HollyMatkinNorman, OK – A seven-month-old baby boy who was the subject of an Amber Alert was found dead on Wednesday, police said.
Police had been searching for Jody Minjarez and his father, 31-year-old Victor Manuel Minjarez, after an Amber Alert was issued by Norman Police Department (NPD) on Wednesday morning, KFOR reported.
Victor was apprehended at an Oklahoma City residence in the afternoon, but investigators were still searching for Jody.
A short while later, however, the infant’s lifeless body was found inside the home.
The tragic events began on Feb. 19, when the NPD responded to a report of a domestic assault, KFOR reported.
Upon arrival, officers learned that Victor had violently attacked the mother of his child, and then grabbed their infant son, and fled the scene in a U-Haul truck.
The baby’s mother got an emergency Victim Protective Order (VPO) on Feb. 23, which ordered his father to return Jody to his mother, according to KFOR.
Victor later sent a text message to a friend telling her to tell the baby’s mother that she would never see her son again, according to KFOR.
“Based on this information, it is believed that 7-month-old Jody Minjarez is in imminent danger of bodily harm or death,” Norman police officials wrote in a press release.
The medical examiner will determine Jody’s cause of death, which is being investigated as a homicide, police said on Thursday, according to KAKE.
Victor was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail at approximately 3:34 a.m. on Thursday on charges of first-degree murder, and desecrating a human corpse, The Oklahoman reported.
He was also charged with a misdemeanor domestic abuse in the presence of a minor child offense on Wednesday.