Mother held in San Jose boy’s death near Vegas
Woman, 35, jailed in Denver 11 days after 7-year-old son was found dead on hiking trail
Police say that when Nick Husted got back to his South San Jose home May 24 — the home he shared with his 7-year-old son Liam and Liam’s mother, Samantha Moreno Rodriguez — their things had been cleared out of the apartment, and he was left with a voice message from his longtime partner.
“I’m sorry I had to do it like this,” part of the message said, followed by “I’m going to try to get a house for Liam and I,” and “We can talk about this in the future.”
There was no panic from the father, who despite the distressing message didn’t think anyone was in danger.
But four days later the body of a boy would be found in a remote area near Las Vegas. It was Liam.
So far police and the Husted family have no idea why Rodriguez — who was arrested Tuesday not long after Liam was identified — would want to kill her child and said there were no signs of trouble beforehand.
“Something went horribly wrong with Sam, and Liam is unfortunately taken away. Apprehending Sam to face what her actions have done is great, she needs to be held accountable no matter why it happened,” Liam’s grandfather Chris Husted wrote in an email to this news organization. “However it doesn’t make a difference for my son, he is devastated by the loss of Liam.”
Nick Husted waited a week after not hearing from Rodriguez to call police; not to get her arrested but to report that his son, who the grandfather said was autistic, might
be missing. He would later learn that by the time he gave that June 1 report, a young boy’s body had been found four days earlier on a hiking trail 20 miles west of Las Vegas.
On June 4, a friend of Rodriguez, not having heard from the mother and son, went to San Jose police to say that a facial photo rendering released to the media to help identify the body looked an awful lot like Liam.
By Monday, Las Vegas police had used that tip to eventually verify that the child they found outside the city was indeed Liam Husted. Within hours, investigators had obtained an arrest warrant for Rodriguez and were tracing her travels. By Tuesday morning, she was in custody in Colorado, jailed on suspicion of murdering her son.
Rodriguez, 35, was arrested at a Denver hotel by the FBI-led Denver Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, 11 days after Liam’s body was found in a forested section of the Mountain Springs Trail, near mile marker 20 on Highway 160.
Chris Husted said Liam lived with his mother and father, who were not married, and that they had sent Liam to a learning center for autistic children. At one point, he said, they hired a home counselor to help the child with behavioral issues, but that outside help ended when the therapist relocated and then the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
“As Liam got older it was strainful for them but they managed. There was no sign of abuse at all,” Chris Husted said. “Liam was an innocent child, dependent for their care and good intentions, like all people with special needs.”
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Ray Spencer said the investigation has turned up no evidence that Liam was being mistreated. San Jose police added that they had no records of being called to the child’s home.
Spencer addressed the message he said Rodriguez left for her partner and why it didn’t spur any action sooner.
“There was nothing suspicious in this message that would lead the father to believe that Liam or Samantha were involved in any kind of foul play,” Spencer said. “It indicated that Samantha had basically left him and took Liam with her, and they were going somewhere else.”
San Jose Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Christian Camarillo said Tuesday that Nick Husted was ambivalent about pursuing any criminal charges regarding the disappearance of his son.
“He was simply just letting us know,” Camarillo said. “He felt it was important enough to contact us and report it, (but) he wasn’t sure what he wanted done.”
What is known is that Liam and Rodriguez left San Jose on May 24, Spencer said, in a dark-blue 2007 Dodge Caliber packed full. On May 26, authorities say Liam and Rodriguez visited Laguna Beach and later traveled through Victorville.
Spencer said Rodriguez and her son checked into a Las Vegas hotel on May 27, and at that point Liam was still alive.
The next day, hikers found Liam’s body. Spencer said police are not disclosing how Liam died pending an autopsy but said he is “100% confident” the boy was killed at the location where he was found.
Rodriguez was retroactively tracked to a check-in at a Denver hotel May 31 when no one knew that the body found at the trail was her son.
But that mystery ended when her friend back in San Jose contacted police, who contacted Las Vegas police and spurred a detective to fly up and retrieve Liam’s pillow and clothing from his home. It was a DNA match for the body found on the trail.
Why would Rodriguez do it? Why Las Vegas? Why Denver? Spencer said his investigators are currently working to get those answers.
“We’re in the process of interviewing her right now,” he said. “We’re still following up on a lot of those leads.”
Chris Husted said clarity about why the tragedy happened would provide little comfort for the family. But he hopes that any answers that surface will at least highlight the unseen struggles of families with differently-abled children.
“If it puts any kind of spotlight on what can happen to children with special needs, fantastic,” he said. “Unfortunately it is too late for my son and Liam.”
Anyone with information about the case can contact the Las Vegas police homicide division at 702-8283521 or by email at homicide@lvmpd.com.