The parents of Thaddeus Sran, a disabled toddler who mysteriously vanished over a week ago, have been arrested for murder.
Briseida and Sukhjinder Sran were taking into custody on Friday, following the discovery of a toddler’s body on Thursday. Madera Police Chief Dino Lawson said the body was found at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday in rural Madera County, around seven miles away from his home.
Lawson said on Friday that the child’s remains were found burned, according to the Fresno Bee. Officials are testing the remains to obtain a positive identification but detectives “strongly believe” it is 2 -year-old Thaddeus Sran.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Thaddeus was reported missing by his parents on July 14. They reportedly claimed they put him to bed at around 10 p.m. that night, at a Madera home off of C Street, then woke up to find him missing.
The parents later stopped cooperating with investigators, according to the Madera Police Department, but the family’s lawyer said in a statement released Thursday that the parents were cooperative until authorities became “accusatory.”
“They were cooperative until law enforcement became overtly accusatory,” lawyer Roger T. Nuttal said. “These are good people. I venture to say they weren’t involved in illegal behavior in regards to their baby.”
Nuttal added that authorities were the ones that stopped cooperating when they stopped reaching out to the parents with updates.
The couple had another baby who died in 2015. Nuttal said the infant was born premature and ended up passing away from SIDS, ABC 30 reports.
“There was an investigation done and we have the medical records attesting the fragile condition of the baby, and that case was closed. There were no charges.”
Madera Police Lt. Josiah Arnold confirmed the death of the infant girl in 2015 but could not comment further since the case is still open, NBC reports.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Thaddeus Sran/Police Handout]