A tragic crime on the Barona Indian Reservation ended in the fatal shooting of a man and a three-year-old boy found dead in a freezer; the boy's mother, 32-year-old Elaina Welch, is accused in both deaths.
Julio Ricardo Monggiotti, 32, was found fatally shot at a home in the 1500 block of Quincy Canyon Road Friday afternoon.
It's the same house where investigators later discovered a child's body buried beneath frozen food inside a freezer, according to sheriff's officials. The San Diego Medical Examiner is scheduled to perform an autopsy on the child next week.
NBC 7 got a look Monday at the little boy whose own mother is the lead suspect in his death.
Video from Monggiotti's Facebook page showed the little boy, Roland, toying with a play phone and Monggiotti playing along with him.
"It's a phone," Monggiotti is heard saying behind the camera. "Who do you call on the phone?"
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"Women," Roland says, looking directly at the camera.
"Women? You call women?" Monggiotti playfully replies.
Court records showed Monggiotti had criminal infractions prior to what investigators described as the couple's "fairly new" relationship.
But the victim's family called him a "God-fearing man," and photos taken from the Welch's Facebook page just last year show the two having a good time together in a car.
On Friday, a woman called 911 saying a child was dead at the home. Shortly after, a Barona Tribal Enforcement officer responded to a call of a suicide at the same address and talked to Monggiotti. That’s when Monggiotti went back inside the house and a gunshot was heard, according to officials.
Welch, soon emerged from the house with a shotgun. She then dropped the shotgun and hid in nearby bushes before being arrested following a SWAT standoff.
Her surrender was captured by NBC 7's chopper.
Welch is being held without bail on two counts of murder. Monggiotti's funeral is scheduled for Friday.
