Utah Parents Arrested After Second Child Dies Amid Allegations of Substance Use

A Utah couple has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse homicide after their three-month-old son was found dead in their home. Christina Joy Patton, 39, and Nicholas Patrick Romero, 40, were taken into custody Wednesday morning following a report of an unresponsive infant at their Bluffdale residence.

Police discovered the baby, identified as Atreyu Nick Romero, deceased. According to a police affidavit, the room where the infant had been sleeping contained empty alcohol bottles and drug paraphernalia. Investigators allege the couple had been consuming alcohol and using marijuana the night before the baby's death and fell asleep in the same bed with their son. The couple admitted to co-sleeping with the infant, who was swaddled and placed in a nursing pillow between them.

Patton told police that the baby began crying around 1 a.m., prompting her to remove him from the pillow and hold him. Romero reported waking up at 5:15 a.m. to find the baby unresponsive and not breathing. He initiated CPR and called 911. Officers noted pink-colored fluid or matter emanating from the infant's nose and mouth during the resuscitation attempt.

Romero stated he consumed four to five shots of whiskey and used marijuana the previous evening, refusing a breathalyzer test. Patton's breathalyzer test registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.011 percent. She also reported taking prescribed Adderall and buprenorphine earlier that day.

This is the second child to die in the couple's care within the last two years. In 2024, their daughter, Catherine Irene Romero, also three months old, was found deceased. The circumstances surrounding that death are pending and have not been publicly released. Both children were born approximately two years apart and died at the same age.

Bluffdale is located about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.