A Roswell mother who had been beaten implicated her husband in the disappearance of her 4-year-old son during a 911 call.
Police believe that child, Jesus Dominguez, and his father Carlos Alberto Dominguez, were found dead Friday morning in a wooded area near their Roswell apartment, victims of a murder-suicide.
Esmeralda Rivera discovered her sister Sandra Ruiz unconscious Thursday, and found someone who speaks English to call 911, Channel 2 Action News is reporting.
“She is bleeding in bed,” the unidentified caller told emergency dispatchers. “She came in bleeding. Somebody hit her.”
The caller told the emergency operator that Ruiz seemed to indicate her husband, Dominguez.
“She thinks it’s her husband,” the man said. “ … son is not here, either.”
Police responding to the emergency call from the apartment in the 200 block of Old Holcomb Bridge Way in Roswell described Ruiz’s injuries as the result of “aggravated assault,” according to police reports.
“From appearances, it was a very brutal beating,” Roswell police spokeswoman Lisa Holland said.
Ruiz was taken to North Fulton Hospital, Holland said, but police could not find her 4-year-old son. They issued a Levi’s call Friday morning.
As alerts about the missing boy were posted on message boards over metro Atlanta interstates, the GBI and rangers from the state Department of Natural Resources joined in the search for the child.
A child was found dead late Friday morning in a wooded area about a half-mile from the Roswell apartment where Ruiz was discovered critically injured on Thursday.
Searchers also found the body of a man they believed was Dominguez, Jesus’ father. He had been a suspect in the boy’s disappearance.
“It appears to be a murder-suicide,” said Holland.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office has not confirmed the identities, but Holland said, “we believe that these persons are the missing father and son.”
Ruiz’s two other children, a 5-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, were at school when their mother was attacked, according to Holland. Ruiz remained hospitalized Friday in critical condition, and the children are with relatives, police said.
Police were anxious to find the boy alive, Holland said.
“It’s sad that we didn’t,” she said.
The bodies were discovered about 10:15 a.m. by two Roswell police officers, Holland said.
Holland said the area where the bodies were found was “off the beaten path. It was not anywhere where someone would walk and see these individuals.
“There’s pathways that connect all these [apartment] complexes together and so (Carlos Dominguez) probably is familiar with the area, being that he lived so close,” Holland said.
She said the family had only lived in the area about two months, and police had never been called to the apartment.
No criminal history of Dominguez was found, police said.
The incident shook neighbors, who said they feared for their safety in a community they say is troubled by crime.
“I’m scared,” said Susan Goddard, who lived next door to the family at the Oaks at Holcomb Bridge apartment complex. “I’m at home. I should feel safe.”
Neighbor Carmen Martinez said the boy’s mother mentioned family problems several months ago but offered no specifics.
Martinez said she doesn’t feel safe in the neighborhood, where she witnessed a robbery last September.
Staff photographer John Spink and staff reporter Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
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