A 37-year-old Ogden man has been charged with aggravated murder in the death of his 10-month-old son after police say he told the child’s mother that the infant had “666 on him.”
Alex Hidalgo was taken into custody Saturday and booked into Weber County jail on Sunday morning on charges of aggravated murder after being accused of causing the death of Alex Hidalgo Jr. by stabbing him in the neck three times; obstruction of justice, for rinsing blood from a knife and destroying evidence; and desecration of a human body, for putting the child’s body in a garbage bag and then throwing it into a trash can, Weber County sheriff’s Lt. Will Farr said Sunday.
Court documents say Hidalgo was watching Hidalgo Jr. and another child Friday afternoon while Hidalgo Jr.’s mother, identified only as A.D., was out running errands. Upon A.D.’s return, she said Hidalgo was reading the Bible and watching a video of religious music and sermons.
After A.D. was unable to locate their child and inquired as to his whereabouts, she said Hidalgo told her that “he had built an altar like they had talked about,” and that the boy had “666 on him," the documents state. Hidalgo then told A.D. that Hidalgo Jr. was dead, which she initially believed to be a joke. However, upon Hidalgo telling her not to call anyone or he’d be sent to prison, court papers say, she began frantically searching for her son, ultimately discovering his body in a trash bag inside a garbage can located in a closet.
Hidalgo fled as A.D. and a neighbor attempted to resuscitate the child, authorities say. Medical personnel soon arrived after a 911 call, and attempted to revive him. Hidalgo Jr. was subsequently transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said a post-mortem examination revealed the child had been stabbed three times in the neck, severing the carotid artery and jugular vein, and impacting the spine. Crime scene investigators noted blood spatter on the wall and carpet of the front room, and discovered multiple bloody towels throughout the home. A paring knife was found in the kitchen sink, having been recently rinsed off.
Hidalgo was found Saturday inside a nearby abandoned building and attempted to flee police, authorities say. Upon his capture, police noted Hidalgo was in the same clothing he had been seen wearing the previous day in surveillance footage. He had dried blood on his shirt and on his arms and hands.
Hidalgo is being held without bail.
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