Frustration over legal status may have sparked Van Nuys child drowning, fiancé says
VAN NUYS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- New details were revealed in the tragic death of a 7-year-old girl in Van Nuys on Friday. Eyewitness News spoke with the suspect's fiancé, who is still in shock and grieving.
Police identified the child's mother, 37-year-old Graciela Castellanos, as the primary suspect in the girl's death. She's accused of drowning her own daughter.
A neighbor told ABC7 she heard the young child screaming, "Mommy, please no. Mommy, please no."
Soon after, Los Angeles police and paramedics arrived to the apartment in the 6800 block of Sepulveda Boulevard around 5:40 p.m. Friday.
First responders found the child unresponsive in the bathtub. She was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Castellanos was arrested and booked into jail. Her bail was set at $2 million.
Her fiancé, who asked that his identity be concealed, spoke to Eyewitness News Reporter Leo Stallworth.
"First, I want to say that my wife was an almost perfect mom. She never told a bad word, yelled at the girl, didn't hit her," he said, in Spanish. "She was the sweetest mom in the world."
The fiancé said he arrived home around 7 p.m. -- after everything had already happened and when the police were already upstairs. He claims Castellanos suffers with mental and emotional health issues, causing her to, at times, scream and isolate herself until she calms down. The fiancé says she was never violent during the episodes.
"I never got to the apartment and saw the girl, or her," he said. "I got home after all of it happened. This happened at 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. and I got home at almost 7 on the dot."
He says they were set to get married in about two months and afterward, he planned to adopt Castellanos' 7-year-old daughter. That is, until the worst happened.
The fiancé told Eyewitness News he believes what triggered Castellanos to allegedly drown her daughter was a deep depression after she found out she might not become a legal resident. He added that he thinks she was the sweetest person in the world and never harmed her daughter -- allegedly, until now.
LAPD did not release further details about what exactly led up to the child's death. The investigation is ongoing.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Mother accused of drowning 7-year-old daughter in Van Nuys, LAPD says
