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Inset: Rebecca Ann Romero (Prince William County). Background: The apartment complex where a 4-year-old boy was killed in Manassas, Va. (Google Maps).
Three adults in Virginia are behind bars after a 4-year-old boy died suffering a regime of cruelty, authorities in the Old Dominion say.
Rebecca Ann Romero, 53, and Shanyah Elizabeth Dilda, 22, stand accused of one count each of aggravated murder, felony murder, and felony child abuse and neglect. Kemmilyn Anita Wade, 18, stands accused of felony murder and felony child abuse and neglect.
Each defendant hails from Manassas — a medium-sized town located roughly 30 miles east-southeast of Washington, D.C.
The identity of the dead child is not being released by law enforcement due to his extremely young age, the Prince William County Police Department said in a press release.
On Jan. 19, responding officers found the boy unconscious. Emergency medical technicians performed CPR on the child and transferred him to a nearby hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. Law enforcement did not clarify his exact cause of death.
Investigators would go on to uncover a shocking state of horrors inside the apartment unit on Shallow Creek Loop, police say.
Both the deceased, as well as his 5-year-old sister, were “subject to long-term abuse and neglect” meted out by three adult members of their family, police said. Throughout the investigation, those adults were determined to be the primary caregiver of the children in the residence.
The defendants assumed primary duties over the children after their parents left them there in August 2023, according to charging documents obtained by the Prince William Times.
In text messages allegedly sent between Romero and Dilda, the women discuss the boy being confined by a plastic bag while in the bathtub, police say. The messages allegedly show that Dilda was upset the boy had escaped from the bag to eat candy and a banana, according to the charging documents.
“The deceased was routinely bound in plastic wrap and packing tape and was found to be severely malnourished and dehydrated during the subsequent autopsy,” the press release reads. “Both children were also found to have been regularly deprived of food and water.”
In a picture taken on Jan. 18, the boy was covered in plastic wrap from his shoulders to his toes, taped to a mattress covered in garbage bags, and a pillow stuck to the mattress with tape was covering the child’s head, police allege.
Earlier this week, detectives obtained arrest warrants for Romero, Dilda and Wade. By Jan. 30, each of the three were in custody.
The remaining children — including the victim’s 5-year-old sister, as well as a 12-year-old and 14-year-old, are currently in the custody of Child Protective Services, according to law enforcement.
The defendants are being detained without bond in the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center.
