A Las Vegas girl gave her elementary school teacher a note from her mother, claiming she was being held hostage and that her son was dead.
Authorities say it began on Tuesday, when the mom slipped her 7-year-old daughter a note on her way to school. In it, she confessed to being held against her will by an abusive boyfriend and expressed deep concerns about the whereabouts of her preschool-aged son.
Sadly, by the time a teacher read the note and alerted authorities, it was already far too late. Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department searched the woman’s home on Tuesday evening, where they found her 4-year-old son’s body inside a freezer.
The child was Mason Dominguez, according to an online obituary posted by the boy’s family. Prosecutors identified the mother’s boyfriend as 35-year-old Brandon Toseland, who was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of kidnapping and a murder charge, jail records show.
Although authorities have not said how the boy died, prosecutor Tim Fattig said in court Wednesday that Mason had “visible injuries” when his body was found.
Police uncovered the boy’s remains in a home Tuesday morning on the 4300 block of Saddle Brook Park Drive after his sister came to school with multiple notes from their mother.
Mason was found in a trash bag inside a garage freezer, hidden under a false cardboard bottom and multiple items of food, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.
His mother, Dahsia Maldonado, told police that Mason became ill on Dec. 11 and that she wanted to seek medical care but that Toseland, her boyfriend of 11 months, told her she could not. Toseland then allegedly took Mason into the master bedroom and barricaded the door “preventing her from entering for a considerable amount of time,” according to the report.
When Mason’s mother asked about him, Toseland told her the boy had died and that he couldn’t show her his body “because his freedom would be taken away.” The mother told police that Toseland would bind her, tie her and take her cellphone, according to the report.
“If they left the residence, he would handcuff her inside the vehicle,” the report read.
When police stopped a white Nissan leaving the home on Saddle Brook Park Drive Tuesday, a handcuff was found attached to the car where the woman had been sitting.
Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Elana Lee Graham ordered Toseland to appear in court again on the kidnapping charges on Feb. 28. Toseland is due back in court Thursday on the murder charge.
Toseland remained in the detention center on Wednesday without bail, jail records show.
Court records show Toseland was previously charged with domestic battery in 2013 and 2019, but both cases were dismissed. In the 2019 case, Toseland was required to complete community service and impulse control counseling before the case was dismissed.
Neighbors said they were stunned by the discovery of the boy’s death.
“Shock,” said neighbor Miguel Salazar, who lives about a block from Toseland’s home. “I’ve got kids and stuff, and I don’t know who lives around me. We don’t know who is around (here). Always quiet. Been here almost a year.”
A woman who lives two homes away from Toseland’s declined to give her name, but she said they never noticed anything unusual, adding “everything seemed normal” and that “we didn’t know anyone was missing.”
A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for funeral costs and had raised more than $30,000 as of this writing.
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Sources: Taphaps, KTNV, TheDailyBeast
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