Sandy woman charged with murder in death of young son

Sandy woman charged with murder in death of young son

(Salt Lake County Jail)


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SALT LAKE CITY — A Sandy woman was charged Thursday with abusing her 7-year-old son, ultimately causing his death.

Reyna Elizabeth Flores-Rosales, 30, is charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated murder and aggravated sexual abuse of a child, first-degree felonies, and two counts of child abuse, a second-degree felony.

On Feb. 25, emergency crews were called to Flores-Rosales' home, 7890 S. Manzano Drive, where she claimed she had found her son unresponsive on the floor of the shower after he had been in for an hour, according to charging documents.

But paramedics also found "multiple injuries and scars" on the boy's body "in varying stages of healing," the charges state.

The boy was taken to Alta View Hospital and then flown by medical helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital. There, doctors found a large burn to the boy's entire buttocks area starting on his lower back, the charges state.

He also had "several old scars, numerous additional burns on the extremities, bruises and swelling on the forehead and head, linear scars in a horizontal pattern on his neck, open sores and bleeding from (the boy's) nostrils, and scars and open sores on his hands and feet," according to charging documents.

Investigators say the boy also suffered severe brain trauma. He never regained consciousness and was declared brain dead at the hospital two days later, according to the charges. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma.

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Prosecutors have requested Flores-Rosales, who has no family members in Utah, be held without bail.

According to court records, Flores-Rosales was convicted of felony drug distribution in 2015 and placed on probation. A warrant was also issued for her arrest in that case in 2017 for her to be released to immigration officials for deportation, but that warrant was recalled in September. Court records do not indicate whether Flores-Rosales was deported.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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