Mexican Authorities Say Drug-Crazed Man Brutally Murdered Colorado Toddler

RIDGWAY, Colo. (CBS4/AP)- A 2-year-old boy from Colorado was killed by a man while his family was vacationing in Mexico.

The Charrette family is from Ridgway. Family spokesman Brian Scranton said Jen and Randy Charrette had been renting the home for about two months and had hired Nancy Saralee Solorio Perez and her mother to watch the home and children.

The parents were out of the house when Solorio's ex-boyfriend, Eleodoro Carlos Rodriguez Sanchez, entered, attacked Axel and drowned him, the prosecutor's office said. Axel's older brother was locked in the house and did not witness the crime, Scranton said.

According to a statement by the family, "On Feb. 28, the daughter, our babysitter, let her boyfriend into the walled property. She soon realized he was in a violent, drug-induced state. Out of fear, she locked herself in a bathroom, leaving Axel outside. Kalden was inside playing games. The boyfriend, for reasons unknown, hurt Axel, then threw him in the pool, leaving him to drown."

Axel's brother, Kalden, 7, wasn't injured.

The prosecutor's office in the state of Nayarit said that the ex-boyfriend had been arrested and charged with rape and murder in the Feb. 28 attack. Prosecutors said the babysitter has been charged with homicide for failing to stop the attack and with lying about it to medical personnel.

Scranton said the Charrettes had returned to Ridgway on Monday and were overwhelmed by the support from residents of the town, who had set up an assistance fund, created a website for neighbors to sign up to bring meals to the grieving family and opened their homes to relatives coming to support the family. The town is naming a bike trail after the slain boy, Scranton said.

"There's something amazing about it," he said. "Whatever they need, it's been given to them without question."

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