SAN ANTONIO – The mother of a 5-year-old boy found dead at the bottom of a ravine in Colorado has been extradited to Bexar County, jail records show.
Nickolle Christina Aguilar, 25, was booked into the Bexar County Jail on charges of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission, according to records. Her bond was set at $500,000.
Aguilar and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Daniel Garcia, were arrested in late August after authorities found the remains of Domenic Patrick Aguilar-Acevedo. They were initially booked in the Miami-Dade County Jail in Florida, and Garcia was extradited to Bexar County last week.
Authorities began their investigation into the couple after Aguilar’s mother reported the 5-year-old missing.
She wasn’t able to communicate with her grandchildren, the woman told the FBI, so she tracked down her daughter in Costa Rica.
When the woman arrived in Costa Rica to meet Aguilar, she noticed the boy was not with her.
Aguilar then explained the boy’s “unexplainable death” at a hotel in San Antonio, an arrest warrant affidavit states.
Aguilar told her mother that the boy became sick and vomited before he died, the affidavit states.
Instead of reporting the boy’s death to authorities, Aguilar said she and Garcia drove to Colorado the next morning with the body and camped near the Rocky Mountain State Park, records show.
The couple then buried the boy’s body in a remote location near the campsite and fled by car to Mexico and eventually on to Costa Rica.
Aguilar’s mother reported her daughter’s account to San Antonio police and the FBI, and Aguilar confirmed the details, the affidavit states.
Aguilar and her mother traveled with authorities to Colorado on Aug. 25 to search for the boy, who was located after hours of searching in Fraser County. The boy’s remains had been exposed for nearly a month, the affidavit states.
Aguilar later told authorities that while at the hotel, Garcia struck the boy with so much force that he bounced off the wall and hit the floor, the affidavit states.
The boy vomited a black and brown liquid after the abuse started in San Antonio, the affidavit states.
Police viewed surveillance footage from the hotel in the 6900 block of Interstate 35 North that shows Garcia carrying what appeared to be a lifeless body out of the hotel room, the affidavit states.
The couple left the hotel days before their scheduled departure and did not properly check out.
Aguilar said she didn’t report the abuse because she was “too eager” to be in a relationship with Garcia, records show.
When asked why they didn’t report the boy’s death, she responded that the couple “discussed the possibilities about them losing both custody of their other children.”
A pre-hearing for Aguilar has been set for Oct. 27.
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