Mom Arrested After Daughter, 5, Spends Final Night Alive Locked in 5x5-Foot Box

A young girl is dead and both of her parents may be headed to jail -- with at least one of them allegedly expressing that's exactly where they belong.

It's been nearly four months since Izabella Loving, 5, was found dead in her family's Cold Springs, Nevada home. Her father, Nicholas Loving, 35, was charged with child abuse causing substantial bodily harm just days later. He's being held on a $1 million cash bond.

Her mother, Andrea Loving, was not arrested at the time but is reported to have told police, "I should go to jail for not helping her and Nick should go to jail for killing her," per the arrest affidavit.

On Monday, Andrea was ultimately arrested and now faces the same charge. Her bail has not been set.

The Washoe County District Attorney's office said there may be more charges coming, including possible murder or manslaughter charges, as they are still awaiting the autopsy results, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.

Police were called to the family's home at 7:10 a.m. on April 3, where first responders pronounced Izabella dead on the scene after attempting life saving measures. She was unresponsive when they arrived. It was later alleged the parents had first been alerted about her state five hours prior by another of their children.

In their documentation, police reported finding the young girl in an upstairs bedroom lying next to a "tiny mattress with no bed frame."

In examining the girl's body, first responders took immediate notice that there were "a lot of signs of trauma," per a probable cause affidavit seen by NBC affiliate KRNV. She was described as having oral trauma, bruising on her face, pelvis, hips, inside of her biceps, and her genitals, per the files.

First responders also detailed multiple cuts, scrapes, and scabs on her arms, legs, torse, and face, including a black eye and a gash over her other eye, per CNY Central. The documents specify, as an example of the extent of her notable injuries, that she was suffering more than 10 clearly visible injuries on her face alone.

According to a report from April by ABC affiliate KOLO, both parents agreed to voluntarily talk to investigators, where they provided shifting stories of what had happened the night of Izabella's death until finally they reached what might be the truth.

According to their final narrative, Nicholas allegedly gave Izabella a bath before putting her to bed. He told police he'd taken her temperature that night, as she'd been coughing up blood and mucus for 10 days at that point. It registered 96 or 97 degrees, he said, adding that "she seemed fine."

She was then placed inside a 5x5-foot box with a lock on the outside, per the arrest affidavit seen by KOLO. "Nicholas admitted that they would sometimes keep Izabella in a small make-shift cubby," the affidavit reads. "He admitted having locked her inside on one occasion [as punishment] but that Andrea mostly put Izabella inside of it."

The report further details that investigators did find this box in the girl's room, which she shared with her two sisters. Police noted that while the sisters each had queen-size beds in the room, Izabella appeared to only have a crib-size mattress on the floor.

According to the parents, they were awakened in the middle of the night by one of their daughters telling them that Izabella was vomiting. Andrea said she found Izabella deceased inside the "make-shift cubby," but that Nicholas would not then allow her to call 911.

They did not call until 7 a.m., initially claiming that this is when they found her unresponsive. Finally, they allegedly admitted that they'd found her unresponsive at 2 a.m. -- they just didn't call 911 until 7 a.m.

The report states that the couple gave conflicting reports about this failure to call authorities for five hours, blaming one another. They also blamed one another for abusing the 5-year-old.

Andrea said that Nicholas wanted to pack their three other kids and "run," burying the body in the backyard and making their way to his parents in Virginia -- or just leave the body and flee. She said she couldn't do that, per the report, because Izabella's body would rot.

The couple told authorities they were afraid because they'd been recently investigated by Child Protective Services (CPS) and were worried about the bruises evident on Izabella's body, according to the Gazette Journal.

"Ultimately, they decided to remove Izabella from the cubby, drag her and her bed across the room and stage it there," per the affidavit. "Go with the story of them finding her at around 7 a.m. and they came up with explanations of her injuries, being that she fell multiple times or was hit with toys."

At one point, notes the Gazette Journal, Nicholas had claimed her injuries were because she'd fallen out of their truck and SUV on separate occasions and been hit in the head with a baseball bat. He said they were planning to take her to a specialist to find out why she was falling so much, per the police report.

Nicholas further told investigators that he'd never hit, spanked, shoved, or kicked Izabella, unable to explain many of her injuries. He said that he worked long hours and was rarely home. He blamed abrasions on his hands and fingers on work, as well.

In her interview with detectives, Andrea told police she'd witnessed Nicholas kick their daughter in the genitals and drag her by the collar -- or a hooded sweatshirt -- up the stairs. Police also interviewed the couple's daughters, as detailed by CNY Central, who said they were told to go downstairs, and that their father had said Izabella died and they might be going on a trip.