Child's Body Found Under Floorboards of Arkansas Home - Sister's Condition and Police Docs Reveal True House of Horrors
Police searching for a young boy found the child’s decaying remains on Dec. 16 under the hallway floorboards of his Arkansas home.
The boy’s mother told police her boyfriend had drowned the child in a toilet bowl after the boy bit the man’s finger, NBC News reported.
The mother, Ashley Rolland, 28, and boyfriend Nathan Bridges, 33, were arrested and charged with capital murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and endangering the welfare of a minor, according to a statement by the Arkansas Department of Public Safety.
Blu Rolland had been dead for as long as three months, according to the statement.
His grandmother told NBC he would have been 6 years old the day his body was found.
Ashley Rolland, 28, & her boyfriend were arrested Dec. 16 after authorities discovered her 5 yr old son Blu’s remains in their home under the floor. His 6 yr old sister was also found with serious injuries. I spoke with the children’s grandmother Monday. https://t.co/rruaIMy9Go pic.twitter.com/VkQ9cjz64B
— Bria Bolden (@boldenbria) December 20, 2022
Karen Rolland, whose son Dustin is Blu’s biological father, told NBC that Dustin went to pick up Blu and his sister for a court-ordered visit and was told that Blu was not home.
Blu’s sister had injuries to her head and feet and her clothes were soiled with urine. The girl’s mother claimed the scabs on her head were from an allergic reaction.
The little girl “could barely even walk,” and she immediately asked for “water and something to eat,” the grandmother told NBC.
“I told her that she was safe, and just the look on her face was sheer terror,” Karen Rolland said.
After rushing the child to the hospital, the grandmother said she called the police “to report she had information that Blu was possibly deceased,” NBC reported, citing a police affidavit.
A medical exam revealed the girl had severe burns, which Ashley Rolland told police Bridges had caused by holding the girl under hot water “as punishment for her behavior issues.”
The girl is in stable condition at a hospital in Memphis, according to the police statement.
A GoFundMe campaign started by a friend indicated Karen Rolland had been trying to get custody of the children for more than a year, and had just received a court order to see them every weekend. [Editor’s note: Inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement of the fundraising campaign.]
The discovery of her grandson’s death and her granddaughter’s injuries was made on the first day she showed up to get the youngsters, Anita Widby wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“These children have endured so much pain, neglect, and death. I desperately want to help lessen the financial burden that the burial for the youngest and items needed for the oldest will present,” she said.
“They have so much healing to do and I want us to come together and remove one burden from Karen’s plate.”
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