A 6-year-old boy whose body was found buried beneath the hallway floor of a Lee County home earlier this month had been drowned in a toilet more than three months earlier by a man who later burned the boy's sister in anger, according to an affidavit by an Arkansas State Police investigator.
The affidavit led to the arrest of Nathan Bridges, 33, and Ashley Roland, 28, on charges of capital murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and endangering the welfare of a minor, according to a Dec. 17 state police news release.
Roland is the mother of Blu and Taylor Roland, both 6, the affidavit, also dated Dec. 17, states.
In the affidavit, the investigator states that Ashley Roland told police that on Sept. 9, her boyfriend, Bridges, stuck his finger in Blu's mouth and Blu bit it, angering Bridges. He took Blu to a bathroom of the home in the Moro community west of Marianna and repeatedly placed the boy's head in the toilet until Blu drowned, the affidavit says.
Ashley Roland was in the living room at the time and said she found Blu limp and struggling to breathe in the bathroom after Bridges left the room.
Bridges cut a hole in the wooden floor of the home and buried Blu under the home wrapped in plastic bags and covered by a blanket, Ashley Roland told police.
That's where Lee County deputies and state troopers found the boy's body under recently replaced floorboards late on Dec. 16, the affidavit states.
The deputies had accompanied Karen Roland, the children's grandmother, to the home earlier in the evening to pick up both kids from their mother.
Ashley Roland brought out Taylor, who had apparent injuries to her head that had scabbed over, and said that Blu was not home. Forrest City Hospital staff later determined that Taylor had been badly burned, and she was taken to Lebonheur Hospital in Memphis for treatment.
Deputies entered the home to find the boy after learning from Timmy Childers, Ashley Roland's father, that his daughter had told him Blu had collapsed outside the bathroom and was dead inside the house. Sheriff's deputies called on state police for aid after the odor of decay made it clear that they had found remains under the floor.
Rebecca Fiting, who was divorced from Bridges in October 2018, told police she came to talk to Ashley Roland when she heard something was wrong. Ashley Roland told her that Blu had left the bathroom with a swollen face and was foaming at the mouth before collapsing and dying, Fiting said.
Ashley Roland had not known what to do and told Fiting she buried Blu, Fiting recounted to police.
Ashley Roland told police that Bridges also had forced Taylor's head and upper torso under scalding water in the bathtub as punishment for behavior issues she said her daughter had.
Bridges declined to speak with police and was being held in the Lee County jail, the affidavit states.
Online court documents show he was charged with misdemeanor counts of third-degree battery, criminal mischief and trespassing in October 2018, but the case was dropped.