Mother Accused of Putting Toddler’s Body in Bucket of Acid Sentenced on Unrelated Charge

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
April 29, 2019US News
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Mother Accused of Putting Toddler’s Body in Bucket of Acid Sentenced on Unrelated Charge
Monica Dominguez in an undated file mugshot. (Webb County Sheriff's Office)

A Texas woman who authorities said placed her daughter’s body into a bucket of acid was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating her probation as the child abuse case is still working its way through court.

Monica Dominguez, 37, and her husband Gerardo Zavala-Loredo, 32, allegedly tried covering up the death of their daughter, Rebecca Zavala, 3.

Police officers responded to a tip in February that something suspicious was going on in an apartment in Laredo and found a bucket with human remains inside one of the bedroom closets, reported KGNS. Dominguez claimed that the child drowned while she wasn’t being watched.

The couple then attempted to dispose of the body by putting it inside the container of acid, police said.

NTD Photo
Monica Dominguez in a file mugshot. She and her husband allegedly tried covering up the death of their daughter, Rebecca Zavala, 3. Rebecca’s remains were found inside a bucket of acid, on Feb. 14. (Webb County Sheriff’s Office)

The couple’s four other children were placed with Child Protective Services while the couple was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, endangering a child, and evidence tampering.

Dominguez was on probation at the time of her arrest. Her 9-month-old son was found with six fractures in September 2015 and police determined he had been physically abused, reported the Laredo Morning Times.

Dominguez was eventually charged with two counts of injury to a child and pleaded guilty in 2016.

She was also arrested in December 2017 on a driving while intoxicated charge and pleaded guilty to the charge a year later, though it wasn’t clear if the arrest and conviction had any impact on the probation.

State District Jude Oscar Hale Jr. said on April 26 that the new charges violated that probation and sentenced Dominguez to 10 years in prison, the maximum allowed for a parole violation.

Dominguez’s lawyer and the Webb County District Attorney’s office both declined to comment on the case, the Times reported. The investigation into the remains of Rebecca’s corpse is still ongoing.

Child Abuse

An estimated 674,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment in 2017, according to the Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. Of the victims, about 75 percent were neglected, 18 percent were physically abused, and 9 percent were sexually abused.

Nationwide, an estimated 1,720 children died from abuse and neglect, a decline from the 1,750 children who died from the same in the previous year. Officials said there was an increase in the number of referrals to Child Protective Services for an investigation but that there was a decline in the number of maltreatment cases, a phenomenon they will be probing.

Of the abused children, 25 percent were younger than 1 year old. Another 52 percent were between 1 year old and 5 years old. The children who were killed by abuse or neglect were also overwhelmingly young, with about half of the fatalities being younger than 1 year old. Boys made up 58 percent of the deaths.

Perpetrators of abuse or neglect are most often in the 25 to 34 age range. More than four-fifths (83.4 percent) of the perpetrators were between 18 and 44 years old. Perpetrators were more likely to be female.

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