HOUSTON (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has upgraded charges against a woman being held in connection to the tragic death of five-year-old Samuel Olson.
The child’s body was found in a plastic bin in a Jasper motel room in June five days after he was reported missing on May 27th.
Theresa Balboa is now charged with capital murder.
She was the girlfriend of Olson’s father and was initially charged with tampering with evidence-a human corpse. Investigators said Balboa is the person who reported Samuel’s disappearance.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office said Samuel died of “homicidal violence with blunt force trauma.”
Balboa is set to appear in court Monday.
Two other people have been charged in Olson’s death.
Balboa’s roommate, Benjamin Rivera, has been charged with tampering with evidence-a human corpse. KHOU TV reports Rivera told investigators Samuel died on or around May 10.
He said Balboa allegedly told him about the boy’s death and when he returned to their apartment, he saw Samuel’s bruised body lying on a bed.
The Houston-based station reports Rivera told police that he and Balboa placed the body in a bathtub for a few days before ultimately putting it in a storage unit in Webster.
The third suspect in the case, Dylan Walker, is accused of helping the Balboa and Rivera of hiding the body by booking the hotel room Olson was found in.
He’s charged with tampering with evidence-a human corpse.
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