Updated: March 19, 2009 04:57 PM

ALICE - An Alice couple has been charged with injuring a three-year-old girl so badly she had to be HALO-flighted to a Corpus Christi hospital.

Makayla Carr, 3, remains at the hospital Thursday night. She is expected to recover, but the extent of her injuries came as a shock even to investigators.

After reviewing the facts so far, Alice Police Chief Daniel Bueno has a pretty good idea of what happened, and in light of the extensive abuse, said "I am sure we will send these people where they belong."

"This is one of the worst cases that we've seen," Bueno said.

Monday night, Makayla's parents took her to Christus Spohn Alice for a possible broken leg, but that was just the beginning.

According to Child Protective Services, the staff there found not only a spiral fracture to the left leg, but bite marks they believe came from a human. They also found bruising throughout her body in multiple stages, indicating it was not a one-time event, and they found finger-like marks to her jaw area and even bruising on both eyes.

The injuries were so bad that HALO flight was called to immediately take her to Driscoll Children's Hospital.

Days later, Makayla remains at the hospital.

"It's unbelievable as to what could have happened to this child," Bueno stated.

Bueno said less than 24 hours after she was brought in, her mother, Samantha Carr, and her live-in boyfriend, Luis Contreras, 34, were arrested on charges of injury to a child.

The two were picked up at their apartment complex on the South side of Alice and remain at the Jim Wells County Jail.

However, Bueno said the investigation is far from over.

They're still waiting to find out if the girl was sexually abused and whether anyone else had seen the injuries but didn't report them.

"If there's anyone out there that knew about this type of injuries that were occurring to this child and did not come forward, we will make an effort to make an arrest. They're just as much at fault as anybody else," Bueno stated.

When the child's mother, Samantha, was questioned by CPS, she told them that Makayla had been falling down a lot, but couldn't explain where the bite marks came from.

Also, KRIS 6 News learned she dealt with CPS before.

Last summer, while she was apparently asleep, her 4-year-old son wandered out of the apartment in his pajamas. A neighbor found him and called police. He is now in foster care in light of the new accusations.

Also, Samantha and Contreras remain in jail on a $100,000 bond.

A hearing is scheduled for March 31 to decide if the kids will be allowed to return home or remain with CPS. Bueno is also encouraging anyone who suspected that Makayla was being abused to call his department immediately.

Online Reporter: Bart Bedsole

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10038160&nav=menu192_11

Emphasis added by H4K Editor