A missing 8-month-old girl and 4-year-old boy were turned over to authorities unharmed late Wednesday night, just hours after their 3-year-old sibling was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Dallas police canceled an Amber Alert for the two children at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when the boy and girl, 8-month-old Chrislynn Garcia and 4-year-old Frank Cavello, were brought to the Central Patrol Division police station by relatives.
Investigators said Chrislynn Garcia and Frank Cavello, who were unharmed, had been dropped off at home of relatives, who then brought them to the police station.
Police said 24-year-old Christopher Anthony Garcia, the girl's father and her mother's boyfriend, took the children from the 7400 block of Chaucer Place some time after his daughter's 3-year-old half-brother, Josiah, died at a local hospital.
Garcia is charged with injury to a child in the fatal beating of the boy.
"We are awaiting the outcome of the medical examiner's report before any other charges may be entered into," Lt. Robert Hinton said.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner ruled the child's death a homicide Thursday afternoon and said the boy died from multiple blunt force injuries.
Chrislynn Garcia, Frank Cavello and two siblings are in foster care while investigators look into the family's background.
"Well, definitely the family dynamics are something that we have to look into going forward in this investigation -- try to figure out how these people have related to each other and what's been going on with these children and if there's been a pattern of maltreatment," said Marissa Gonzales, of Child Protective Services.
CPS said it investigated two incidents involving the family last year but dismissed both of them.
Family members told NBC 5 they are preparing to bury Josiah but are in too much grief to talk.
Garcia was tracked down and taken into custody by the Dallas Police Department late Wednesday night after he jumped from a second-story apartment window in South Dallas.
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Officers fired at him because they thought he was armed. Garcia was not injured, and no gun was found.
Early Thursday morning, Garcia was charged with injury to a child with intent to cause serious bodily injury.
He is being held at the Dallas County Jail on $1 million bond.
Garcia was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of possession of marijuana and criminal mischief.
NBC 5's Amanda Guerra, Amanda Fitzpatrick, Lita Beck and Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
