The Misery Machine - The Case of Aurelius Dees

Starting point is 00:00:00 On May 1st, 2023, officers with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department responded to a call regarding an unresponsive child located at a home in the 10,000 block of Mulvaney Circle. Now, this was a really nice neighborhood, and will be a stark contrast with what we're going to share with you later in our story. When first responders arrived on the scene, they located one-year-old Orelius Dees. The little boy was dead. Allegedly, he was beyond help and had been dead for some time. According to the officers, the toddler showed no signs of physical trauma, but he was extremely thin with no body fat left whatsoever. In their reports, police wrote the following, quote, Aurelius D's body appeared small and emaciated.

Starting point is 00:00:42 His eyes were sunken in and his lips were purple. Lividity was pronounced as he appeared to have been deceased for some time, end quote. Lividity is the bluish-purple discoloration of skin after death. It is a sign of a liver mortis, which occurs when blood-died. pools at the lowest point of the body due to gravity and loss of circulation. This is not to be confused with rigor mortis the stiffening of one's limbs post-mortem. Lividity begins to be apparent about an hour after death and is well formed in about three to four hours. When detectives finally arrived on the scene, they were notified by first responders that the

Starting point is 00:01:18 home itself was rather suspicious and unfit for human habitation. The home hadn't been equipped with running water in over two months. So that meant the inhabitants couldn't flush. Due to this, every toilet in the home was filled to the brim with fecal matter, which also meant that the house reeked. Garbage was strewn all about the home and it was 90 degrees inside. This was because the air conditioning required water to function. Remember, this is Las Vegas we're talking about.

Starting point is 00:01:49 I'm sure the added heat didn't help the odors either. Aside from Arellius, two other children were initially located inside of the house. home. One was a 15-year-old and the other was a three-year-old. The 15-year-old who has not been named told the detectives that his mother, 37-year-old Felina Dees, had been gone for several days on a trip to Arizona to sell some art. In her absence, he had been left in charge of the family home. Allegedly, this was something that happened with some frequency. According to the boy, his mother had left on April 28th and was supposed to come home the following day. She did not return, he thought about calling the police or CPS.

Starting point is 00:02:27 It was then that he discovered Orelius dead. However, this wasn't the family's first experience with CPS in the Las Vegas Police Department. CPS had two prior interactions with the family in February of 2020 and April of 2021. The referrals were coded as information only, according to CPS records. Some sources have indicated there was a third report made on April 30th, the day prior to the 911 call being placed. According to CPS records, the 15-year-old made a complaint alleging abuse and, neglect. After the police attempted to clear everyone from the home, the 15-year-old advised the officers that he had to go back inside to get his eight-year-old sister. Through all of this

Starting point is 00:03:07 commotion and the death of Aurelius, police had missed something crucial. Inside of a locked bedroom was an eight-year-old little girl. An officer went to the room to let the girl out, noting that her door had the knob flipped so the locking mechanism was on the outside. This little tidbit will become very important to our story later on. According to the 15-year-old, he, his mother, and his younger siblings moved into the home in 2019. He told the officers that his sister had been locked in a room for over a year, that he hadn't been to school in more than three years. He had left school in the seventh grade and should have already completed his sophomore year by now. Allegedly, his two youngest siblings were both born at home and had never seen a doctor. Aurelius was born in December of

Starting point is 00:03:52 2021. While his mother was off gallivanting, his little brother started acting differently, and eventually he stopped making noise at all. That same day, Felina's remaining children were taken into CPS custody. When the mother, Felina Dees, returned home to Las Vegas the following day, she sat down for an interview with investigators, who promptly questioned her about why she was holding her eight-year-old daughter prisoner in her own bedroom. What she shared with the officers next was both shocking and absurd. Allegedly, in January of 2022, she caught her then live-in boyfriend Juan De La Cruz as saying the little girl in the living room. According to Felina, she caught Juan with his hands between her daughter's legs.

Starting point is 00:04:35 Now, one would think at that point, Felina would just kick Juan to the curb and contact the police, but, as we've stressed before, this isn't that kind of channel. Felina didn't do any of that. After Felina caught Juan essaying her then seven-year-old daughter, she reversed the last. lock on her door and locked her in her bedroom for her safety. According to the mother, she did this after she noticed her boyfriend still remaining close with her daughter. Excuse me, Felina, how is lock your daughter in her room with the lock on the outside going to save her from your pervert boyfriend? That doesn't make any sense. The little girl was allowed to leave her

Starting point is 00:05:17 to use the bathroom, which actually adjoined her own bedroom, not that it would have mattered much because the toilets didn't work properly. Now, according to the 15-year-old, all meals were delivered to his sister's door, and if she needed anything, she had to wait for her brother to go use the shared bathroom. She would then knock on the door and ask him to relay messages to their mother to see if she could have something. The investigators questioned Felina, why she would allow an offender of that sort around her children, and why she would leave. literally imprisoned one of his victims, her own daughter, in her bedroom for over a year. Felina admitted that she knew it wasn't the right choice, but she allowed all of this to

Starting point is 00:05:59 transpire because, according to her, Juan was paying the bills. But that excuse didn't pass the sniff test. Allegedly, in September of 2022, nine months after Felina caught Juan harming her daughter, Juan admitted to what he had done and subsequently moved to the Santa Clara Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico. So for eight additional months, Felina hasn't contacted authorities about the incident. She was still keeping her daughter prisoner in her bedroom. She was abandoning her children in a squalid home for days at a time. And due to this, her one-year-old lost his life. In addition, when the eight-year-old girl was finally questioned, she confirmed that her mother's boyfriend had touched her inappropriately and claimed that her door was locked because

Starting point is 00:06:42 her mother told her she kept getting in the way. She also shared that she did not that she could not see her little brother because her door was locked. Felina then told the investigators she had been homeschooling her children. She just failed to notify the school district of such. She also claimed she had instructed her 15-year-old son on how to care for his three younger siblings in her absence. I don't know about you, but it's probably a bad idea to shirk your motherly responsibilities

Starting point is 00:07:09 onto your teenage son during an interview with police after your baby was just found dead and emaciated. When asked why she had been gone for so long, Felina claimed she only intended to be in Arizona for a couple of hours, but had to wait till Monday to fly back because she was not able to sell her art. Now a grand jury indicting a mother after police say they found her one-year-old child dead and an eight-year-old locked in a bedroom. That child reportedly held in captivity for a year. 39-year-old Juan Dela Cruz was arrested and charged with two counts of essay against a child under the age of 14 and two counts of lewdness, with the child under the age of 14. Both judges Joe Bonaventure and Joseph Sissento had denied him bail. Felina Dees was also arrested and was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts of first-degree

Starting point is 00:07:58 CA, neglect, or endangerment. She, of course, pled not guilty. She's currently being held at the Clark County Jail on a $150,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court on August 7, 2023. She's also been order to have no contact with her surviving children. As of the date of this recording, Aurelius D's cause of death has yet to be released, but I'm sure the results will come as no surprise to any of us. It's also possible that additional charges could be filed in connection with his death in the coming months. As this case is still developing, we'll keep an eye out for updates as they become available. Let's just hope that Felina's other three kids will be able to lead happier, healthier lives outside of their mother's filth-filled home.

Starting point is 00:08:43 It will be able to adjust and move on from the trauma that's been inflicted upon them.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Aurelius Dees

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