Body of four-year-old found in freezer after mother used daughter to smuggle sticky notes to police

Brandon Toseland, a suspect in the death of a child, appears in court, on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Photo / AP

The body of a four-year-old boy has been found in a Las Vegas freezer after the child's mother alerted the police by giving her daughter a cache of sticky notes to hand to her teacher.

In the notes, the woman, who has not been named, wrote that she was being held captive and feared for the fate of her son, who she had not been seen for months.

Police raided the house of Brandon Toseland, 35, where they found the body of Mason Dominguez wrapped in a bag and placed in a freezer.

Police found four-year-old Mason Dominguez's remains in a freezer at a northeast Las Vegas home. Photo / GoFundMe

He is believed to have been there for at least 10 weeks, police said.

Stephen Stubbs, the lawyer acting on behalf of the mother, said his client had been physically and emotionally abused for months.

The mother had met Toseland after he comforted her following the death of her husband. However, the relationship became abusive.

Toseland took away her car keys and phone as well as controlling her social media accounts.

"Mr Toseland's house was fortified with locks, window alarms, motion sensors, video cameras, gates... and the windows were covered," Stubbs said.

The mother was often handcuffed and frequently locked in a room, away from her seven-year-old daughter.

She devised an escape plan which entailed writing short sticky notes. Last week the mother, who was for once allowed to sleep with her daughter, handed over the notes which were then given to the school and the police.

"The family is very grateful to school officials and the law enforcement that rescued them," Stubbs said.

"Brandon Toseland is a monster. The mother and daughter victims are grateful that their captivity is over.

"They are traumatised by these horrifying events, and overwhelmed with grief for the loss of their four-year-old son and brother."

Toseland faces two counts of kidnapping and one charge of open murder in the death of Mason Dominguez.