HOUSTON — An autopsy shed some new light in the death of a missing 5-year-old boy discovered last week in a Jasper, Texas hotel room. Officials said they've ruled the cause of death as a homicide.
"The cause of his death is homicidal violence with blunt head trauma," said Michele Arnold, a public information officer with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. "The manner is homicide."
Officials with the institute performed testing on the human remains discovered inside a tote located at a Best Western over 135 miles away. They said experts determined the cause of death after identifying the body as that of Samuel.
This comes as 29-year-old Theresa Balboa, the girlfriend of Samuel's father, faced a Harris County court Monday, and had a judge increase her bond to $600,000 in a charge connected with the boy's death.
So far, Balboa is the only person arrested and charged in connection with the case.
Houston police said Balboa first reported Samuel missing April 30. Officials said Samuel was last seen at school April 30, but he was living with Balboa and not the boy's father.
Samuel's family said they would have celebrated his sixth birthday last weekend.