Arlington police have arrested the mother of a 19-month-old girl in connection with her death.
Botello told police she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Joshua Markus Beard, bought shovels and gloves and buried her daughter, Tylea Moore, in Parker County, according to police documents. She said Beard severely beat and stomped on the toddler on Friday or Saturday in their Arlington home.Alexis Botello, 17, faces charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and injury to a child.
Botello originally told police she hadn’t seen her child for two days but eventually admitted Tylea had been killed and said Beard “didn’t mean to do it,” according to police records. She told police she tried to stop Beard, but said he started hitting her.
Botello’s bail has been set at $125,000. Beard, 20, faces a capital murder charge. His bail has been set at $1 million.
Original item July 7 at 4:45 p.m.: Arlington police have a suspect in custody in the slaying of a 19-month-old girl on Friday or Saturday.
Police say Joshua Markus Beard, 20, hit his girlfriend’s child and stomped on her in a house in the 2200 block of Polo Club Court that they lived in together, according to the evidentiary search warrant.
On Sunday, Beard’s aunt called police to report a missing child. She had gone to an Arlington hotel in the 1900 block of West Pleasant Ridge Road near Interstate 20 to check on Beard’s girlfriend, Alexis Botello. Beard, who was booked into the Arlington jail on Saturday on unrelated charges, said he had been unable to reach Botello.
From the onset, police believed that the child was not missing and suspected foul play, said Arlington police Sgt. Jeff Houston.
When police arrived, Botello, 17, said she hadn’t seen Tylea for two days, but eventually told police that Beard “didn’t mean to do it,” and said he told her not to say a word, according to police documents.
When police spoke with Botello she said she and Beard were fighting because Beard was pushing and yelling at Tylea. She told him to stop, saying that Tylea was just a baby and didn’t understand. Eventually, Beard went to sleep and Botello put Tylea to bed, but she told police when she went to check on the toddler in the morning, Tylea “looked awful” and had bruises on her ribs, chest, arms, legs and tops of her feet, according to police documents.Botello said she couldn’t believe her child, Tylea Moore, was gone.
Tylea also had bite marks all over her and two cuts on her mouth, Botello said. She described Beard hitting the toddler over and over again and said he threw Tylea on the bed so hard that she bounced off and landed on the ground at which point he began stomping on her stomach until she started throwing up green stuff, according to police documents. She said they both tried CPR on the toddler but she wouldn’t breathe.
Botello told police they put the toddler in the trunk of the car, picked up gloves and shovels from Wal-Mart, and buried her in a hole they dug near a bridge in Springtown, Parker County.
“This is an unfortunate, just tragic, tragic case,” said Lt. Christopher Cook with Arlington police. “Number one, we thought we were dealing with a missing child. That already is unnerving for a community. But then, when foul play is suspected early on, it is just very traumatic for all of our officers, detectives and also all our crime scene personnel working the case.”
Beard is currently being held in Arlington jail on a capital murder charge. He also has charges for marijuana possession and speeding.
Investigators found human remains in Parker County on Monday, but police have not confirmed whether the remains belong to Tylea.
