2 Arrested In Death Of 3-year-old Tahlequah Boy

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) – Tahlequah police have arrested two people on first-degree murder complaints in the death of a 3-year-old boy.

Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King says the child was found dead Tuesday at The Stepping Stone Rooming House. King says the death was "a heinous crime" that rattled veteran police officers.

The Tahlequah Daily Press reports the medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death, but King says investigators believe the boy was strangled or suffocated.

Police arrested the boy’s mother, Jeri Danyce Sanders, and Buford Lee Ellison, with whom Sanders had been living. Both are jailed on murder complaints and are due in court Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Sanders or Ellison had attorneys.