8-year-old boy finds his pregnant mother beaten to death and her suspicious boyfriend is on the loose

Facebook Ashley Garcia

An 8-year-old boy woke up to find his mother dead in bed next to him after witnessing her boyfriend allegedly beating her. The man then allegedly told the boy not to wake her when he left.

Houston police said her boyfriend, Alexis Armando Rojas-Mendez, 23, ran away before the discovery and is now wanted on murder charges, KHOU, KTRK and the Houston Chronicle.

The victim, Ashley M. Garcia, 27, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Her family said the mother of three was seven weeks pregnant with another child at the time.

Houston Police Department Alexis Armando Rojas Méndez

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The couple’s 8-year-old son told police he saw Rojas-Mendez beating Garcia with his steel-toed work boots Friday night, according to court documents obtained by KHOU.

The next morning, after the boy summoned his neighbors to try to wake Garcia, arriving investigators found walls and floors splattered with blood and discovered that the victim was suffering from blunt force trauma to the head and body, according to these documents.

Investigators said Garcia had been dead for several hours.

Authorities who identified Rojas-Mendez as a suspect say he contacted his sisters after the alleged attack to borrow money for an “out-of-town job.” According to court documents obtained by KHOU, they said he seemed “stressed,” but they offered no financial assistance.

Anyone with knowledge of Rojas-Mendez’s whereabouts or the incident is asked to call police at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

If you are a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.