Police arrested an Arkansas couple after finding a 1-year-old boy’s body inside a plastic container in their apartment.
Tyler Hobbs and Maria Giron-Molina, both 21, were taken into custody in connection with the child’s death, Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor said in a news release on Tuesday obtained by PEOPLE.
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Giron-Molina was the boy’s father and Hobbs was living with the family.
The boy’s death was first reported by Hobbs on Monday evening. He claimed that the child had fallen down the stairs and started seizing “a few days ago.”
Upon arrival at the apartment, the officers found the child’s body inside the closet. The remains were badly decomposing inside a Tupperware container with dimensions of 43 inches long, 18 inches wide and 13 inches tall.
The body had been stuffed into the container, which was then placed inside the bedroom closet. It was then covered with blankets, according to the authorities.
Tabor said that the body was in an “advanced state of decomposition.”
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Giron-Molina and Hobbs were taken in for questioning and they allegedly gave the investigators different accounts of what happened to the child. After changing his story, Hobbs allegedly admitted to shaking the boy “back-and-forth” after he would not stop crying when Hobbs had a headache.
“Angered at the child’s refusal to calm down, he picked the child up and covered its mouth with his hand to ‘muffle’ the crying,” Tabor said.
Hobbs allegedly told the investigators that he “blacked out” while shaking the child. When he regained consciousness, he noticed that the baby was not breathing.
“He expressed remorse for his actions, and he said he did not intend to harm the child,” Tabor continued.
Hobbs was arrested on suspicion of murder and abuse of a corpse while Giron-Molina was arrested on suspicion of abuse of a corpse. Hobbs’ bond has been set at $750,000 while Giron-Molina’s is $500,000.
