Overview
- Medical teams treated seven-year-old Neithan after he was admitted with a severe traumatic brain injury and other internal wounds on February 19, and authorities confirmed his death on Friday after nearly six months in hospital.
- Judicial authorities have detained the boy’s mother, Milena Martínez, and his stepfather and recategorized the case to aggravated homicide with concealment following the child’s death.
- Investigators say the mother’s claim that injuries came from a fall from a bunk bed was contradicted when a house search found no bunk bed, bloodstains with apparent cleaning attempts, and other signs inconsistent with an accident.
- Forensic teams seized a household mop-like implement (an 'escurridor' with an iron end) that Criminalística reports is compatible with Neithan’s wounds and has been entered in the file as a possible weapon.
- Prosecutors are awaiting autopsy and broader forensic results that will be decisive for final charges and trial strategy while the child-protection agency has placed Neithan’s siblings temporarily with relatives.