Colorado Mom Faces Consequences After Leaving 5-year-old Daughter’s Remains in Fireplace

Just a few days after an Ohio mother admitted to killing their 3-year-old child, a mother in Colorado was sentenced for the same thing.

On Wednesday, Alexus Nelson, 28, was sentenced to 84 years in prison for the 2023 murder of her 5-year-old daughter, Maha Li Hobbs. She pleaded guilty to the charges of second-degree murder (48 years), tampering with a deceased body (24 years), and attempting to influence a public servant (12 years), per the press release from the Colorado Judicial Branch.

All sentences will be served consecutively. But how did we get here?

In May 2023, Nelson’s mother called the Aurora Police Department (APD) for a welfare check after allegedly not seeing her granddaughter, Maha Li, in nearly three weeks.

When local authorities called Nelson, she told them that she had given up her child for adoption. But when officers called the adoption agency that Nelson provided, they had no record of her doing such a thing.

As a result, the APD obtained a search warrant the next day for Nelson’s apartment, where they found the burnt human remains of Maha Li in a utility closet and her bone fragments in the fireplace.

That’s right, Nelson burned her 5-year-old daughter to death.

More from 18th Judicial District - Colorado Judicial Branch:

“There are many resources and legal ways for parents to surrender their children in the event they are unable to care for them,” Senior Deputy DA Kathleen Tierney said. “It’s both heartbreaking and appalling that a mother would kill her own child and then make up a bogus adoption story so family would believe the child is alive and well.”

Due to her plea deal, Nelson’s trial dates have been vacated and her attorneys will not be allowed to appeal the ruling in the future, according to the Colorado Judicial Branch.