By: Laura Meyers
A woman in a South Carolina Indian reservation, Elaina Welch, walked free from the Las Colinas Detention Facility without any charges after she was suspected of killing her boyfriend and abetting in the murder of her 3-year-old son.
No charges were filed because authorities say “the facts are very unusual” and “clearly in a case like this indicates is they need more investigation” after Welch told authorities that her boyfriend made her kill her son.
NBC San Diego reports:
Eleven days before his body was found, toddler Roland Sandoval became the target of a violent outburst on Jan. 5, 2015. Angry with the boy, his mother’s boyfriend, 32-year-old Julio Monggiotti, punched and kicked Roland and instructed his mother, Elaina Rose Welch, to do the same, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s investigation.
Monggiotti ordered Welch to get some tape, and the two used blue painter’s tape to secure the boy’s forearms to his thighs, as well as tape his eyes and mouth shut, the autopsy says. The couple then covered the boy in blankets and placed him in his room. After reportedly bringing Roland food and water, they eventually let him out.
But the next day, the beating and taping repeated. After a few hours, Monggiotti and Welch decided to make a trip to the store, but they did not want to leave Roland in his bedroom.
Instead, they wrapped him in a sheet, put him in the master bedroom closet and left to go shopping, the report says. They returned later that day to find Roland not breathing.
Unable to revive the boy, the couple washed Roland’s body in bleach and wrapped him in a sheet; they placed him in the laundry room’s deep freezer and locked it with a zip tie, according to the autopsy.
Law enforcement didn’t discover the homicide until 10 days later when arrived on the property, responding to a call about an assault with a deadly weapon at Welch’s address.
Monggiotti met officers in the front yard holding an ax. He was ordered inside, and went to find Welch.
Officers then heard a gunshot.
Welch then came out of the home with a shotgun, walked off the property and continued down the road.
When officers approached Welch, they say she “dropped the shotgun and then informed security officers that her boyfriend killed her son, put him in the deep freezer and he forced her to help him,” according to the report.
Welch was then taken into custody.
Monggiotti was later found dead on the floor, and Roland’s body in the freezer buried beneath food.
