A photo of Liam Husted, 7, is displayed during a press conference that named his mother, Samantha Moreno Rodriguez, as a suspect in his murder at Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Headquarters Monday, June 7, 2021.
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 1:59 p.m.
The small body of 7-year-old Liam Husted had multiple injuries, although it wasn’t immediately clear how he died, according to a murder warrant affidavit filed against his mother in Las Vegas Justice Court, which was released today.
Samantha Moreno Rodriguez, 35, remains jailed in Denver following her arrest June 8, nearly two weeks after Liam was found near the Little Zion trail in the small community of Mountain Springs, about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas.
Moreno Rodriguez, who was tracked with an email account she used to check into a hotel after she allegedly killed her son, Metro Police said.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office is awaiting toxicology tests to rule on Liam’s death, police said.
On May 24, Moreno Rodriguez packed her Dodge Caliber with Liam’s belongings, and took the autistic boy from their San Jose, Calif., home they shared with his father, police said.
Moreno Rodriguez left the man a voicemail saying they were leaving him, police said. She also left her cell phone behind.
After spending time in Southern California, Moreno Rodriguez and Liam checked into a Las Vegas hotel, police said. On May 28, four days after they left home, a hiker spotted Liam’s body in some bushes near a parking lot of the Little Zion trail in the small community of Mountain Springs, about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas.
On June 1, Liam’s father contacted San Jose police to document that his ex-girlfriend had taken their son, police said. He didn’t press child-abduction-related charges, because he didn’t think the boy was in danger, police said.
Meanwhile, Metro was following up on hundreds of tips, including reports from missing children across the U.S., to try to identify Liam, whom they named John “Little Zion” Doe.
Police publicized a digitally-enhanced sketch of Liam, and at one point, a Las Vegas mother misidentified the victim as her son, who was hiking with his father and stepbrother in Utah.
A break in the case occurred on June 4, after a friend of Moreno Rodriguez saw the image and told San Jose police that the boy looked like Liam, whom she hadn’t heard from, police said.
A Metro detective traveled to San Jose to retrieve some of Liam’s belongings to obtain DNA. That weekend, a scientist matched the specimens, and Liam was identified.
The following day, on June 7, Metro announced that Moreno Rodriguez was a suspect in Liam’s slaying, filing the warrant.
She was taken into custody by an FBI-led task force the following day.
Metro hasn’t released additional information on the arrest. Lt. Ray Spencer said investigators had an idea on how Liam died, but hasn’t shared any details.
