Photo: gofundme

mason dominguez

The day after a 4-year-old child’s remains were found inside a garage freezer, friends and neighbors gathered for a candlelight vigil on Wednesday.

Amondo Allen and his sister Rehana Allen, who live in the Las Vegas neighborhood, told theLas Vegas Review-Journalthey didn’t know the boy but wanted to “pay respect.”

On Tuesday, Las Vegas police arrested Brandon Toseland in connection with the death of 4-year-old Mason Dominguez.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of open murder, a general allegation of homicide in Nevada.Online recordsshowed he was being held in Clark County Jail without bail.

At about 8:40 a.m. earlier that day, Mason’s sister handed her elementary school teacher a note from her mother “claiming she was being held against her will,” according to apress release from the Las Vegas Police Department.

The Clark County School District Police Department immediately notified authorities, who went to the residence and detained Toseland, who is not related to the children, officials said.

“Upon entering the residence, detectives located the remains of a toddler inside a freezer in the garage,” police said.

Brandon Toseland.Clark County Detention Center/ AP/Shutterstock

Brandon Toseland

The names of the mother and daughter have not been released due to the nature of the crimes.

The unidentified woman’s attorney, Stephen Stubbs, told theAssociated Pressthat she endured months of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and that Toseland threatened to kill her children if she left him.

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After the woman and her two children moved into Toseland’s two-story, three-bedroom house in March of last year, he began engaging in abusive, controlling behaviors such as covering windows and using video surveillance. He also would take the mother’s cellphone, cut her ties to her family, and controlled her social media, Stubbs told the AP.

“There was never a time when her daughter was with her that she was not locked in a room, bound or handcuffed,” Stubbs said of the mother. “There was never an opportunity to take her daughter and run.”

If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com