Authorities have identified a body found 10 days ago near a freeway outside of Las Vegas as that of a missing boy from San Jose, California. His mother is now wanted for his murder and is being searched for nationwide, reports CBS San Francisco.
Las Vegas police said Monday that the body had been identified as that of 7-year-old Liam Husted, who was last in the car with his mother, Samantha Moreno Rodriguez.
The boy became known as John “Little Zion” Doe.
Las Vegas police worked with colleagues from San Jose over the weekend to confirm his identity, Lieutenant Raymond Spencer told Metro Police at a news conference Monday.
“We have invested a tremendous amount of resources in the past 10 days,” said Spencer. “We had detectives going through hundreds of leads to identify the victim. … After looking at these photos, we decided that the missing persons case they were handling in San Jose was very likely related to our murder. “Investigation.”
Rodriguez left San Jose with her son on May 24th and traveled first to Southern California and then to Nevada, Spencer said.
Trending news
“We can place them in the Laguna Beach area on the afternoon of May 26th,” said Spencer. “We know later that afternoon that the vehicle was in the Victorville, California area.”
A hiker found the boy’s body on State Route 160 near Mountain Springs, west of Las Vegas on May 28. Investigators believe that his body was recently placed there and that he was murdered.
Investigators received a tip from a friend of the family, who had not seen Rodriguez or her son in a while, and who saw reports of a boy’s body found in the desert.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department / CBS San Francisco
Police said they sent an investigator to San Jose to collect clothes and a pillow from Liam that they could use to uniquely identify his body through DNA.
Investigators found that Rodriguez continued to travel in the same vehicle, Spencer said.
On May 29, “we discovered that the car was traveling on I-70 near Grand Junction, Colorado,” he said. “The last contact anyone saw from Samantha was in a hotel room in the Denver area on May 31, when she checked in by herself.”
A nationwide arrest warrant has been issued for Rodriguez. The police are looking for their vehicle, a 2008 dark blue Dodge Caliber hatchback with California license plate 6WLH211
The police are asking anyone with additional information about Rodriguez to report.
Liam’s father was not a suspect in his murder. Police said he reached out to her after hearing nothing from Rodriguez or Liam, adding that he never thought the boy was in danger.
A woman identified as Shirley Rogers said on a Facebook page dedicated to Liam that the 7-year-old had special needs.
