warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
A look at how investigators solved the case of a missing 5-year-old boy in Texas. His father’s girlfriend claimed he was picked up by his mother and a fake cop… his mother says the girlfriend is lying.
Police are searching for a missing 5 year old boy,police says Samuel Olson,he was last seen thursday in the 8800 of a McAvoy drive .
He was wearing a gray t – shirt with a red Kool -aid man on the front of it, jeans short , and white Buzz Lightyer sneakers…
Today, we have seen police in that vicinity as they continue their investigation in Southwest Houston on McAvoy Drive.
The police say the girlfriend of Sam’s father told investigators that sam’s mother showed up with a uniform officer on May 27th, and that she gave Sam to them.
Samuel Olson had not been to school in almost a mounth Friday , April 30th.
That’s the last time he was in attendance at Hullbrook elementary school.
That weekend of May 1st and the second , his grandmother says he was with her,she snapped this photo of him on May 1st at a birthday party.
Sam reportedly felt sick when his father Dalton came to pick him up Daltoon told Fox 26 Sam was sent to quarantine at his girlfriend’s apartment in Webster because Sam and Dalton lived with a chronically ill family member in Cyprus.
The Gap between May 2nd and now is the unknown.
Samuel was last seen in Southwest Houston ,but the search for this boy has expanded to the Webster area.
The nightmare carried on day five.
The search a grassy field behind an apartment complex at the intersection of Dixie farm road and Gulf Breeze Drive in Webster.
Why this location, officials would not disclose .
Texas EQuusearch helped look for 6 year old samuel Olson.
Theresa Balboa says Samuel was staying with her at her mother’s home in Southwest Houston last Thusday morning.
She stood side by side with samuel’s father , Dalton , as he made a emotional appeal for his son safe return.
Also, we should note that Olson got a protective order against Balboa ,his girlfriend,last year amid domestic violence allegations .
And so, they were asked about that because if ultimately Balboa had Samuel, why would she have him if ultimately there was a restraining order against her filed by her boyfriend?
To that , both Olson and Balboa said that they had their problems.
They’ve worked through them, and the boy wasn’t there at the time of that alleged incident.
investigators made it inside this apartment unit .
Officials say this is a location where Samuel may have been.
Texas Equusearch crews took off on ATVs to scour the overgrown area surrounding the complex.
Family members don’t know where he could be.
Samuel’s grandmother shared this video of the boy .
But for a man wh o spent decades searching for missing people…
” i sure hell don’t think this going to have a happy ending.”
6 year old Samuel Olson ,who was reported missing to HPD on thursday,May 27th,2021 at approximately 6 p.m.
Patrol officers were dispateched to a residence in the Southwest part of town where they met the father of Samuel, Dalton Olson.
Also at the residence was Mr Olson’s girlfriend Theresa Balboa.
Miss Balboa told the officers on the scene that she was at the residence that morning at approximately 7:00 a. m when she saw Samuel’s mother with an unknown officer at the front of the residence.
Miss Balboa indicated that the officer told her that she would go to jail for kidnapping if she did not return Samuel to the mother.
Miss Balboa indicated that she recognized Samuel’s mother because she had seen her before.
Miss Balboa told the officers that Samuel’s mother and the officer left in separate vehicles.
Mr Olson told the officers that once he heard this story from Miss Balboa,he contacted Samuel’s mother and she told him that Samuel was not with her.
Missing persons investigators began working this investigation and made contact with Samuel’s mother , through investigative efforts , they were provided evidence that Samuel’s mother was at her residence throughout the entire morning of May 27th,2021.
Missing persons investigators discovered inconsistencies in Miss Balboa’s statement and consulted the homicide division.
From that point, a collaborative efforts was conducted by both missing person’s unit and homicide investigators.
Also texas-Equusearch assisted in searching multiple locations.
A search warrant was obtained for the residence in the 15,000 block at the Gulf Freeway.
This is the residence where Miss Balboa was living,on Monday, the search warrant was executed by investigators in the Houston Forensic Scientce Center collected evidence from that location.that evidence will be processed and analyzed for forensic value.
Also, a 2012 Dodge Avenger was towed from that location to also be searched and analyzed for evidence.
Investigators were contacted by Jasper Police Departement and they were notified that they had received an anonymous tip from crimestoppers that led law enforcement officers to a motel in Jasper Texas in connection with this investigation.
Jasper Police Departement officers initiated contact at the motel with Miss Balboa and eventually discovered the body of a young child, Miss Babloa was taken into custody.
At this time , police believe the child to be Samuel.
More than 100 miles and four counties away where that 6 year old had last been seen.
So far, only one arrest has made in this case.
29 year old Theresa Balboa, Dalton’s girlfriend, Balboa was charged with tampering with evidence of human corpse.
Balboa , a mother to two young girls, didn’t show up for court in 2019 on the day their father’s mother was given custody.
There was an ongoing custody dispute between Samuel’s mother and father and his father , she said she tried for months to get her son Sam back,but the court failed her .
She said she had no idea he wasn’t with his father,Sam’s mother,Sarah Olson released photos of the funloving little boy.
Appearingin court and escorted back to jail after a judge increased her bond to $ 600,000.
Miss Balboa was brought before the court on capital murder charges,the judge find that there was probably cause in the case to charge her.
note: bond has not been set in the capital murder ,but she’s at about $600,000 worth of the bonds on the tampering and then the assault family member impeding brathing case.
Sarah says Sam’s father Dalton Olson , who participated in the search of Sam, took their son in January of 2020 , never gave him back….
Documents reveal that Samuel Olson may have been dead nearly 3 weeks before his remains were found.
Records say Balboa’s roomate reportedly claimed seeing the 5 year old dead at their apartment in Webster on May 10th.
May 10th– Balboa’s roomate says she called him saying the boy was dead in their apartment.
The roomate left work and found the boy laying in a bed covered in bruises,they put him in a bathtub for 2 days.
Today, this apartment near Webster has a notice to vacate.
On May 13th, duct tape and a storage tote were purchased by the roommate.
He told the investigators he helped Balboa wrap the boy’s body in a plastic sheet,placed the child in a the tote .
then stored it at this storage facility in Webster.
On May 31st, the little boy’s body was moved from the storage unit to Jasper ,Texas
According to records obtained by KHOU1, the father’s girlfriend Theresa Balboa, met a man at a Cleveland, Texas Walmart parking lot earlier this week .
We know she couldn’t be located Monday evening after the search of an apartment complex where she and the boy had stayed.
Court documents claimed the man brought his pickup truck to that parking lot .
Balboa was there along with a black plastic bin with a yellow lid.
Documents state the bin was put in the back of the truck after that the two allegedly drove to the Best Western motel in Jasper.
With the couple is seen arriving in the motel surveillance video , the man is seen unoading the bin and taking it into room 106.
Then the man alegedly leaves the motel, calls Crimstoppers, and gives them a tip about a foul smelling bin at the motel .
When police show up ,they found the bin in the room and Theresa Balboa in the bathroom,police open the bin, which was secured with zip ties , and find what appeared to be a small human body in a black plastic bag wrapped in duct tape.
Helping in the search for Samuel,Texas Equu search founder Tim Miller says he suspected Balboa since the beginning, he even told Sam’s father she had something to do with it.
He believes the pressure he put on Balboa during the search is what forced her to flee with Sam’s body.
According to the initial autopsy report, Samuel died from homicidal violence with blunt head trauma.
A new documents say Balboa struck Sam with a blunt object,now charged with capital murder , Harris county prosecutors hopeing to keep Theresa Balboa in jail, saying she’s responsible for the death of 5- year – old Samuel Olson.
Two others , including Balboa’s roomate , Benjamin Rivera ,were charged with tampering with evidence in Sam’s death.
27 year old Dylan Walker ,drove Theresa Balboa to Jasper and rented out the room where Olson’s body was found.
He is charged with tampering with evidence, also,court documents say Walker is the one who called Crimestoppers.
Samuel’s father, Dalton , throguh his attorney, denies being involved, saying Quote ,” he had nothing to do with the death of his son and that the family is mourning , shocked and in disbelief.”
Olson’s attorney also saying right now they’re wanting answers as to what happened and why,Dalton is with family and friends as they process what’s happened.
At the end of this street on the corner of this quiet neighborhood.is where police believe Samuel Olson spent the last few weeks of his life…
…he’d run with his dad, he played with his dad, he was laughing, smiling
..a normal little boy.
The neigbors say they often saw the two playing in the front yard, frequently walked Sam to school at Hullbrook Elementery, which was just around the corner.
Police say Samuel was last seen at that school April 30 th ,but wasn’t reported missing until May 27 th,They believe he died more than two weeks earlier .
Houston police say Samuel’s father is not a person of interest but he’s someone they say they’re still interesting in talking to.
However , these neighbors say they don’t believe he was involved.
members of the group that search for Samuel Olson ..
and family members wearing shirts honoring the 5 year old …
packed this Houston courtroom to see the woman who murdered Olson admit responsibility and accept punishment.
Theresa Balboa plead guilty to the murder in order to keep her family from having to go through the trial ,according to her.
Prosecutors say it was in May of 2021 Balboa killed 5 year old Samuel Olson and placed his body in a storage container which later found in a hotel in Jasper.
Sam’s mother did read an impact statement in court.
Sam’s paternal grandmother also referred to Balboa only as s monster during her impact statement.
Samuel’s father was also in court ,but he actualy had to leave before those victim impact statements could be read .
He was visibly angry as he sat in court, his fits were clenched as he was sitting behind the attorneys.
He appeared to be inconsolable, as you could imagine,over something like this happening over the death of his child.
Balboa’s charges was reduced to murder instead of capital murder.
” Today she admitted to what she did for 52 years and a chance of parole in 26, my son did not even get six years of life and she still gets the chance at one, this is not justice.”
-Sarah Olson -Samuel ‘s mother
