Corpses Of Mother And Her 3-Year-Old Son Retrieved In Utah Desert

Four years after her boyfriend killed them, the bodies of a 23-year-old mother and her 3-year-old son have been recovered in Central Utah desert.

The remains of the woman, Emily Quijano Almiron and her son Gabriel were found in a shallow grave about 5 miles south of Eureka, as confirmed by the Orem Police on Monday. Police discovered the bodies approximately a month later Christopher Paulson confessed about fatally injuring the boy and eventually shooting the sleeping mother in 2015 in a fit of anxiety.

The 30-year-old Paulson agreed to help the police find the bodies as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors. In August, prosecutors revealed that even though he took the bodies to the desert, he could not recount where he buried them, Deseret News reported.

As Orem Police Lt. Tent Colledge readied a statement, the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the bodies are those of the mother and her son.

Eureka Mayor Nick Castleton, while leading an ATV tour near abandoned mines south of town on Saturday, stood witness to the rescue operations where several trucks were deployed at the site. Pop-up tents and people wearing FBI shirts were also to be seen there.

“My first impression was it must be a movie, and then when I saw the FBI truck, I thought, ‘No, they don’t bring an FBI truck out to shoot a movie," Deseret News quoted the Mayor as saying.

"To me, it was like, ‘OK, that’s a gravesite," he added.

He recalled the sight of the hollowed-earth from where the bodies excavated. He revisited the site on Sunday only to see someone had offered flowers there.

Paulson was pleaded guilty on Aug. 6 to murder, both first and second degree felony and manslaughter. He confessed that he had been high on methamphetamine and was drinking alcohol while he babysat Gabriel on Sep 8. 2015. In a state of inebriation, he somehow injured the boy and then put him to bed and thereafter checked on him to ascertain his death. After losing his nerve, he shot Almiron too with a headgun in her sleep.

As sentenced on Sept. 26, Paulson will spend at least 16 years and up to life in prison.

A heartbroken Almiron’s family has described her as a happy young mother who enjoyed singing and playing her fender stratocaster but sometimes spent time with the wrong crowd. As revealed in testimony at a preliminary hearing last year, Paulson had broken up with Almiron four days prior to her ex-husband reporting her as missing.

The police investigated into the case by tracking Paulson’s mobile phone which indicated that he went to two dumpsters in Orem the day after the murder and bought a shovel and work gloves in Springville, Walmart.