Uriel Zalazar

Uriel Zalazar (Photo/FOX 6 News)

This story is so terribly sad.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) -- Bond was set at $100,000 each Monday for a man and woman held in the death of the woman's 8-year-old son over the weekend.

Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Jason Rossell said Uriel Zalazar had bruises from apparent beatings and had reportedly been made to run around his apartment and then stand in a cold shower in the bathtub, where he was found unconscious Saturday afternoon.

Abelina Zalazar, 25, and boyfriend Jorge L. Vilchiz, 32, appeared in Circuit Court Monday and were ordered held on $100,000 cash bonds pending possible charges.

Rossell told the court that investigators pieced together circumstances of the death from evidence and statements of the two.

He quoted Vilchiz as saying the woman had beaten the boy with a belt and electrical cords. Investigators said they found loop-shaped bruises on his body, at various stages of healing.

Vilchiz told investigators that over the previous week, the boy was made to run around in the apartment for 15 minutes, stand in the cold shower for five minutes and stand in the tub another five minutes after the water was turned off, according to Rossell.

Police said they measured the water temperature at 38 degrees after running the shower faucet for three minutes.

Rossell said Vilchiz reportedly was not home when Zalazar found her son unconscious in the shower.

Rossell said Zalazar tried to revive him with warm water, wrapped him in blankets, put him in bed and called Vilchiz. It was nearly two hours before 911 was called, he said.

...Medical Examiner Mary K. Mainland said more information was needed to determine a cause of death, but she would consider the boy's body temperature, measured at 80 degrees.

According to TMJ4, "immigration officials believe both [Zalazar and Vilchiz] are illegal immigrants."

Bob Moore of FOX 6 interviewed Sandie King, sister-in-law of Zalazar.

When Moore asked King for her take on Uriel's death, she said:

She didn't do it. She didn't. She would never do anything bad to her children. She loved her children.

That's not Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Jason Rossell's take. He says that Zalazar did do it.

Uriel's body shows that he was horribly abused. He was allegedly abused to death.

I don't understand how anyone could do that to a child.

I wish every person who gets so bent out of shape over waterboarding and other interrogation methods used by U.S. agents and military personnel on suspected terrorists and enemies of America would be as troubled by the sort of torture that Uriel endured.

I wish they would be horrified by his death and show as much concern for him as they show for our enemies.