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- Dubai 04:35 05:51 12:21 15:49 18:46 20:03
the woman came out of the house carrying a shotgun and walked along a road, where she dropped the weapon. (Shutterstock)
A woman was arrested on suspicion of murder after sheriff's deputies found her boyfriend fatally shot and her 3-year-old son's body stuffed in the freezer at her home on an Indian reservation in Southern California, authorities said Saturday.
The child was discovered in a freezer in the garage hidden "under some items of frozen foods," the San Diego County sheriff's department said in a statement.
The man was found shot in the chest and wrist. Autopsies were planned.
Elaina Rose Welch, 32, was booked on two counts of murder in connection with the deaths.
Sheriff's deputies received a call Friday from a woman at the Barona Indian Reservation who said her child was dead. Moments later, tribal police received a call from the same address about an attempted suicide.
An officer with the Barona Tribal Enforcement arrived at the home and talked to a man. Gunshots were heard when the man went inside.
Barona authorities contacted sheriff's deputies for help. When deputies and the Swat team arrived, the woman came out of the house carrying a shotgun and walked along a road, where she dropped the weapon.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies searched the property and initially did not find the child, who was hidden in the garage freezer.
A family member told U-T San Diego that Welch and her boyfriend had a rocky relationship and that tribal officers have been called several times to break up domestic disputes.
"They should have taken it seriously in the beginning," said Brittany Wallace, who is married to one of Welch's cousins and lives on the reservation. "That baby wasn't safe there at all. Now he is dead."
Wallace said Welch keeps several guns at her house.
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