Mom once under investigation in Mass. now charged in her toddler's death in New Mexico

A former Massachusetts woman is facing child abuse charges in New Mexico following the death of her 3-year-old toddler on Saturday. 

Kerri Anne Santos, 31, previously lived with relatives in Gardner and was once the subject of a child welfare investigation in Massachusetts, the Albuquerque Police Department said.

She arrived at the University of New Mexico Hospital shortly before 4 a.m. Saturday with her daughter’s body wrapped in a blanket and two other children in tow, according to police. Medical personnel determined the toddler was dead upon arrival.

Santos allegedly told officials she left Massachusetts to get away from a “bad situation” and that her daughter fell from a toilet and injured herself. However, investigators noted the girl had ligature marks on both ankles and bruises behind her ears, around her right wrist, and along her underwear line.

Authorities in Albuquerque said an autopsy showed an injury to the girl’s head, but the medical investigator will wait for the results of a toxicology report before determining her cause of death. 

New Mexico officials reached out to police in Gardner for more insight on the family and reportedly learned that the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families had investigated Santos regarding allegations that she used drugs around her children. DCF was unable to confirm or deny an investigation, citing state and federal privacy requirements. 

While looking into Santos’s background in Massachusetts, Albuquerque investigators also uncovered multiple domestic violence reports involving another adult, 28-year-old Austin Bing. They later learned that Santos had driven from Massachusetts to New Mexico with Bing and his mother, 46-year-old Christina Hopkins Pena-Cantor.

According to police, Santos and her children had been staying in an Albuquerque apartment with Bing, Hopkins Pena-Cantor, and 48-year-old James Welch — the apartment owner and Hopkins Pena-Cantor’s boyfriend. All four adults have been charged in the 3-year-old girl’s death. 

Police said one of the adults allegedly bound the child with shoelaces and tied her to a bed frame in the apartment on Jan. 12. Santos reportedly told investigators that her daughter had a pillow and blanket while she was tied up, “so she wouldn’t get too cold.” She also allegedly told police that after her daughter fell from the toilet, she waited about five to six hours before taking the girl to a hospital. 

Santos’s other two children, a 6-year-old and an infant, were placed in the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department. Albuquerque police said all three children are believed to be victims of sexual abuse. 

Santos is charged with child abuse resulting in death, child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, and aiding or abetting in the criminal sexual contact of a minor, according to a copy of her criminal complaint. 

Hopkins Pena-Cantor and Bing are both charged with child abuse and child abuse resulting in death. Welch is charged with child abuse.