A California mother and her boyfriend were arrested Sunday for sexually assaulting and killing her 3-years-old daughter.
Police arrested the couple, who was on the run since Saturday morning, near a Bay Area Rapid Transit train station in El Cerrito del Norte, about 30 miles south of their Napa home.
Sara Krueger, 23, and Ryan Scott Warner, 26, were arrested and charged with the murder of toddler Kayleigh Slusher. Police said sexual assault charges can also be brought against them later. The police called the crime as "heinous, atrocious or cruel manifesting exceptional depravity, " reports CBS news.
Kayleigh was found dead on her bed in Napa, Saturday afternoon. The couple will appear in court Tuesday noon for arraignment on murder charges, reports CBS Local. Police were called by the couple's neighbour who asked them to do a welfare check.
Napa police Lt. Debbie Peecook told CBS Local that the girl appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma injuries and was also sexually abused. They circulated the information about Krueger and Warner to the media, and police received a tipoff from a person who saw the couple at a restaurant in El Cerrito, Peecook said.
Jason Slusher, the biological father of Slusher, an inmate at San Quentin State Prison, was informed about her death, KTVU-TV reported. He was sentenced in 2013 for three years for evading an officer while driving recklessly in Napa County, according to Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Krueger was known for taking good care of Slusher, but reports claim that she changed after she started dating Warner. Police previously made rounds at the house for various tenant disturbances, reports the Examiner.
"Warner moved in about 10 months ago, and it all went downhill from there," Elizabeth Chechourka, property manager at Krueger's apartment said, reports the Associated Press. "Management sent a letter to them about 2 1/2 weeks ago saying, 'The authorities know about you, and you need to shape up or you're gonna lose your housing,'" Chechourka said.
