BELLA VISTA -- Police arrested a couple Monday on charges that they raped and killed their 6-year-old son.
Mauricio Alejandro Torres, 45, and Cathy Lynn Torres, 43, were arrested Monday on charges of capital murder, a Class Y felony; rape, a Class Y felony; and first-degree battery, a Class B felony, according to the Bella Vista Police Department.
Cathy Torres called police at 11:33 p.m. March 29 and said she found her son, Maurice, unconscious and not breathing, adding that he had brown liquid coming from his nose, according to police dispatch logs. Other than complaining of a stomachache earlier in the evening, Torres said the boy had been asleep and snoring before she found him, the log shows.
The boy was taken by ambulance to Mercy Medical Clinic in Bella Vista, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy at the Arkansas medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide, according to a news release Monday from Police Chief Ken Farmer.
Bella Vista police said the boy died from internal injuries caused by rape, according to court documents filed Friday in connection with a petition Cathy Torres filed for an order of protection from her husband.
The couple also have two daughters. The girls, ages 6 and 7, are in custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
In her petition for the order, Cathy Torres says their son died because of abuse from her husband.
According to a summary prepared for the petition, Cathy Torres believes her husband "is the only man who had access to their son for an extended period of time on the days leading up to his death." The children are home-schooled, and the family went camping the weekend before Maurice's death, according to the summary.
Cathy Torres says in the documents that she was scared to talk with police and answer questions because her husband has threatened to kill her, and he once told her he would bury her in the backyard. He also had put his finger to her head like a gun, according to the court documents seeking the protection order.
She was granted a temporary order of protection until April 23.
The Torreses are to appear in Circuit Judge Brad Karren's courtroom this morning for a probable cause and bond hearing.
Metro on 04/07/2015