A woman suspected of killing her infant child and hiding the remains in a storage shed, where they were found Thursday, was arrested this weekend in the Inland Empire, authorities said.
Maria Esthela Torres, 31, was booked into jail on suspicion of murder on Saturday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. The Bloomington resident allegedly hid the body of her 8-month-old boy in the storage shed more than a year ago and didn't reveal its location to her family.
Deputies haven't released the infant's cause of death. The boy's body was discovered Thursday afternoon in a storage shed at a business in the 10100 block of Linden Avenue in Bloomington, deputies said.
Torres was arrested two days later, and is being investigated for allegedly accepting donations from members of a local church and the community for burial fees for the death of the child that were not apparently used for that purpose, deputies said.
Homicide detectives determined that the infant was killed more than a year before his remains were discovered. Family and friends did not know that the infant's remains were in the shed.
"She's where were she needs to be, because nobody does that to a kid," said neighbor Andrea Magana, adding that Torres has three children and is pregnant.
Neighbors said Torres turned to a community group at Saint George Catholic Church to care for the infant they called "Baby Joel" after she lost her home.
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Caretakers at the church said Torres claimed the baby had "thin blood." They said she appeared "fine" and "looked like nothing was going on" after her son had died.
Torres is being held without bail at the West Valley Detention Center. Deputies ask anyone with information about the case to call 909-387-3589 or anonymously at 1-800-782-7463.
