The father and stepmother of an 11-year-old California boy whose emaciated body was discovered inside a storage bin in a basement nearly two years ago now face murder charges.
A criminal complaint was filed last Thursday against Jordan Piper, 35, and Lindsay Piper, 38, of Placerville, charging them with counts of murder, child abuse, torturing and poisoning in connection with the January 2020 death of Roman Lopez.
The Pipers, who have been in custody since February, remained at the El Dorado County Jail as of Monday. They are scheduled to return to court on November 19 to be arraigned on their newly filed murder charges.
Lindsay Piper (left) and Jordan Piper (right) are facing murder charges for the death of 11-year-old Roman Lopez in January 2020
Roman Lopez, 11, was malnourished and dehydrated at the time of his death
Roman’s body was found in a bin in a basement at the family’s Placerville, California, home
‘It’s great news. Justice for Roman is what we have been aiming for this entire investigation. So long as we get justice for that little guy we will be happy,’ Dan Maciel, commander with the Placerville Police Department, told CBS Sacramento.
Roman was found dead hours after being reported missing from his Placerville home in the 2800 block of Coloma Street on January 11, 2020.
The boy’s body was discovered inside a storage bin in the basement of the Piper family’s home where there were seven other children, ranging in age from 1 to 17 years old.
The Pipers told the Sacramento Bee in an interview after the boy’s body was found that they had searched for him but but could not find him.
The Pipers have been in custody since February, when they pleaded not guilty to child abuse and torture counts (pictured)
Jordan was charged with an additional count of willfully failing to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical attention to his son. Lindsay was charged with a separate count of poisoning
An autopsy found no obvious signs of trauma on Roman Lopez’s body
‘We have no idea what happened, where they found him, what the autopsy report said, if that’s even done, any suspects, nothing,’ Jordan Piper said at the time. ‘We have nothing.’
Although an autopsy revealed no obvious signs of trauma, Roman was found to be severely malnourished and dehydrated at the time of his death.
In February 2021, Jordan and Lindsay Piper were arrested on child abuse and torture charges.
Jordan was charged with an additional count of willfully failing to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical attention to his son, while his wife was charged with a separate count of poisoning.
The Pipers pleaded not guilty to the existing charges against him.
Shelly Lopez, Roman’s birth mom (pictured), died on April 4, 2021
Roman and the family had relocated from Michigan to Placerville in December 2019, just two months before the boy’s death.
Jordan was awarded custody of Roman after the child’s birth mother, Rochelle ‘Shelly’ Lopez, lost custody of him after suffering from PTSD and substance abuse following her time in the US army in Iraq.
Shelly Lopez did not live to see Jordan and Lindsay Piper face the murder charges: she died on April 4, 2021, from an unknown cause.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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