Mom Tried to Burn Her 4-Year-Old Son's Body After Year of Tormenting Him: Prosecutors

CHICAGO, IL — The 4-year-old boy found under a smoldering blanket in an abandoned Chicago house this week was starved, beaten and locked naked in a room with his own feces and urine for the final year of his life, authorities say.

After he died on July 29, his corpse was kept in a playroom and days later taken to the house in Englewood — where his mother and her friends tried to set it on fire in the basement, according to Cook County prosecutors.

That mom, 27-year-old Alyssa Garcia, was caught by police Tuesday as she ran away from the house. On Thursday, a judge threw her in jail on $2 million bail.

Little Manuel Aguilar was so frail, so small, according to a Chicago Tribune report, firefighters called to the burning house initially thought they had found the body of a baby wrapped in that blanket and buried under garbage.

The Tribune found that Garcia had previously come to the attention of the Department of Children and Family Services — and had even taken away little Manuel shortly after he was born:

The state Department of Children and Family Services had prior contact with Garcia, who recently gave birth to premature twins. In 2012, she was sentenced to 18 months supervision for endangering the life of a child.

DCFS had previously opened two separate investigations into Garcia, at one point taking protective custody of her four children.

Manuel was was returned to her in 2015.

The cause of the boy's death has not been determined yet. Prosecutors said his mother didn't notify authorities when she found his body in their home — and decided instead to burn it — because she feared DCFS would take away her other children.

She has a 6-year-old, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, in addition to the newborn twins.

Garcia enlisted the help of two other people — Christian Camerena, 19, and a 17-year-old boy — to help her, authorities say. All three have been charged with concealing the death of a person and residential arson. The Chicago Sun-Times identified the 17-year-old as Garcia's young lover and Camerena as his brother. They lived with Garcia and her children.

The trio were seen fleeing from the burning home in the 1400 block of West Marquette Road in Englewood by police and taken into custody.

When Garcia was grabbed up, she asked the police this question, according to a Sun-Times report: “What if something bad happened, and you didn’t mean for it to happen?”

Bail was set at $1 million for Camerena Thursday afternoon; the 17-year-old is currently charged as a juvenile.

In arresting the three suspects, police say they smelled “an odor of lighter fluid.” A container of lighter fluid was found by the child's body.

Police say additional charges are possible.

DNAinfo Chicago spoke with Garcia's neighbors on Thursday afternoon in the 6400 block of South Wolcott in Englewood after details of the crime were revealed.

"I'm a grandfather, and hearing about it just makes me sick as hell," a man named S. Taylor told DNAInfo. "It just hurts you to your core. You can't tolerate that s---. ... 99 percent of us didn't even know that boy was in there."