Nearby: Missing Boy Case Ruled Murder-Suicide

By Wendy Parker 

Roswell Police said today they have found two bodies believed to be a missing 4-year-old boy and his father in a case that is being called a murder-suicide. 

At a news conference late this morning, police said the bodies were discovered in a wooded area behind the Aspen Pointe Apartments, a half-mile from a Roswell apartment unit where Jesus Dominguez, 4, went missing following an attack on his mother Thursday.

The boy's father, Carlos Alberto Dominguez, was suspected of abducting the boy and an Amber Alert was issued Thursday night.

But a search of a wooded area near the boy's apartment in the 200 block of Old Holcomb Bridge Way resulted in the discovery of the bodies around 10:15 this morning.

Roswell Police Officer Lisa Holland said the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office has been called to confirm their identities and determine the cause of the deaths.

She said the boy's mother, Sandra Rivera Ruiz, who was unresponsive when police arrived at her apartment at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, is in critical condition at North Fulton Hospital and remains unconscious. 

At the news conference, Roswell Police Chief Rusty Grant said the bodies were located "off the beaten path" but were found as part of an intensive search effort by the Child Abduction Recovery Team (CART), which included the Roswell Police Department, Roswell Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"It wasn't by chance, but part of our plan to search the woods," which are accessible by a series of trails connecting several apartment complexes in the area, Grant said. 

Holland said police were called to the apartment Thursday afternoon when Ruiz' sister became concerned after not hearing from her. Holland estimated that Ruiz had been attacked several hours before police arrived to discover her severely beaten, and the boy and his father missing.

Holland said that Carlos Alberto Dominguez, Ruiz and the boy had resided at the apartment for only a couple of months. Ruiz had two daughters who were at school when the attack occurred.