Mom burns child’s remains, says she was given up for adoption, Colorado officials say
A mother has been sentenced to prison more than a year after her missing daughter’s remains were found in a closet and fireplace, Colorado prosecutors say.
Alexus Nelson, 28, was sentenced on Wednesday, June 12, after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including second-degree murder, tampering with a deceased body and attempting to influence a public servant, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
As part of her plea deal, prosecutors said the mother was sentenced to 84 years in prison.
“While there is no way to fully comprehend what turned this mother into a monster, she deserves to spend several decades behind bars for the unspeakable crime she committed,” District Attorney John Kellner said in the release.
The girl’s out-of-state grandmother called Aurora police on May 30, 2023, concerned for the well-being of her 5-year-old granddaughter, whom Nelson said she had given up for adoption, police said, according to McClatchy News.
The grandmother told police she had not heard or seen her granddaughter in about three weeks, according to prosecutors.
Officers spoke with Nelson, who told them she gave her daughter “up for adoption through an adoption agency,” prosecutors said.
However, prosecutors said when they contacted the agency, they had no record of the woman or her daughter.
The following day, prosecutors said police searched Nelson’s apartment after getting a warrant.
While searching, a detective opened a utility closet door to find “the odor of decomposing flesh,” along with a bag containing charred human remains, later identified to be those of woman’s daughter, prosecutors said.
“It was tough to see our cops that had to find that little angel in the condition they found her in,” Acevedo said at a June 2023 news conference.
Police also found “bone fragments in ashes” in the apartment’s fireplace, prosecutors said.
“While we were fully prepared to take this case to trial, this plea protects (the girl’s) family from having to listen to painful, horrific and gruesome testimony,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Gallo said in the release.
Though the grandmother lost a grandchild and now a daughter, she “did the right thing,” Acevedo said.
“Thanks to her, her courage and her love, that little child wound up being able to get a proper burial sooner rather than later instead of being stuffed in some closet,” he said.
Because of her guilty plea, prosecutors said Nelson cannot appeal her case in the future.
