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Title: Police Believe Child Was Killed With Welding Torch
Source:
Click2Houston
URL Source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/26334262/detail.html?taf=hou
Published: Dec 31, 2010
Author: Stephen Dean
Post Date: 2011-01-04 11:54:39 by Prefrontal Vortex
Keywords: None
Views: 106
Comments: 3
Police Believe Child Was Killed With Welding Torch POSTED: Friday, December 31, 2010 HOUSTON -- Homicide investigators said a welding torch is the likely weapon used in 12-year-old Jonathan Foster's death, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday. "We're talking crematorium-type of hot," said one Houston Police Department Homicide Squad officer assigned to the investigation. Police said they confiscated a badly burned section of carpet from the home of Mona Yvette Nelson, 44, who stands charged with capital murder. She had a welding background and police found welding equipment in her home on Allwood Street in the Fifth Ward area of Northeast Houston. Police said a section of carpet was badly burned and the smell of a human body filled the area around that carpet. DNA tests are being ordered to analyze any bodily fluids. One investigator assigned to the case said it now appears Foster was killed at that spot in Nelson's home within hours of being kidnapped [on Christmas Eve] from his family's home near Shepherd Drive and 43rd Street in Northwest Houston. Police say she was acquainted with some members of the boy's family. One officer said on Friday that the autopsy has ruled out any trauma on the child's body. There were no broken bones or any signs of strangulation or head wounds, so officers said it now appears the child was killed with a welding torch that could be capable of 6,000-degree flames. "I've never seen burns like this," said one officer who viewed the boy's body after it was found in a ditch off the Hardy Toll Road on Tuesday. He said that killers often try to cover their tracks by burning the victim's corpse, but in this boy's case, the burning was so intense and thorough that many veteran homicide investigators are struggling with the notion of such a grisly and painful way to die. Nelson told a community activist from behind bars that she had nothing to do with killing the boy, and she mentioned her own grandchildren as proof that she would never harm a child in such a manner. As for a motive, one HPD investigator said officers believe sexual abuse was behind the crime. The officer said there is no evidence to confirm the theory at this point, but police say there was no ransom demand after the boy was kidnapped, so one officer said, "That's the only other motive (that makes any sense)." Neighbors near the home where police believe the child was killed with a torch are struggling with the new details of the crime. "That's sick. That's really sick, and I think the person who did it needs to pay for it. Pay dearly," said one business owner on the same block. Connie Morris also works nearby, saying, "That's just cruel and mean if anybody would do that to a 12-year-old innocent boy." Nelson is jailed without bond with a court appearance set for Monday. Police spent Friday interviewing the child's family once again, shoring up the timeline of events and filling in routine gaps in the statements that were given immediately after the crime. They also spent several hours organizing the carpet and other evidence confiscated from Nelson's home. One officer said, "We got all we need (from there)." Poster Comment: Bring back public executions.
By Stephen Dean
UPDATED: 9:46 pm CST December 31, 2010 
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