NEW DETAILS

DA: Mom Strangled 7-Year-Old Found in Forest Because She Was ‘Frustrated’

Samantha Moreno Rodriguez allegedly confessed to killing the youngster after she left home with him to start a new life.

A California mom strangled her 7-year-old because she got “frustrated”—then took off his clothes and left him in a Nevada forest, a prosecutor said Wednesday. The new details of Liam Husted’s death emerged during a bail hearing for his mother, Samantha Moreno Rodriguez, KRON reported. She left their home in San Jose in late May in what police have said was an attempt to start a new life. Liam’s body was found outside Las Vegas days later by a hiker, though it took almost a week to identify him. Rodriguez was then arrested in Colorado while eating breakfast with a man she had recently met, police said. “This is a pretty egregious case,” Deputy District Attorney John Giordani said before Rodriguez was denied bail. “She essentially said that she became frustrated with the child and strangled him.”