Cops accuse victim's roommate of lying

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BROCKTON, Mass., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The roommate of a Massachusetts woman found dead in a trash bin along with her son has been charged with misleading police Wednesday.

The office of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said Aparicio Velencia De La Cruz would be arraigned in Brockton District Court, The Boston Globe reported. He is charged with "misleading a police investigation," the office said.

Ecuadorian immigrant Maria Avelina Palaguachi-Cela and her son Brian, who would have had his third birthday in March, both died of blunt force trauma to the brain, the statement said.

A passerby found the woman's body in a bag in the bin around the corner from her Brockton home Sunday night. Investigators then found the boy in a separate bag, authorities said.

Palaguachi-Cela's common-law husband, Manuel Jesus Caguana, told the Globe he returned from a construction job in Virginia late Sunday after being unable to contact his wife since Thursday.

No one has been charged with the killings.