A Houston Woman Killed Her Boyfriend's 5-Year-Old Son. His Grieving Dad Asked, 'Why? He Loved You So Much.'

A Houston woman must spend up to 52 years behind bars after she took a plea deal and admitted to killing her then-boyfriend’s 5-year-old son.

Theresa Balboa avoided the death penalty by recently pleading guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Samuel Olson in 2021, KTRK reported.

Balboa will be eligible for parole after she serves a total of 26 years.

At the plea hearing, the child’s birth mother, Sarah Olson, said she didn’t believe the punishment was enough.

“Today, she admitted to what she did for 52 years and the chance of parole in 26," Olson said. "My son didn't even get six years of life, and she still gets a chance at one? This is not justice."

During a victim impact statement read in court, the grieving mother told her son’s convicted killer: “You took my life. I can never have closure because of the state the body was returned in. I could not hold him one last time.”

According to KTRK, on May 27, 2021, a massive search was launched for Samuel after Balboa claimed a police officer had come to her home and taken her boyfriend Dalton Olson’s son because of an ongoing custody dispute.

An investigation determined, however, that the child, who was last seen at his school on April 30, 2021, already had been missing for weeks and likely died days before he would have turned 6.

Acting on a tip, authorities located the child’s remains with Balboa in a motel room on June 1 that year in Jasper, Texas. The child’s body was stuffed in a plastic container that had been covered with a tarp and taped up.

An autopsy determined Samuel died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Local news station KRPC reported that after Balboa's arrest, the child's grieving father, Dalton Olson, said he would ask his girlfriend why she committed the murder. “He loved you so much," he said. "I do not understand what happened. Why did you, why did you do this?”