Domenic Patrick Aguilar-Acevedo, 5, has died. He is the son of Nickolle Cristina Aguilar, 25, and the stepson of Daniel Garcia, 26.

On July 25, 2021, the three were in a hotel in San Antonio, Texas, United States. In the evening, Garcia threw Aguilar-Acevedo against a wall.

Aguilar witnessed the abuse but she did not intervene because she was too eager to be in a relationship and neither she nor Garcia sought medical treatment for Aguilar-Acevedo when the boy started vomiting a dark substance. The boy later died.

On the morning of July 26, 2021, Garcia was caught on camera carrying Aguilar-Acevedo’s lifeless body down a staircase at the hotel. That day, Garcia and Aguilar left without properly checking out although they had a hotel reservation through July 29, 2021.

From San Antonio, Garcia and Aguilar drove to Colorado, USA and camped near the Rocky Mountain National Park. They left Aguilar-Acevedo’s body near their campsite before driving south to Mexico and continuing on to Costa Rica.

On August 16, 2021, Aguilar revealed what happened to Aguilar-Acevedo when asked by her mother, who then contacted the San Antonio Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Aguilar admitted to not reporting her son’s death out of fear of losing custody of her other children. 

On August 25, 2021, FBI agents found Aguilar-Acevedo’s body in a deep ravine near Fraser, Colorado. On August 28, 2021, both Garcia and Aguilar were arrested in Florida and were each charged with injury to a child resulting in death.

The name of Aguilar-Acevedo’s biological father was not released. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not Aguilar and Garcia are San Antonio residents.