3 Charged In Death, Cremation Of Toddler -- Boy's Mother Accused Of Criminal Assistance

Felony charges were filed this morning against three people accused of burning a 14-month-old baby's remains - first in a park, then in a fireplace - to cover up his death.

Charged with first-degree manslaughter in the October death of Christopher Hutton was 24-year-old Stanley Dion Red, boyfriend of the toddler's mother. Red's sister, 19-year-old Cynthia Red, and Laura Mjelde, the mother, were charged with rendering criminal assistance. Mjelde, 22, was also charged with false reporting.

Authorities said the three lied to relatives who asked about the baby and later to police, who became involved when an aunt reported the child missing.

"It is a case that has shocked us because of the tragic end to Christopher's short life and the outrageous conduct of the adults who burned his body to keep their conduct a secret," King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said at a news conference this morning.

In documents filed with the charges, prosecutors say Mjelde left the baby and his 4-year-old brother in the care of Stanley Red, who has an extensive criminal history, while she went out of state for a few days on an unexplained trip.

After returning to her Renton apartment, Red arrived with the 4-year-old but without Christopher. Prosecutors said Red at first was evasive, then told Mjelde that Christopher had drowned in a bathtub while he made two trips to buy beer at two stores.

Without a body to examine, authorities have no way of knowing whether Red is telling the truth. A neighbor reported that she saw the baby days before he disappeared and thought he looked hurt and lethargic. But in the absence of a body, Maleng said he could only file a charge of manslaughter, not murder, against Red.

In documents filed with the charges, prosecutors described this series of events:

Red wrapped the body in plastic and put it in the trunk of a car, later convincing a distraught Mjelde not to call police or her older son might be taken from her as well by Child Protective Services, which had investigated Mjelde in the past.

She agreed to the cover-up. Prosecutors said Stanley Red at first wanted to bury the body, but Mjelde wanted to cremate it so she could keep the ashes. After enlisting the help of Cynthia Red, the three drove to a White Center park, put the body in a metal pail, doused it with gasoline and set it afire.

Prosecutors said Cynthia Red later told them the three sat at the park for several hours, drinking brandy while the body burned.

She said her brother warned "us all not to say anything and that if we keep our mouths shut and be quiet, that everything would be all right." She said that throughout the course of the evening, "she never saw Mjelde cry."

Mjelde later told authorities they tried cremating the body at two different parks that night and finally finished the cremation in Cynthia Red's fireplace.

In his account, Stanley Red told police he left the two boys alone with a third child while he went to a store to buy beer. He drank one beer on the way back, the other when he got home, and did not check on the baby before leaving again for a second store to buy more beer.

By the time he did check on Christopher, he said, the boy was face down in the bathtub, dead.

All charges filed against the three in the first degree. If convicted of the manslaughter charge, Stanley Red - already in prison on an unrelated drug offense - could spend up to 13 years and two months in prison. His sister was to be arrested today. If she's convicted, she faces up to a year in prison.

Mjelde, who's expecting another child in the spring, could spend up to a year and two months in prison. Police arrested her this morning.

News of her baby's death stunned those who knew her.

"It just blows me away," said Helen Anthony, who once baby-sat the two boys when she lived at an apartment a few miles north of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, just off Pacific Highway South.

Anthony described Mjelde as a well-intentioned mother who cared about her children, but her "life got away from her."

According to a statement last week by the agency that supervises CPS, Mjelde had a connection to the criminal and drug culture. But officials said there never was a pattern of incidents significant enough to remove the children.

Mjelde's 4-year-old son has since been placed in a foster home.

In an interview, Mjelde said she became a prostitute when she had to support herself at 13. And she confided to Anthony that she had been on her own since she was 11 or 12. From that point she "didn't have a mother," Anthony said.

"I do think she did the best she could. I didn't think she was capable of this."

For Mjelde, the charges were not unexpected and the prospects of jail come almost as a relief.

"There's nothing left," she said in a recent interview. "My kids are gone. I hope my baby didn't suffer."

Nancy Bartley's phone message number is 206-515-5039. Her e-mail address is: nbartley@seattletimes.com

Steve Miletich's phone message number is 206-464-3302. His e-mail address is: smiletich@seattletimes.com