Las Vegas mother faces murder charge in child’s death

A 21-year-old woman faces a charge of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of her 2-year-old son, according to jail and booking records.

The records identify Cristina Guadalupe Moya as the woman police accuse of stabbing her son and turning the weapon on herself in a south-central Las Vegas home. She was booked on a charge of first- degree murder, the records show.

A cousin of the woman had requested a police check about 8 a.m. Monday because Moya hadn’t left a bedroom at the home in the 8600 block of Manalang Road since Sunday night, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said at a Monday briefing. The boy’s grandfather was called to the home, near East Pebble Road and Pollock Drive, and he kicked in the door, Spencer later told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Inside, the boy was found dead and the woman was suffering from apparently self-inflicted stab wounds, Spencer said.

She was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where she was in serious condition, he said.

The woman’s cousin told investigators that she had been “very depressed” and had “not been herself” since giving birth to the boy, Spencer said.

“It was just in the last couple of days apparently that condition appeared to have worsened,” he said.

Police were investigating the length of time between the stabbings and their discovery Monday morning.

The boy was the woman’s only child, and it didn’t appear she had a criminal history, Spencer said.

The boy’s death marks the ninth homicide investigated by Metro this year, according to Review-Journal records.

The Clark County coroner’s office will release his identity.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.