Rosa Esperanza Garza and Shiann Lynn Erickson were charged with murder for allegedly beating a 3-year-old boy to death and blaming his injuries on a skateboard fall.
Two caregivers in Minnesota have been arrested and accused of killing a 3-year-old boy who was allegedly beaten to death earlier this year.
Rosa Esperanza Garza, 24, and Shiann Lynn Erickson, 22, were taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count each of second-degree murder without intent in the slaying of young Eastyn James Deronjic, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Moorhead Police Department, officers and emergency medical personnel at about 1:09 a.m. on March 18, 2024, responded to an apartment complex in the 1500 block of Belsly Boulevard South in Moorhead in regard to a 3-year-old child not breathing. The home is about 230 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Upon arriving, first responders located the heavily bruised child — later identified as Eastyn — and performed lifesaving procedures before transporting him via ambulance to Sanford Hospital. Unfortunately, the child succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
Police said that Eastyn and his younger sibling had been staying with Garza and Erickson in their Moorhead home for “an extended period.” Garza and Erickson were described as being “acquaintances” of the children’s biological parents.
