Philena Dees (LVMPD) and the home where she allegedly left her children unsupervised for days (Clark County District Court)
A 37-year-old mother of four in Nevada is facing a spate of child abuse charges after her 1-year-old son died in a filthy home without running water or air conditioning — which led authorities to discover that her 8-year-old daughter had been locked inside of her bedroom for over a year because the little girl had allegedly been sexually assaulted by the mother's former boyfriend.
A Clark County grand jury earlier this month indicted Philena Dees on seven counts of first-degree child abuse or neglect charges, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Dees' boyfriend, 37-year-old Juan De La Cruz, was arrested and charged last month with two counts of sexual assault against a child under age 14 and two counts of lewdness with a child under age 14, records show.
Juan De La Cruz (LVMPD)
According to a probable cause affidavit for Dees' arrest, officers with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department and paramedics with the fire department on the morning of May 1 responded to a call about an unresponsive child at a home located in the 10000 block of Mulvaney Circle in Las Vegas. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders determined that the child — later identified as 1-year-old Aurelius Dees — "was beyond help and had been deceased for a long period of time."
The toddler showed no signs of trauma, but was described by authorities as "emaciated" with "almost no body fat."
"Aurelius Dees' body appeared small and emaciated," police wrote. "His eyes were sunken in and his lips were purple. Lividity was pronounced as he appeared to have been deceased for some time."
When detectives arrived at the home, firefighters notified them that "this was a very suspicious scene," per the affidavit. There was no running water, garbage was strewn throughout the home, it was 90 degrees, and "every toilet in the residence was filled with fecal matter that emanated profoundly due to them not being able to flush," police wrote.
Two other children, ages 15 and three, were quickly located in the home. The 15-year-old boy in the home said his mother had been gone for several days and left him in charge, something which he said occurred regularly. She was supposed to come home the next day.
When an officer tried to clear everyone out of the home, the 15-year-old told them they had to go back for his 8-year-old sister, who was in her room. An officer went to the room and let the girl out, noting that her door had the knob flipped so the locking mechanism was on the outside.
The boy told investigators that the 8-year-old had been locked in her room for over a year, that he hadn't been to school in more than three years, and that his two youngest siblings were both born in the home and had never seen a doctor.
When Dees returned to Las Vegas she sat down for an interview with detectives who questioned her about her daughter being locked in her room. She allegedly told them that in January 2022 she caught her live-in boyfriend, De La Cruz, "sexually assaulting her daughter." She claimed to have seen him with his hands between the then-7-year-old little girl's legs. Afterward, she "decided to reverse the locks on her room and lock her in the room 'for her safety,'" Dees allegedly said. However, she admitted that she never reported the incident to police.
"When asked if she knew why it was inappropriate to allow a sex assault offender around her children and lock up a sexual assault victim in her room for over a year, she agreed it was wrong," the affidavit states. "Philena [Dees] stated that she allowed this to happen because [De La Cruz] was paying the bills."
In September 2022, De La Cruz allegedly confessed to sexually assaulting Dees' daughter and moved back to New Mexico.
According to a report from Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS-TV, the 8-year-old girl confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted by De La Cruz and told detectives that "her door was locked because her mother told her she 'kept getting in the way.'"
A cause of death for the 1-year-old has not yet been released by authorities.
Dees is being held in the Clark County Jail on $150,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 7.