A Pasco man accused of killing his 8-year-old son and then leaving his body in a shallow grave is back in the Tri-Cities to face a host of charges.
Edgar S. Casian-Garcia, 35, was booked into the Franklin County jail Thursday afternoon to face eight counts, including aggravated first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree child rape and five counts of first-degree assault of a child.
The count of aggravated first-degree murder means he would face a mandatory life sentence in prison, if he's convicted of it.
He is being held in lieu of $5 million bail.
Casian-Garcia and his girlfriend, Araceli Medina, 39, were caught in Mexico in March with five children who were believed to still be in danger.
The couple are accused of a horrifying pattern abuse of Edgar Casian, 8, and his two young sisters, where they held their heads underwater, cut them with razor blades and poured burning water on one of them.
Police started searching for the 8-year-old, when Casian's two sisters, 9 and 3 at the time, showed up in Tijuana, Mexico. The older girl was unable to walk, eat or use the restroom without help.
But they weren't able to find Casian until his body was discovered in a field near South Finley Road and Highway 397 in February 2022.
A warrant was issued for the couple in June 2021 when charges were filed.
The couple was on the U.S. Marshals most wanted list.
As of 4 p.m., only Casian-Garcia has been booked into the jail. Medina is facing the same charges, and is also being extradited from Mexico. It's not clear when she will be returned to the Tri-Cities.
Casian's mother Maria Quintero told the Herald in June 2021 that she called police and Washington state Child Protective Services several times after her ex-boyfriend took custody of their son and two daughters.
The three children had spent most of their lives with their paternal grandmother, according to court documents. Casian-Garcia and Medina took custody of them in May 2020.
They soon stopped attending online classes. A Barbara McClintock Elementary School teacher called CPS to report that she was being lied to regarding where they were.
They were last seen when a Pasco police officer responded to a no-contact order violation and vandalism complaint at their Road 68 apartment. The children can be seen in the body camera footage.
Casian-Garcia reported to the school district that the children had moved to Vancouver, Wash., in September 2020, and then the next month the couple moved in a Chapel Hill Boulevard apartment.
While they were living together, the couple would tie up the children and leave them in the bathroom. They frequently abused the children.
During one of those instances, Casian-Garcia and Medina tied up the child, laid him in the shower and put a surgical mask over his face. They next placed the showerhead at the mask, turned it on and left, according to court documents.
When they returned, Casian was dead.
A couple days later, Casian-Garcia and Medina took the girls to Mexico and left them by the side of the road and then returned to Pasco.
After the girls showed up in Mexico, police went to Casian-Garcia and Medina's apartment and were told that the children no longer lived with them and had been taken by Child Protective Services.
But state officials said they had never taken the children from the apartment.
The girls have since been returned to the United States.
