Police say an Arkansas man admitted this week that he killed his girlfriend’s young son in 2022 and hid his body under the floorboards of their family home.
As of Monday, July 15, 34-year-old Nathan Bridges admitted to killing 5-year-old Blu Rolland and hitting her with a weapon in the first degree. This was reported by Arkansas State Police. After that, Bridges was given a 60-year prison term.
Police say Blu’s body was found under the floorboards of the home in Moro, Ark., on December 16, 2022. Moro is about 85 miles east of Little Rock. Police say that day would have been the boy’s sixth birthday as well.
People previously reported that Arkansas State Police said the boy probably died of injuries he got in the home about three months before. However, an arrest affidavit said the boy drowned in a toilet in the house.
The affidavit, which PEOPLE had already looked over, says that Ashley Rolland, the boy’s mother, told officers at first that Blu wasn’t at home when they came to do a civil standby. But, according to the affidavit, she finally told her father that the boy was dead inside the house and that his body was found under the newly nailed floorboards. According to the statement, she told her dad that the boy had passed out and died.
The affidavit says that when the officers went back to the house to see if the boy was still alive, they found flip-flops and a blanket for a child under the floorboards. They also smelled decay after digging through the top layer of soil.
Reports say that Rolland told police that Blu had died in September after biting Bridges’ finger. As a punishment, Bridges put the boy’s head in the toilet over and over again until he drowned, the statement says.
After that, both Rolland and Bridges were caught and charged with Blu’s death.
Police say that Rolland, 30, is still waiting to be tried in Lee County even though Bridges has pleaded guilty. She is being charged with many things, such as capital murder, child abuse, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, endangering the safety of a minor, and battery.
It’s not clear if she has entered a plea, and PEOPLE couldn’t find an attorney right away who could talk for her.
After the boy’s death, a GoFundMe page was set up to help Blu’s grandma pay for the funeral and other costs.
