Vigil Held for Las Vegas Child Found Dead in Freezer, Identified as 4-Year-Old Mason Dominguez

The boy's mother told police she was not allowed to leave the house alone and endured months of sexual, physical and emotional abuse

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The day after a 4-year-old child's remains were found inside a garage freezer, friends and neighbors gathered for a candlelight vigil on Wednesday.

Amondo Allen and his sister Rehana Allen, who live in the Las Vegas neighborhood, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal they didn't know the boy but wanted to "pay respect."

On Tuesday, Las Vegas police arrested Brandon Toseland in connection with the death of 4-year-old Mason Dominguez.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of open murder, a general allegation of homicide in Nevada. Online records showed he was being held in Clark County Jail without bail.

At about 8:40 a.m. earlier that day, Mason's sister handed her elementary school teacher a note from her mother "claiming she was being held against her will," according to a press release from the Las Vegas Police Department.

The Clark County School District Police Department immediately notified authorities, who went to the residence and detained Toseland, who is not related to the children, officials said.

"The woman told detectives she had undergone abuse by Toseland, and she was not allowed to leave the house alone or enter the garage," police stated. She added that she had not seen her son since December and suspected he was dead.

"Upon entering the residence, detectives located the remains of a toddler inside a freezer in the garage," police said.

Brandon Toseland. Clark County Detention Center/ AP/Shutterstock

Mason's cause and manner of death is pending an autopsy by the Clark County Coroner's Office.

The names of the mother and daughter have not been released due to the nature of the crimes.

The unidentified woman's attorney, Stephen Stubbs, told the Associated Press that she endured months of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and that Toseland threatened to kill her children if she left him.

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After the woman and her two children moved into Toseland's two-story, three-bedroom house in March of last year, he began engaging in abusive, controlling behaviors such as covering windows and using video surveillance. He also would take the mother's cellphone, cut her ties to her family, and controlled her social media, Stubbs told the AP.

"There was never a time when her daughter was with her that she was not locked in a room, bound or handcuffed," Stubbs said of the mother. "There was never an opportunity to take her daughter and run."

Toseland is expected to appear in court on Monday, KLAS-TV reported.

If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.