A Texas mother has been arrested and charged with murder after police say that she stabbed her 4-year-old son to death while the child’s grandmother watched.
Monica Figueroa has been charged with capital murder in connection with the death of 4-year-old Grayson Hurt. Her mother, Mary Johnson, has been charged with endangering a child because authorities say she did not immediately report the death.
Police in Athens, Texas, responded to the family home on Monday morning after receiving a call from Johnson. According to a press release, police arrived to find Grayson’s bloody body “inside the door, partially covered with a blanket.”
Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse told CBS-19 that the child had been dead for several hours when authorities arrived.
Johnson allegedly told cops that she witnessed her daughter on sitting top of a rolled-up blanket on Sunday afternoon. She was stabbing it repeatedly with a wood-handled knife, Johnson allegedly said, according to Sheriff Hillhouse.
“Johnson heard the child screaming before she observed Figueroa cutting at the blanket and then the screaming stopped,” Sheriff Hillhouse told CBS-19. “Figueroa threatened Johnson and instructed her to leave, which she did.”
When Johnson returned to the house the following morning, she contacted authorities.
Hillhouse says that Figueroa was questioned by officers, and that she confessed to killing her son. Authorities have not released a motive in the case.
According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, an autopsy of the child’s body will be completed by the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas.
The case is being investigated by the Athens Police Department, the Henderson County District Attorney’s Office, the Texas Rangers and Child Protective Services.
PEOPLE confirms that Figueroa is being held on $2 million bond. Johnson is being held on $250,000 bail. As of Wednesday afternoon, neither woman has bonded out of jail.
Online records do not reflect attorneys authorized to speak on their behalf.
