Woman Charged in Death of Fifth-Grader

Dec. 29, 2010 — -- A family acquaintance has been charged with capital murder in the case of Jonathan Foster, a 12-year-old Texas boy last seen Christmas Eve before a burned body believed to be his was found Tuesday, according to local media reports.

Mona Yvette Nelson, 44, an acquaintance of Foster's family, was named a person of interest early Wednesday and questioned by police, ABC News station KTRK in Houston reported. The Harris County, Texas, District Attorney's Office later told KTRK that it had accepted capital murder charges against Nelson.

The Houston Chronicle, citing police, reported Nelson was arrested Wednesday morning at her home.

According to the Chronicle, Nelson's truck was seen on surveillance video from an office near where Texas authorities found the burned body five miles from Foster's home.

After an autopsy, that body was identified as the fifth-grader's, police told KTRK.

A Houston 911 emergency supervisor declined to discuss the case with ABCNews.com late Wednesday, referring all questions to the police media relations department. However, a voicemail message indicated the department was closed.

Earlier, police told ABCNews.com that the charred body had not been identified and there was some hope Foster would be found alive.

"The body ... is that of a child, but it was so badly burned that we can't determine the gender or identification," Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith told ABCNews.com. "The Medical Examiner's office has that unfortunate task to determine, and until that happens, we are treating these two incidents as separate cases.

"We are still running leads down on Jonathan Foster, and we'd very much like to find him alive," Smith said at the time.

Calls made to the Houston Medical Examiner's office were not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.