Ohio Boy's Remains Are Found in Garbage Bag in Yard, and Godmother and Boyfriend Are Charged
The godmother of a 4-year-old boy whose remains were found in the backyard of an Ohio home is accused along with her boyfriend of murdering the child.
Joanna Vega, 31, and Romaine Tolbert, 36, were arrested in Adrian, Michigan, on Friday, nearly two years after the remains of Vega’s godson, Eliazar Ruiz was found, the U.S. Marshals Service announced in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
The couple had allegedly been on the run since a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted them in January on murder charges.
On Sept. 20, 2017, Eliazar’s skeletal remains were found in a garbage bag in the backyard of a vacant Cleveland, Ohio, home, according to the statement.
For months, the identity of the deceased child remained a mystery, News 5, Fox8 and Cleveland.com report. In December 2017, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office announced that while they were unable to determine a cause of death, the body belonged a 4-year-old boy, and the office ruled his manner of death a homicide.
Unable to identify him, authorities released a forensic sketch of the boy and didn’t get a break until January 2018 when his mother, Ashley Makuhan, saw the sketch on the news and called police, the stations report.
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Makuhan told police Eliazar was put into the care of Vega, his godmother, when she was sent to prison in 2015, Cleveland.com reports. After calling police, Makuhan gave investigators a DNA sample, which came back positive.
“My son was an amazing kid,” Makuhan told Cleveland.com in an interview from behind bars. “He was always so happy. I can’t wait until the person involved in this is brought to justice.”
Authorities believe Eliazar died sometime between March 1, 2015 and Sept. 20, 2017, according to the U.S. Marshals statement. A relative of Eliazar told Cleveland.com nobody in the family knew the boy was missing.
The home where his body was found was under renovation after having been abandoned, neighbors told Cleveland.com. A tree pruner found the garbage bag containing Eliazar’s body tucked under shrubs in the yard, according to the U.S. Marshals.
It’s unclear whether Vega or Tolbert have retained attorneys or entered pleas. They will be extradited back to Cleveland, where they face several charges including murder, gross abuse of a corpse and child endangerment, according to the U.S. Marshals.
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