Forensics expert, and author of “Blood Beneath My Feet”Dr. Caryn Stark: PsychologistJohn Lemley: Crimeonline.com Investigative Reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. The remains of a three-year-old child stuffed in a toy box. The remains were found in aLY, TOY CHEST. THAT'S WHEN I SAW THEM LOOKING AT THIS, I DON'T KNOW, I BELIEVE IT WAS LIKE A TOY BOX. I DON'T KNOW, IT WASN'T THAT BIG. THE PARENTS OF THAT TODDLER ARE NOW UNDER ARREST. 39-YEAR-OLD ROQUELLE BERERES AND 45-YEAR-OLD MARTIN BERERES.

POLICE SAY 3-YEAR-OLD RAMON BERERES WAS FORCED TO LIVE IN A STRUCTURE THAT WAS ATTACHED TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOME WHEN HE WAS ALIVE. THAT BLUE TOY CHEST WHERE THE LANDLORD FOUND HIS REMAINS, THAT WAS INSIDE THAT STRUCTURE. NOW RAMON'S MOTHER, RACHEL BERERAS, IS CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDER. BOTH SHE AND HIS FATHER, MARTIN BERERAS, ARE CHARGED WITH CHILD ABUSE, BUT POLICE SAY MORE CHARGES COULD COME. She and his father, Martin Barreras, are charged with child abuse, but police say more charges could come. The family was evicted not too long ago, and the landlord was cleaning the property yesterday when they came across this blue toy chest and opened it up. The couple has four other children. The oldest is 19, and the youngest living child is four.

You're hearing our friend Simone Del Rosario at KGUN-TV in Tucson. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. This case, very, very difficult to report. The reason we are tackling it here on Crime Stories is in the hopes that it will never happen again. Joining me in all-star panel, Dr. William Maroney, Deputy Medical Examiner, Bay County, Michigan, and author of American Narcan on Amazon,

veteran Atlanta prosecutor Kenya Johnson, Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert at Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and Dr. Karen Stark, psychologist out of New York. You can find her at karenstark.com. Right now to John Limley, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. John, it's very disturbing to me that the only way this child was found was because the family was basically kicked out of their residence. John, let's start at the beginning.

This eviction you're talking about was just earlier in the year. This family, the Barreras family, it is a couple, Martine and Raquel, and their five children were living in this Tucson triplex just north of the airport. They were evicted from their unit. In moving out, they left quite a mess, a lot of their belongings scattered inside and outside the home. The building's landlord, as we heard, hired a crew to clean up the property and get it ready for new tenants. While they were gathering up everything that was left behind, they started working on getting things out of this structure attached to the unit in the back. One of the things inside was a blue toy box,

which they first moved outside with the rest of the family's stuff. Once they opened the box, when they got it outside, they discovered something that no one in a million years would have expected to find, the decomposed body of a small child. What do we know about the little boy? The little boy was kept from the better part of the family for years. There are aunts and uncles and grandparents who had never even seen the child before. The couple, because of problems with the law they had had over the years, had become very secretive, cloistered, and just didn't even contact family members, let alone let anyone come into the home.

There were even some family members that didn't even know that Roman had been born, that he existed at the time of his death. It's amazing to me that this little boy, a three-year-old little boy, lived in relative anonymity. While the siblings were known by relatives, by neighborhood members, how did they pull it off? Listen to our friend Craig Smith at KGUN. This was the last house where Martina and Raquel Barreras lived, the house where police actually came to arrest them. The boy's body was actually found some distance from here. Now, the family members say that couple would change addresses any time they thought someone was about to figure out where they lived. Some of them said they pushed that couple for details on how that child was doing, details to make sure he was okay.

But family members say many of them never even saw that child. At first, Ramon Barrera's uncles and aunts did not know the sad story of a boy's bones would touch them. I think it's very shocking when you hear something like that on the news. And you pray to God that this child is someone you know, especially a family member. Now they know the boy was Roman Barrera, a three-year-old many of them never even saw because they say Roman's parents kept him hidden. You know, they would move from one place to the next, which made it very difficult for any of the authorities to keep up with a child. How does that work, Kenya Johnson? This is something that we see often. These are deceptive

measures that the parents are using to avoid detection. And so by moving around, that creates, when you go to different jurisdictions, there are different case files. And oftentimes, the jurisdictions don't speak to each other. So if the Child Protective Services in one area was investigating the family, they move and then everything resets. And now it takes a while for the neighbors to become concerned with the behavior and to report it. And you always start fresh in every new jurisdiction. And so this is a way to stay under the radar so that the public and neighbors can't put two and two together. And I'm curious about why no one at school or preschool knew anything going on

with the child. Listen to Stella Ingrid, KGUN. Today, we reached out to TUSD to find out if any of the children ever went to school. A spokesperson says they did have three children registered at TUSD schools. The girls never actually showed up. A 12-year-old boy did come from time to time to Van Buskirk Elementary. He was in fourth grade. TUSD says when he didn't show up consistently, they sent a community representative and a dropout prevention specialist several times to the homes. No one ever answered the door.

TUSD filed two reports with CPS in October and November of 2013. They also asked police to do a welfare check. You know, a welfare check. Dr. William Maroney joining me, renowned medical examiner joining us out of Michigan, author of American Narcan. Dr. Maroney, you've done so many autopsies. You probably don't even know how many at this point, thousands. It's got to be so difficult when you autopsy a child and then you learn that all of the system's, you know, safety catches have failed. For instance, nobody followed up when these children did not go to school. You know what, Dr. Maroney, before you answer that,

listen to Maggie Vespa. Immediately, reports show hospital staff noticed the newborn's jitteriness, shrill crying, and high irritability. Signs of withdrawal from Raquel Barreras' admitted drug use, CRYING AND HIGH IRRITABILITY. SIGNS OF WITHDRAWAL FROM RICKELE BARRERAS' ADMITTED DRUG USE. PURCASET AND METHADONE IN THE YEARS AND MONTHS LEADING RIGHT UP TO HER SON'S BIRTH. EVENTUALLY THE SYMPTOMS SUCCIDED GIVING WAY TO A NEW PROBLEM. AGAIN CONCERNS ABOUT NOT BONDING WITH HER YOUNGEST CHILD ROMAN. ADDING SHE DOES NOT EXPRESS AFFECTION OR INTEREST IN THE CHILD. A BEHAVIOR THAT QUICKLY PRODUCED DIRE RESULTS. REPORTS SHOW RICKELE FORCED RAMON TO SLEEP IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM. SHE WOULD

BEAT HIM WITH A BROOM AND COVER THE BRUISES WITH MAKEUP. MORE THAN A YEAR BEFORE HIS DEATH, ONE CPS INVESTIGATOR WARNED RAMON FACES SERIOUS INJURY, GRIEVOUS SUFFERING, IMPAIRMENT AND EVEN DEATH. HIS CASE WAS CLASSIFIED AS LEVEL ONE, THE HIGHEST RISK. CPS RECOMMENDED RICKELE Grievous suffering, impairment, and even death. His case was classified as level one, the highest risk. CPS recommended Raquel not be allowed around the children. The problem? Caseworkers described Roman's father, Martin, as easily manipulated by his wife, adding he was, quote, unable to be objective about the threats. To Dr. William Maroney, when you autopsy a little child, a three-year-old,

and you find out that Child Protective Services have left the child in the home, that's got to be so upsetting. For 20 years, we have been following the death of children, knowing that they were left in the home. State workers sometimes are victims to a terrible political system that won't let them act, and sometimes they're given the leeway to pull the plug, but they just won't. And we cannot understand, but the fact that everybody does evaluations and doesn't talk to anybody else, everybody lives in these silos, ends up in the autopsy of children and sometimes very young children. The autopsy of a child is a very moving, emotional, and spiritual event. It is like no other autopsy of a human being. It's quieter, it's more reverent, and it takes a pace where you're looking for the absolute most minute

details. And when you know that somebody's been an abused child, you clearly have a forensic autopsy that could end up in court, as opposed to a hospital autopsy, which is just looking to fill a piece of paper with a diagnosis. So those make the autopsy of children and babies, very special events. And it's very heartbreaking to be in one. And it's, it's 10 times the heartbreaking to know that it's the result of child abuse. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, Joseph Scott Morgan. Your expertise is evidence. How can it be that there's so much evidence that this child is being mistreated? And Joe Scott, he didn't die a quick death. It wasn't blunt trauma.

He died of starvation. The brothers and sisters would say they tried to sneak him crackers. I mean, what a horrible, horrible life. What about the evidence? What evidence would there have been? Wouldn't there have been a trail of this child's life, Joe Scott? No, not if the family had kept him sequestered. That has been implied in this particular case. I think that probably after this child was born and they were able to kind of extricate themselves from the environment at the hospital, this child literally was adrift. And the only salvation that he had was his parents. And they didn't offer any assistance. So he's kind of wiped. At the end of the day,

the only evidence that we really have is that little skeleton that's left behind. And that's a horrible, horrible thing. Think about this, Nancy. This three-year-old child, on average, a three-year-old child should weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of about 30 pounds. There's literally nothing left of him other than his skeletal remains. And that's a horrible statement when you think about it. So how are you going to trace this back? It's almost like you're looking for negative findings here. There's nothing there. The other people were being fed in the home. They were able to sustain. And that's a big point of order here when you go to court with something like this. You say that everybody else was receiving nourishment in this home. But here we have Ramon, who is just left to languish and to die.

And he wasn't just stuffed into a toy box. He was left in a toy box. That was his one existence, essentially sequestered from the rest of the family. It's absolutely disgusting. You know, Dr. Karen Stark, a psychologist joining us out of Manhattan, you can find her at karenstark.com. The reality is this is the child they picked to murder. And a lot of people are blaming the mom, but the dad stood by and let it happen.

He's just as guilty in my mind. Why is it so often one child out of many, one child is targeted? Well, the mother is taking her rage and anger out on one child, not all of the children. She either identifies with the child for some reason or the child was born at the wrong time, Nancy. It's reprehensible, but it really does happen where there is one child that gets picked on and nothing can be done about it unless authorities step in. And in this case, nobody did. The fact that they left the child's remains behind also a big signal to me how little they cared about the child. I mean, they packed everything else up when they left,

and they left him and the toy box behind. I mean, Dr. Maroney, I don't understand how a year passes and you can still determine cause of death. How can you do that? Again, you begin with full body x-rays to look and see if there's been any trauma, fractures, or blunt force to the skeletal structure. And then the actual size of the organs and muscle mass versus fat weans down the fact that you may have had malnourishment, but toxicology might show that this child has also been poisoned. And those are all fair game and testing in a forensic autopsy. You know, it was so upsetting that when the people came in to clean up the home to get it ready for the next residents,

they found this toy box and they actually thought that this skeleton was part of Halloween decorations. That's how skeletonized his body was. What does that mean, Joe Scott? What that means, Nancy, is that it's a surreal moment for the people that discover this child's body and or what remained of the body because the child is diminished now to the point or the remains are diminished now to the point where presumably you don't even have any soft tissue left, that the body has been there

for this protracted period of time so that skeletonization has taken place. And that really leaves you scratching your head as an investigator as to what you're going to list the cause of death as. And at the end of the day, you know, I'm sure that there were some metrics that were taken relative to this event, particularly developmentally, the skeleton, what was left behind, the growth rate of the bones and this sort of thing. So that's going to kind of paint the picture of what they're looking at.

And I'm sure that that's what they're going to court with. What would that look like, Dr. Maroney, for the people to actually think that his remains were a Halloween, you know, skeleton to be hung up as a decoration? What does that mean to you as a forensic expert, a medical examiner? What did those remains look like and why? We know that 70% of the normal body is water. Only 30% of the body is solid mass. So you take a three-year-old and you take whatever weight that three-year-old is

and you make it 30% of whatever that weight is, the average normal, average three-year-old is and you make it 30% of whatever that weight is, the average normal average three-year-old, and that shows you how small and how contracted and how unrecognizable the human body can be at 30% of its solid mass. We are talking about a little boy, Roman Barreras, found his remains found, just his bones, so skeletonized, so devoid of any tissue or hair that the cleaners that found him stuffed in a toy box thought he was actually a Halloween decoration. How did it come to this? Many people now blaming the mother.

Why is that, John Lemley? Why is the mother and not the father being blamed? It seems that over time, the father had actually tried to intervene. There was a lot of anger that the mom seemed to show toward this child, and the father would try to sort of diffuse that, try to pull her back from her anger and her abuse of the child. She just, as time went by, her drug problems became more and more intense. So did her abuse of the child as well, to the point that she was making the child live in this attached structure out back. To Kenya Johnson, veteran Atlanta prosecutor, drug smugs. I don't care if she's on drugs or was on drugs or had

anger issues. That's not a defense, Kenya. It absolutely is not a defense. And it seems like there had been enough interaction with Child Protective Services that some sort of plan should have been taken into place or put in place for her to keep her children or the children should be removed. And so this is a system of oversight that is overburdened, that there aren't enough case managers, training is an issue. And so to have people constantly coming to the house is a challenge and things slip through the cracks. And this is what happened with Roman. He slipped through the cracks. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Well, the jury just wrapped up its eighth day of trial. It all took place up on the sixth floor here at the Superior Courts Building. That's where they heard closing arguments. The prosecution went first. They showed the jury a picture of the kitchen where Raquel Barreras cooked the family meals with

little Roman nearby in a playpen in a dark corner watching and smelling the food. There's also a picture of the laundry room where prosecutors say Roman was kept and locked in. Gentlemen, she is guilty. She is guilty because as his caregiver and his mother, she caused his person and health to be in danger. You don't feed a baby, they're not going to be okay. She caused or permitted him to be placed in a situation where he was in danger. Defense attorney John O'Brien says that little Roman had cancer and was supposed to be getting treatments, treatments that he never received.

The defense attorney says that's because the father did not take him for those treatments. The John Limley CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, John Limley, hearing Lupita Murillo there at News 4 in Tucson describe the family going about their business, but the little boy being locked up. I mean, it's devastating. And it was long periods of time that he was forced to live in this sort of lean-to and attached structure in the back, while the four siblings would be inside enjoying, to a certain extent, a fairly normal life, eating their meals, occasionally when they would go to school, maybe doing homework as well. But the child completely isolated from the rest of the family for days and weeks. It seems as if the defense was that everyone else is responsible except the mom and dad listen to our friend alia shaheed at news four opening statements wrapped up this morning the prosecution using their time to paint a picture of a woman

who they say abused her son and watched as he slowly starved to death while the defense painted raquel barreras as an overwhelmed mother who was working through poverty and addiction in her opening statement to the prosecuting attorney, said Raquel Barreras treated Roman differently than her other children, keeping him isolated. The prosecution arguing Raquel knowingly and intentionally abused her child in a way that could lead to death and in doing so murdered him. We cannot make you think better for wrong. What we can do is bring justice to moment. The justice that only deserves the defense doesn't argue that Raquel put

Roman's remains in the toy chest. She's already pleaded guilty to abandonment or concealment of a body. But they say she did not murder her son, who they called medically compromised. The defense shifting blame to the Department of Child Safety, as well as to Roman's father and adult sister. People they say could have done more to help the toddler when he was alive while his mother battled addiction. I mean, to Karen Stark, psychologist out of New York, to me, that's just shifting the blame. If the mom was addicted, yes, I want her

to get help, but that does not relieve her of liability and responsibility for her baby. Absolutely, Nancy. I mean, there are people who are addicted and they are able to care for their children. And if the, I mean, this mom, she needed to take it out on this one child and torture. She actually tortured this baby, this little boy. And something should have been done about the mom, really the mom, because the dad seems like he was himself just a victim. He was kind of brainwashed into going along with this and didn't feel strong enough to go up against her. But she is culpable. I want you to take a listen to the sister testifying about her mom,

talking about the mom describing the little boy as being, quote, bad and had to be punished. This is Allie Potter at News 4. Today, Roman's sister testified and said she asked her mom why Roman was left inside that toy chest, and the mom replied he was very, very, very bad. The brother of Roman also testified and said he remembers looking inside the toy box in the backyard before they moved, and he got emotional and said that he saw his little brother dead inside. And another sister talked about how Raquel wouldn't let her four other kids play with Roman and said it was none

of their business. According to an autopsy report, the child died from starvation and neglect. And also the kids, they even talked about how Roman was kept inside a laundry room that was located outside their house. and two of the kids would try to sneak to feed their three-year-old little brother crackers. So Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University. Joe Scott, how long would it take to actually starve a child? A lot has to be considered here, Nancy. Was this child in the beginning receiving proper nourishment? You know, when they started their journey in life, you know, as far as the feedings took place then, and so is the child already in a diminished state?

Once you get to the point where they're proactively starving the child, in normal circumstances, it would take probably, you could probably starve a child to death within about 40 to 60 days. But in this case, you know, you don't know what's the child completely devoid of food where they you know, that it was mentioned that some of the kids were trying to sneak this child crackers or were they just left to languish over this protracted period of time? That's one of the reasons I'm thinking, how long had the family actually existed at this dwelling with a deceased child before they even left? You know, how long had that child been dead? So there's a lot of unanswered questions. I don't really understand how you can look at a skeleton and determine that the child died of starvation. Another issue here is to Dr. William Maroney,

medical examiner and author of American Narcan. If the child had been deprived of food and was starving, that's one thing. Could you look at the body even a year later and tell if there had been any other cause of death like asphyxiation or blunt force trauma? You can tell blunt force trauma through blood coagulation and bruises that collect even in starved and dehydrated tissues. You can tell blunt force trauma when bruises are matched and overlaying bone fractures. And you have to remember, a very, very small young child like this is not going to withstand a lot of force. Bones break easy, and bleeding, bruising, and fragile bones breaking, plus the malnutrition is going to make bones break easier. But Dr. Maroney, there's not any tissue. It's just skeleton now. So how can you tell there was another COD cause of death. Because bruises under the skin will last. There's blood flow.

Until that child dies, there's blood flow. And it's the lack of nutrition that leads to starvation and the autodigestion. Muscles are consumed to make energy for the heart to beat and for the lungs to breathe. But there's still some kind of muscle structure there. It's just not developed. And that will bruise and bones will break. And that's what you look for. whole body autopsies, and skin and organs are going to be removed and sliced and examined under microscope. Again, again, there are no organs. He's completely skeletonized. There's no muscle. There's no blood. There's no skin. There's no organs. It's a skeleton.

That's all there is. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We move to a murder case that ended with a verdict of guilty. A jury convicted a Tucson mother who starved her son to death and then hid his body in a toy box. Prosecutors said Raquel Barreras didn't allow her son Roman to play or talk to anyone. And jurors took less than three hours to convict her. But Edis will be sentenced on July 22nd. The boy's father, Martin, faces first-degree murder when his trial starts in August.

You are hearing our friends at KGUN-TV describing a jury handing down a guilty verdict on mommy. I don't understand why not daddy too. John Limley, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. I think they should both do life behind bars without parole, if not the death penalty, as a pit stop on the way to hell. But why was mommy isolated and tried first? Tell me about the trial. The trial centered on the mom, Raquel, because of interviews that police had done with members of the entire family, including the kids, who would testify that their mom was the one that was withholding food, making this child stay in this attached structure over time. They mentioned that the dad would try to talk her out of some of this abuse, try to reason with her and that she would have none of it.

And even the kids, as it's been mentioned over time, they were even trying to help the child on their own. Some of these kids, you know, less than 12 years old, sneaking food, and they could easily tell that the child was not well, that he was really struggling. Take a listen to Ricky Mitchell at WGUN-TV. According to the interim complaint INTERIM COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST RICHAEL BARERAS BY A TUCSON POLICE OFFICER, WHEN OFFICERS ARRIVED AT THE HOME, THE CHILDREN TOLD POLICE THEIR MOTHER STARVED CHILD UNTIL DEATH AND PUT CHILD IN TOY CHEST IN BACKYARD. THE REPORT SAYS RICHAEL BARERAS DENIED ANY INVOLVEMENT.

THE OFFICER CONTINUED BY WRITING THAT THE 19-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER STATED RICHAEL RESPONSIBLE, ALTHOUGH DID NOT STATE HOW, BUT K not state how, but knew child was in backyard. A similar account was written in the interim complaint filed against Martine Barretas. The officer wrote that Martine admitted to confronting Raquel about her actions, but did nothing further to stop her from starving child. You are hearing the description in the interim complaint. Right now, we know that the mom has been convicted. The dad is awaiting trial. I think it's so lame, Karen Stark, to say the mom did it on her own. The dad was right there. And this was not by accident or just neglect. They intentionally sequestered the child away from other people, would not let him go to day school or play school. So other people would not know that they were starving and mistreating the child.

This was an overt act, not just neglect. And the father is just as responsible, Karen Stark. Well, I guess you could say that, Nancy. I feel like, yes, he's an adult. He was living there. And certainly he should have spoken up or done something to make this be different. But sometimes it's like Stockholm syndrome, you know, where he begins to not have his own personality. And it does sound very much like brainwashing. So I don't think he's not responsible.

But I do think that most of this should absolutely fall on the mother. You know, the reality is a number of Roman siblings testified against mom at the trial. And they described trying to sneak into the family laundry room to try to give their little brother crackers. And they'd have to sneak because they were afraid that the mom would then attack them and the dad would stand by and let it happen. So many times this child slipped through the cracks of the system. As a matter of fact, the Arizona Department of Child Safety removed Roman and three of his older siblings from the parents when he was

born because of him being born with drug exposure. But just one year later, he was back with the family. So, Dr. William Mar maroney how do you tell when a child has been exposed to drugs at birth there's a very classic withdrawal that's precipitated right after birth it starts within hours shrill cries uh inability to latch to the nipple and breastfeed, discoordinated movements, hypertonic body postures, and loose stool and dehydration. All those are the signs and symptoms of neonatal abstinence syndrome during opiate withdrawal from a mother who had substance use disorder with heroin or opiates. You know, I keep thinking about how this child's life could have been saved. What effect, Karen Stark, would his death and his treatment have on his brothers and sisters who saw it all

happen? They're traumatized. I have no doubt, Nancy, that they have to live with this and feel guilty, especially when you're a kid. You don't know the difference between somebody else making something happen and you. You feel you do everything, that you have the ability to stop it, that you make it happen. And so they are going to live with tremendous guilt. And just knowing, think about this, that their own mother is a murderer and murdered their brother and that they stood by. There was nothing they could do. It's just a horrific story, a terrible, terrible story. You know, I imagine them going through life feeling

as if it were their fault. It was their fault, feeling like they could have saved their brother as they get older. But the reality is they're just children themselves. They don't know that. They're going to have a lifetime of suffering, knowing this happened under their roof. There are four other children, a 12-year-old, three daughters, ages 4, 7, and 19. I don't understand why they're in good health, and this one is singled out to be tortured for his entire life. What will happen now, Kenya Johnson, as the father goes to trial? Well, so everything that has come out about this case will focus on what did the father know? What were the red flags?

Did the father participate in any of the abuse and did he have the opportunity to stop it? So the jury is going to be looking at the father's own culpability and also in light of what the mother did. What could he have done and did he make the situation worse or did he try to help? And so that's what jurors are going to try to decide on whether he should be held responsible for in part or in whole for this child's murder. What are signs to look for? How can we stop this from happening again? Karen Stark joining us out of Manhattan. What signs can we look for in other families? Well, when a family realizes that there's a child that they haven't met

and the family keeps moving from place to place, that the kids are in school sometimes and sometimes not in school. You have to look for abuses. This is all child abuse, and teachers now are being taught to be aware. It's the frequent absences or not turning up at all, all the moving, the knowing, no one knew this child. And so that's the kind of thing that you have to pay attention to and report immediately. And we all now are being taught that over and over again, what to look for. An Arizona mother accused of starving her three-year-old little boy dead and putting his body in a toy box has been found guilty of first-degree murder and child

abuse. This mom allowed no one to play with, talk to, or feed the boy. She created a torture chamber for this little boy. The defense says it's everyone else's fault. A jury disagreed. We wait as justice unfolds and for the father, Martin Barreras, to meet up with Lady Justice. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.