A Salt Lake City man is behind bars after allegedly going for a beer run as his wife's corpse lay in their home with their two young children. Carlos Mercado, 47, was charged with one count of failure to report a death and two counts of child abandonment.
On Jan. The coworker told police Mercado had a past with domestic violence. When officers arrived they found her lifeless body at the bottom of the stairs. Andrew Hercules said during a press conference. But according to police, Mercado smelled like alcohol and had trouble maintaining his balance during that initial interview, and there were multiple open alcohol containers in plain sight throughout the kitchen and front room.
Mercado allegedly said he and his wife had been drinking the day before and that he fell asleep around 4 or 5 a. When he woke up he thought his wife was just sleeping at the foot of the stairwell, and that she fell due to her having vertigo. Mercado told police he tried to rouse her awake, but couldn't so he covered her in a blanket, then caught a ride share so he could go out to get more beer from a gas station.
He admitted to leaving his one and four years old children alone inside the house. The children are now safe, Hercules said during the press conference. He was later charged with assault and domestic violence against Autumn Mercado in the presence of a child for an incident that occurred in , the TV station reports, but that case was dismissed.
In , was found guilty of assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child, according to KUTV. Autumn was a registered nurse and hoped to someday become a nurse practitioner, according to her obituary.
