6-year-old boy dead after mother's boyfriend allegedly drowned him in toilet
A six-year-old boy in Arkansas was found dead after being drowned in the toilet and stuffed underneath the floorboards of his home in a heinous crime allegedly committed by his mother's boyfriend.
According to a police report published by the Arkansas State Police, the boy's body was buried below a hallway floor of his home in Lee County. Authorities also found his sister of the same age still alive with burns to her scalp.
Suspicions immediately pointed toward the child's mother, 28-year-old Ashley Rolland, and her 33-year-old boyfriend Nathan Bridges, who have been put behind bars by the police and charged with "capital murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and endangering the welfare of a minor," with Rolland being an accomplice.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, Rolland initially lied to the deputies that her boy, identified as Blu, was not at home when they visited to perform a civil standby. However, she confessed to her father that Blu was dead and had been buried inside their home.
After the police were alerted of the crime, they rushed back to Rolland's home and found Blu's rotting corpse underneath the floorboards with his flipflops and blanket, having died way back in September when her boyfriend sunk his head repeatedly into the toilet until he drowned after he bit his finger.
Meanwhile, Blu's sister Taylor was brought to the hospital and was determined by medical staff to have sustained severe burns on her head, which, according to Rolland, was also the work of her boyfriend when he poured hot water on her.
The children's grandmother Karen told FOX13 that Taylor also sustained three cracked ribs, a wrist fracture in her hand, and stabs from scissors from the time that Bridges cut her hair.
"There’s so much anger because I miss my grandson," Karen said.
A fundraiser has now been put up by Karen's distant relative in order to help her pay for Blu's funeral and to make sure that Taylor is taken care of.