Aurora police are searching for a 2-year-old child with third-degree burns from a hot iron on his chest.
“It is not looking good,” Ciarra Ann Elem, 21, wrote about the wound in a letter to her boyfriend, who is at the Arapahoe County Jail.
Authorities opened and read the letter and then contacted Denver detectives Friday, said Shannon Lucy, Aurora police spokeswoman. Denver then contacted Aurora police. The boy had still not been found by Saturday morning, Det. Dave Hellmer said.
In the letter postmarked May 14, Elem tells her boyfriend that she did not take the boy to the hospital because she was afraid officials would take the child away from her, Lucy said.
The Aurora Police Department’s Crimes Against Children’s Unit has classified the toddler as an endangered child and is searching for him, she said.
Elem wrote in the letter that she was attempting to treat the child herself. But she added that it was not going well.
Detectives in Denver and Aurora have checked numerous addresses while trying to find the mother and child, but have not found them, Lucy said.
The last time anyone saw them was a few days ago, she said.
An Aurora detective spoke Friday with Elem, who was using a borrowed cell phone. The detective urged her to have a relative or friend take the child to a hospital for treatment, but she refused.
Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Sahfonie or Ciarra Elem is asked to contact Det. Hellmer at 303-489-6246.
Elem currently is on probation for multiple convictions, including trespassing to commit a felony and marijuana possession, according to Denver County Court and Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
In August she also was charged with assault, but the disposition of that case was unclear, based on CBI records.
In August of 2005, she served a day in jail for driving without a license and for violating a child restraint law, according to Denver County Court records.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
