Parents Mila Petrov and Carlos Beltran May Get the Death Penalty if Found Guilty in the Death of Their Daughter, Melanie Beltran
In Skokie, Illinois, prosecutors filed a petition of intent to seek the death penalty against Mila Petrov, 30, and Carlos Beltran, 31. They have been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the death of their daughter, Melanie Beltran.
Police say that the five-year-old girl was routinely tied up by her parents, burned with cigarettes, and forced to eat hot peppers and drink from the toilet. She was killed last March after her mom slammed her head against the wall after the girl threw up her dinner. 
Instead of calling 911 when Melanie became unresponsive, Petrov Petrov called her common-law husband and cleaned the house. The girl died the next day in the hospital.
An autopsy showed that Melanie’s death was caused by child abuse and “failure to thrive due to parental neglect.”
Petrov and Beltran have seven other children, ages 10 to a baby born on the day Melanie died. The kids were removed from the home by family services the day Petrov was arrested.
Both parents have pleaded not guilty and are in jail.
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August 23rd, 2007 at 6:16 am
Just when I think that it can’t get any worse. Stories like this come up. I feel so sick to my stomach right now! My child is the same age. When she gets sick, all I want to do is make her better! WTF was going through this monsters head when she was slamming that baby’s head against the wall? And they have 7 OTHER children?? The death penalty is too good for them. They tortured this baby during her short life. For what? A message needs to be sent that we will not tolerate this. Give them the death penalty and put them in the EXPRESS lane. Just looking a their pictures on here make me want to puke my guts out. I am so sad and sickened. I just don’t know how things like this get to be this bad. Is anyone paying attention? Sometimes it is time to stop “minding your own business.” Pay attention people. This has got to stop! I could just cry right now.
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:31 am
I hope their asses get thrown under the jail! They deserve life in prison so someone can beat on them! Damn cowards! How can you beat on an innocent child? What is wrong with them? If you don’t want children…keep your legs closed and if not…get on birth control! She’s such a stupid bitch! I hope she and her husband get beat up every day in prison for the rest of their lives. The death penalty would be too easy here. They need to suffer! My prayers go out to those children involved.
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 am
ok, after looking at that mothers horrible face, I think I’m going to have nightmares now!! Look up “pure evil” in the dictionary and I’m sure you’ll see that same picture of her! She’s scarey looking!!! This poor child, the image of her hitting against the wall keeps replaying in my head, how can someone be so cruel? I hope both of them know how to fight, because their going to have to fight off those in prison who are going to slam their heads against the wall as well!
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 am
and he looks like a pure pussy! once in prison, he looks like he may find out he’s gay after all and “come out”! It’s obvious mom ruled the house, you can tell by looking at their pics, I’m just wondering, since they were a”common law” marriage (which I thought most states had done away with common law marriages), did they “commonly” share in the abuse of all of the kids (was he the father to all of these kids?)? She looks like the type of fat ass bitch (please excuse my french, couldn’t think of any other way to put it! lol) that would slam a kid against the wall, then look at the kid while the kid is laying there and says “thats what you get, i told you not to mess with momma”, then waddles herself over to the fridge, grabs another can of whatever out of the fridge as well as a bag of chips, then goes and sits down on the couch to turn on her soaps, while casually calling her “husband” and stating she’s not sure but the kid ain’t moving, the whole time being nonchalant about everything. It says she cleaned up the house, she was probably cleaning up the blood as well as “straightening” up the mess around the filthy house so when authorities showed up they wouldn’t think she was a lazy mother! LOL I also wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have the other kids doing the work around the house for her, etc, while she sat on her fat ass all day. sorry, got carried away, but this is the image I get from looking at their pics, with dad being a “yes honey” kind of guy.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:22 am
OMG!! What makes these people think that this is okay??? I think the punishment should fit the crime. Actually – the mother already looks like someone bashed her face into a wall. F*cking bitch from Hell!!!!
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 am
I’m no beauty queen myself, but I HAVE to say this … Someone had sex with that woman? EIGHT TIMES????
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 am
Okay, now that I can FINALLY pull myself together after reading this shit! I must way-in…..WTF???? Again, how in God’s name does someone like this have eight children? How does ANYONE make an innocent child drink from a toilet, burn them w/cigarettes and beat their head against a wall for throwing up?
I only have 1 child (4 year old) and if I hadn’t waited so long to have children, I probably would have had a couple more. Even though I could take care of a couple more children, I know for a fact that I couldn’t give 8 children the individual attention they need while working full-time, give them everything they need and DESERVE, send them ALL to college, buy them ALL cars, etc. What gives the people the freaking right to force these poor helpless children to grow up un-loved, abused and w/out ANYTHING??? It’s obvious she doesn’t love or want these children, so why in the hell does she keep having them?
I just want to beat her ass so bad right now!!!
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
The death penalty isn’t enough for these sick, depraved individuals. Just look at the picture of that mother; that look on her face is one of total evil. If I had to sit on the jury and convict that woman on looks alone I could do it. I hope that the general prison population gets wind of what these people did and takes care of them for us. Save us the tax dollars that it costs to house, feed, and then execute them.
BTW, *I* would eventually like to have eight children; I always wanted a large family and always pictured myself with one. I’m just taking a break for a few years because the four I have are running me ragged right now!
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Fourkidzmom, I am in AWE of women with more than two children. The ones who, like you, take care of ALL their kids, love them and treat them the way they’re supposed to be. No matter how much we love our kids, they can get on our nerves and it takes a special kind of strength (and a big, big heart) to do what moms of many do!
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Thanks, Ihavekidstoo, it is good to hear someone say that!
It is nice to hear someone say that for a change! You wouldn’t believe the dirty looks and nasty comments I sometimes get when I am out and about with all four of them. They are all under six and my four-year-old is autistic and has some kind of odd behaviors that get me stared at; it is hard sometimes. People also assume that because I have four small children that we must be on WIC or welfare, when that is not the case. We are military and my dh is an E-6 and we have ALWAYS qualified for WIC since becoming parents six years ago but I have never gotten it because we really do not *need* it. We can afford to feed our children without government help. Of course, if we fell on hard times I WOULD get WIC, I’m not going to let anybody starve, but since we are doing fine I choose not to use it. Sometimes I have others give me flack for NOT using it, hey, you qualify, why don’t you take advantage of it? So I guess you just can’t win either way! If you get WIC, people criticize you and tell you to learn to keep your legs shut if you cannot afford to feed your kids yourself, and if don’t get WIC people act like you are just being a stuck-up snot and you are “too good”, and that’s why you don’t get it @@. You just CANNOT win with people!
I love my kids. I haven’t always been the perfect mom, I have had some moments that I would be embarrassed to talk about here and there are a million close calls, and I have done a lot of things that I said I would NEVER do, but I just try and learn from things the best I can.
Truth be known, I don’t even know why I come to this site. I can’t explain it, it is like a train-wreck that you cannot look away from. What could be more morbid than reading about parents who do horrible things to their kids like this woman in the story above did? Yet I come and I read; dh says probably to remind myself that in spite of all my mistakes I am NOT a bad mother, that while I may screw up from time to time I have enough common sense and compassion to know that some things are just plain WRONG and SICK to do to any human being, let alone your own child. I can’t get over that there are enough people out there who do things like this to keep a blog active or to keep the anchors of the six o’ clock news in business, can you?
I don’t think this is even ABOUT the number of kids this woman had; she should never have even had ONE if she has it in her to do something like this. I know we see stories on this site about people with an endless stream of children that do not have it together, but most big families are NOT this way! If you go lurk over at Babycenter on the Large Families board you will see lots of loving mothers with six, seven, eight, even one with fourteen children (I have to wonder how she even has time to POST on a forum on the Internet).
Big families certainly aren’t for everyone but it CAN be done!
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
fourkidsmom, I can understand where your coming from with the remarks people make, etc. Although I don’t have but only two children, there is a 13 year age difference between my two children, and people are constantly remarking on that, of course, I tell them it’s not any different then someone who has 4 kids between the ages of 3 and 13, which no one seems is “strange” but yet just because I have two that are that far apart in age, doens’t mean there’s a problem with that. In fact, the way I see it, unlike the person with 4 children (no offense to you, but this is the true example I say to people LOL) who doesn’t quite get to spend as much time with each child as they might like to, I have been fortunate to be able to focus more on each child during crucial times in their lives…and I have been able to focus more on their achievements, spending time with them individually, etc. I don’t know if that made sense here, saying it in person sounds better then trying to type it LOL I commend you on your efforts as a mother of 4 little ones, and I wish you all the best! No matter how many children we have, we all love our children, no matter their ages!
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I totally admire women who have the financial means to support 8 children and the ability to stay home and take care of 8 children. Personally, I don’t have either, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love to have that many children. My point was, it just makes me sick that these types of individuals who (by the looks of them) probably can’t afford to support 8 children, turn around and abuse them, even murder them and continue to have more. I guess the upside to this story (if there truly is one) is that as long as she’s in prison, she won’t be able to have any more children.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I cry everytime i read the stories on here. As a 26 yr old, I was lucky enough to have one child, child, but had to have a hysterctomy at the age of 21, and i can not believe these people. 7 children, what i would give just to have one more, yet people like this take their children for granted and thank of them as a burden. The woman should of shut her legs ALONG time ago. I often wonder where these people live at, are there not any neighbors who see these children, i mean I just don’t understan it.I wish i could give all these children hugs and kisses and tell them how speical they are, they are in my prayers
August 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I can just imagine what poor Melanie was thinking as this woman leaned over her with nothing but hate all across her face, screaming and hitting and burning and tying her up. Your mother is suppose to love you and nurture you and since that little girl was two years old they can trace the scars and burns and marks on her body. I can’t believe these people had never been on the “radar” before Melanie died! I’m sorry, but I’ve lived in apartments before. How could you not hear 7 kids running around?!? Or a woman screaming and threatening her family? How do you not hear children crying through the walls? I knew my neighbors. Every one of them. I knew the lady downstairs use to scream and often hit her husband. I even called the cops on them because they had two sons living there. Oh yeah, I’m one of those neighbors.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Power to you Shel, it is a good thing to be one of those neighbors! It can save people’s lives!
August 24th, 2007 at 11:17 am
I’ve wondered if she abused any of the other kids, or if this child was singled out for some reason? I haven’t really done much research on this case, so does anyone know?
August 24th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I’m on the fence about the death penalty but, these two make me a supporter for this case.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:11 am
They BOTH pleaded NOT GUILTY??? Are they saying the tooth fairy beat their daughter to death? I hope they both get the death penalty.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:26 am
they’ll probably both try to say it was one or two of their other kids who abused her, or maybe their going to plead insanity, that the voices in their heads told them to do it and they shouldn’t be held responsible for those voices actions! LOLOLOL Again, mom looks like the devil himself, so I’m sure they will plead some kind of mental something! LOL
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Seven other children? Gave birth the day she killed one? Why are these people letting themselves get knocked up? They obviously resent and hate the children they did have. Bitch needs her tubes tied, and perhaps her vadge cauterized shut. They’re called condoms, dumbasses.
October 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Back in Minnesota, my step-cousin Julia accidentally knocked her cousin Petunia’s head against a wall while playing around and immediately apologized to her for doing so, but a woman deliberately slamming Melanie’s head against the wall…nice (sarcasm!). Mila Petrov does not love her kids at all! She only loves herself! As for Mila’s mugshot, her face just screams, “I DON’T CARE!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!” Just what in the right mind was that fat slag thinking? As for poor Melanie, I hope she rests in peace. If I were that neighbor’s daughter, then I would’ve invaded the Beltran’s house to strangle Mila, and then rescue Melanie from Mila’s care!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I am with Susan on this one. This bitch looks like something I have nightmares about. Maybe Stephen King could use her for his next movie.
That poor child, which didn’t ask to be here, must have lived through absolute hell for the extent of her short, sad life. There are so many people who would love to have children and she winds up with this monster for a “mother”. I hope they both get the death penalty. Poor little thing didn’t have a chance.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Actually I know these people or should I say monsters, she is a gypsy women who has seven kids, and know her kids are staying with relatives. I go out with her second cousin, bato P. Which surpises me.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
ROCKY1988, is it true that Mila was a gypsy woman? Just asking.
I don’t like it when people go to this site just to write down stuff like “Hey, I know this person, blah blah blah”. Trust me, I would really be disgusted if I ever knew a person online, and especially on this site. That’s not something I’d ever brag about.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I haven’t read any of the comments yet, but this story just makes me want to cry. That poor baby.
And WTF… is it just me, or does that woman look like a friggin’ zombie? The walking dead. Just… ew.