Mexican Babysitter’s ‘Drug-Crazed Boyfriend Sexually Assaulted and Beat Two-Year-Old Axel Before Drowning Him in Vacation Home Pool’
Snejana Farberov, Daily Mail (London), March 7, 2013
A two-year-old boy from Colorado vacationing with his family in Mexico was sexually assaulted and beaten by his babysitter’s intoxicated boyfriend before being tossed in the pool to drown, it was revealed today.
Police in Mexico have arrested Eleodoro Carlos Rodriguez Sanchez, 30, and charged him with sexual assault and murder of Axel Charrette.
According to local reports, Sanchez, who also goes by the name Carlos Roberto Tapia Sanchez and the alias ‘El Cholo,’ made a statement to detectives confessing to the crime that took place in the village of Sayulita February 28.
Officials also arrested Sanchez’s former girlfriend, 16-year-old Nancy Saralee Solorio Perez, who was babysitting two-year-old Axel and his seven-year-old brother, Kalden, while the boys’ parents were away.
Solorio Perez has been charged with murder because officials say she hid in the house and did nothing to stop Axel’s killing, and then lied about it to police.
In a statement released to The Watch News, Axel’s parents, Jen and Randy Charrette, wrote that the teenager, whom they hired along with her mother to look after their two children while the family were on a three-month vacation in Mexico, let her boyfriend come onto the property.
This version of events was later confirmed by Solorio Perez’s statement to police. According to local reports, the caretaker said that on February 28, her 30-year-old boyfriend came onto the property of Jen and Randy Charrette’s rental home through a garage door.
The 16-year-old noticed that Sanchez was high on drugs and appeared aggressive, so she locked herself in a bathroom ‘for a few minutes.’
When the baby sitter went outside to check on the kids, she came across Axel’s naked body in the swimming pool, The Denver Post reported.
The boy was rushed to the hospital in San Pancho, where doctors determined that he had been beaten and sexually abused before being thrown in the pool and left to drown.
Axle’s older brother was playing in another part of the house at the time of the tragedy and was left unharmed.
The parents were out of the house when Solorio Perez’s ex-boyfriend entered, attacked Axel and drowned him, the prosecutor’s office said.
The prosecutor’s office said Solorio Perez reported being too terrified to alert police during the crime.
The Charrettes have been told by a source in the US State Department that the case is ‘Mexico’s number one priority right now.’
In a statement released to MailOnline Wednesday morning, an official with the State Department confirmed the death of Axel Charrette, adding that the agency extends its deepest condolences to his family and friends.
The statement goes on to say that the US consulate in Guadalajara and the consular agent in Puerto Vallarta have been in contact with the Charrettes and are providing assistance.
The Mexican Consulate General of Denver issued a statement saying, ‘On behalf of the government of Mexico we express our deepest condolences to the Charrette family.’
Consulate spokesman Jorge Lizcano said that authorities in the state of Nayarit will investigate and prosecute the case ‘to its final consequences under Mexican law.’
Axel’s father, Randy, owns Peak to Peak Bicycles in Ridgeway, The Denver Post wrote. His wife, Jen, is a software engineer and competitive bike racer. The Charrettes arrived in Sayulita January 4 and were expected to stay there through March, enjoying an extended winter vacation.
The family returned Monday to their hometown of Ridgeway – a tight-knit community of 900 in Colorado that has rallied around the grief-stricken family.
Family spokesman Brian Scranton said the Charrettes were overwhelmed by the support from residents of the town, who had set up an assistance fund, created a website for neighbors to sign up to bring meals to the grieving family and opened their homes to relatives coming to support the family.
Since the Charrettes have always been avid biking enthusiasts, the town is naming a bike trail after the slain boy, Scranton said.
‘There’s something amazing about it,’ he said. ‘Whatever they need, it’s been given to them without question.’
In a statement, Jen Charrette said her family had received ‘a moment of peace’ during ‘a loving ceremony by some beyond amazing people and family that have been loving angels.’
The grieving mother expressed her appreciation to be ‘coming home to more love’ and asked the community to keep her family in their hearts.
In their public statement cited by Ouraynews.com, the Charrettes wrote: ‘There are no words to express our grief — but we wanted you to know what happened because the truth, as horrible as it may be, is important.
‘Thank you for all your support and everything you have done and continue to do.’
Jen Charrette has been writing a blog called Velo Mom, where she has been carefully documenting their exploits and travels.
According to the blog, the Charrettes left their home in Colorado in early January and headed to Sayulita near the resort of Puerto Vallarta, where they had rented a home for three months from a Canadian landlord.
In the statement to The Watch, the parents mentioned that it was their landlord who helped them hire a local woman as a housekeeper and her 16-year-old daughter as a babysitter to look after their children.
The horrific killing of their toddler son came about two months into their planned eight-month vacation.
On the blog, Jen Charrette wrote that her husband and their kids decided as a family to rent their home in Ridgeway, sell off most of their possessions, pack the rest into their truck and go on an adventure south of the border.
To finance their travels, the Charrettes have been working remotely using the Internet, cutting their expenses, and they also have been home-schooling their two boys.
‘We did not win the lottery or even have a huge savings to devote to travel,’ Mrs Charrette wrote on her blog. ‘We are just putting experiences and time together before a big house and all the comforts of home.’
The family arrived in Sayulita on January 4 after a two-day trip by car, and they had planned to stay there for three months before switching to another locale in Mexico, or making heading back to the U.S.
For the past two months, the Charrettes have been spending their time in Mexico surfing, biking, exploring the jungle and learning Spanish.
Just days before Axel’s death, Jen Charrette wrote on her blog that her older son, Kalden, came down with what appeared to be a stomach bug that required a brief hospitalization. Around the same time, their 13-year-old dog was attacked by a German Shepherd.
A memorial service for Axel will be held at the Sherbino Theater in Ridgway on Tuesday, March 12, at 6 p.m. A fund has been set up in Axel Charrette’s name.