Houston police confirmed on Thursday that they found a 6-week-old AMBER Alert infant safe after her mother was found stabbed to death in her home.
KXAN reports authorities found Shamali Flores safe and that the infant “appears unharmed and is being checked at an area hospital as a precaution.” A suspect is in custody, but so far authorities haven’t released any names. The child’s father, Marcos Mariano Thomas Palacios (previously identified as Thomas Bernardez), is no long a person of interest.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, officers started a search for Shamali after they found her mother’s body in her north Houston apartment around noon on Tuesday. Carolina Flores, 33, was found stabbed to death. Police initially thought Palacios was involved, but has since been cleared after police arrested Erika Jisela Miranda-Alvarez and charged her with Flores’ death.
During a press conference on Weds., Houston Police chief Art Acevedo said that Miranda-Alvarez and her boyfriend (who remains under investigation but not named, as he has no charges against him) knew the victim through Flores’ brother.
“[The suspect] is familiar with this family and familiar with this neighborhood. The individual who abducted Shamali may be a woman who has or will present the child as their own, and may even indicate the child was recently born.”
On Thursday, after the arrest, Acevedo reported that the suspect was due to have a baby in Jan., but lost the infant through miscarriage.
“This woman was due to have a baby in January and she lost that baby. She continued to fake her pregnancy with loved ones and on Dec. 19, she went to the home of our victim and brutalized and murdered her.”
On Thursday morning at around 1 a.m., officers spotted a “suspicious looking man and woman” carrying a baby that resembled Shamali. After connecting the dots with previous information and evidence in the case, authorities detained the pair and determined the infant was indeed Shamali.
The story is still developing. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.
[Feature Photo: Shamali Flores/National Center for Missing & Exploited Children]