Teen mother allegedly on the run after admitting to suffocating baby

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The baby was dead and the mom allegedly told police she had suffocated her with a pillow.

But the autopsy results weren’t in, leaving the cause of death a mystery, Brookhaven police said. City detectives charged Estefania Roman-Aguilar only with cruelty to children, not murder, in the death of 5-month-old Camila Aguilar, who died on Sept. 21, 2016.

The mom got out of jail on bond a week after her arrest in October.

Now, the U.S. Marshals Service is searching for her on upgraded charges of murder, Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta said Wednesday. Authorities think she might’ve left the state.

Brookhaven police upgraded the charge to murder on Nov. 2, 2016, two days after jail logs say the mom was released. The department said it waited to upgrade the charges until the autopsy results were finished, under the advice of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.

A grand jury returned an indictment last month formally charging 19-year-old Roman-Aguilar with malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children. A motive in the killing is unclear.

She is apparently no longer at Epic Gardens Apartments on Buford Highway, where the child died. Crime Stoppers said authorities believe she’s living “somewhere in the Southeast” maybe in Georgia, Florida or South Carolina.

She may be with her father, Jose Hilario-Gomez, 40, who is also wanted in DeKalb County on an armed robbery charge.

Cox Media Group