In January 2010, police responding to a report of an ill child at the church found Timothy not breathing, and he died at a hospital, Sandoval said. The coroner ruled that Timothy perished from natural causes, Sandoval said, but police believed negligence was involved and sent a report to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office. The DA's Office declined to charge anyone, Sandoval said, citing a lack of evidence.
Two weeks after the leaders of a cult-like group in the Inland Empire were arrested, police have reopened an investigation into the death of a 4-year-old boy who had been placed in their custody. On Thursday, the Colton Police Department announced that it was reviewing new leads and actively investigating the circumstances surrounding the January 2010 death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas.
"Normally in these kinds of investigations, you have somebody disappears, you have no leads, you don't know who was with them last, you don't know where they were last, and you're kind of starting from scratch."
Fernanda Carrera is searching for her grandfather, Jose de la Cruz Carrera, among 383 bodies recovered from the Plenitud crematorium. Authorities found the bodies in unsanitary conditions, some dating back to 2020, with a non-functional furnace and no utilities, and local funeral homes delivered fake ashes to grieving families.