A desperate note sent from a mother with her child to her elementary school has led police in the Las Vegas area to a toddler’s remains.
The note sent on the morning of Feb. 22 with the child was a cry for help, with her mother writing that she was being held captive by her boyfriend and that she believed her other child might be dead, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release on Feb. 23.
Officers went on Feb. 22 to the home, where they detained the boyfriend, Brandon Toseland, the LVMPD said.
The mother told police that Toseland had abused her and wouldn’t let her leave the house alone or go into the garage, according to the release. She told them the last time she saw her child, described by police as a toddler, was in December.
Homicide detectives were called to the scene and found the child’s remains inside a freezer in the garage, the release said.
Toseland, 35, was arrested and charged with open murder and two counts of kidnapping, the release said.
Police said the Clark County Coroner’s Office will identify the remains and work to determine a cause of death.
More than a third of women and men in the United States have been the victims of intimate partner violence or stalking, according to the 2015 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Victims of domestic violence are encouraged to contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a service that connects victims of domestic violence with local resources 24 hours a day.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report
