A missing seven-month-old child was found dead three weeks after his father allegedly beat up his mother and kidnapped him.
Victor Manuel Minjarez was arrested after allegedly taking his infant son, Jody Minjarez, from the child’s mother’s home following an assault on the woman on February 19.
The boy’s body was found late Wednesday in a home on Venice Boulevard in Oklahoma City, just hours after police issued an Amber Alert that Jody was in imminent danger due to a threatening text Victor sent his friend about the child’s livelihood, according to Tulsa World.
On Thursday Minjarez admitted the child died more than a week ago when he burned to death while sleeping next to a heater, and claims he didn’t report it because he ‘didn’t know what to do.’
Jody Minjarez, a seven-month-old baby boy, was found dead three weeks after his father Victor Minjarez, 31, allegedly beat up his mother and kidnapped him
Police tracked down the father, Victor Minjarez, at his home on Venice Boulevard and immediately arrested him
Minjarez allegedly abducted his son after beating up Jody’s mother, whose name has not yet been released to the public.
On February 19 police responded to a call about domestic abuse at a separate home.
Minjarez allegedly violently attacked Jody’s mother and then flex the home with the baby boy in tow.
He is said to have fled the scene in a rented U-Haul pick-up-truck. Authorities said later they believe he was driving a light blue BMW four-door sedan, or a white 2008 Cadillac Escalade with an Oklahoma license plate.
He told police Thursday that he sought refuge ‘in an open house’ on Venice boulevard, and that he and his son were spending the night on a mattress next to a heater one night when the child died.
Minjarez claims he woke up in the middle of the night and saw there were ‘several blisters’ on Jody’s face. He said he went back to sleep and woke up again hours later and saw Jody was ‘gurgling’ with bubbles around his mouth.
He said the infant later died, and that he ‘didn’t know what to do’ with the body so he disposed of it in a black trash bag, which he then threw away with another bag containing the child’s clothes.
The father did not clarify exactly when this happened, but said Jody had been dead for at least a week.
Minjarez allegedly kidnapped the boy after abusing his mother. An Amber Alert was issued for the child on Wednesday after the father sent a message to his friend saying the baby’s mother would never see him alive again
On February 23, the mother obtained an emergency Victim Protective Order, demanding the baby be returned to her.
Then on February 28 Minjarez sent the text to his friend and told them to tell the desperate mother she would never see her son alive again.
The search was updated to an Amber Alert Wednesday after more information had been gathered about the case.
He has been booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on charges of first-degree murder and desecrating a human corpse.