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Child's body found in freezer after Barona shooting

Chopper 8 is overhead the Barona Indian Reservation where apparently a woman is being arrested after a possible shooting in the area.

BARONA (CNS) - The body of a missing 3-year-old boy was found hidden in a freezer in a garage on the Barona Indian Reservation, east of Lakeside, hours after a man was shot and killed and a woman was arrested there.

Elaina Rose Welch, 32, was booked shortly before 1 a.m. Friday morning on suspicion of two counts of murder, following a 90 minute standoff at the residence in the 1500 block of Quincy Canyon Road, sheriff's officials said. She is being held without bail.

The chain of events that led to Welch's arrest began shortly after noon Friday when the county sheriff's department got a call from a woman who said her child was dead. Around the same time, someone made a report of a suicide attempt to Barona Tribal Enforcement, sheriff's Homicide Lt. John Maryon said.

Maryon said a tribal enforcement officer spoke to a man outside the house, then heard a gunshot shortly after the man went back inside. 

A woman, later identified as Welch, left the house carrying a shotgun, then dropped the weapon on a dirt road.

A SWAT team and crisis negotiators were sent to the location and the nearby Barona Charter School was briefly locked down. The woman, later identified as Welch, was arrested, sheriff's officials said.

Sheriff's homicide investigators searched the residence and found the adult male victim, who had been shot to death, and the boy's body, Maryon said.

The manner of the boy's death was not immediately disclosed, nor were the victim's names. 


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