Mother of missing California 7-month-old baby has convicted killer in family

As unsettling new details continue to emerge in the case of a missing 7-month-old boy from San Bernardino County, KTLA has confirmed the baby’s mother has a convicted murderer in the family.  

Authorities in both San Bernardino and Riverside counties launched an extensive search on Aug. 14 after Rebecca and Jake Haro said their little boy was kidnapped from a parking lot of a Yucaipa Big 5 Sporting Goods store after a stranger reportedly knocked Rebecca unconscious, leaving her with a black eye.  

An AMBER Alert was never issued because there were no suspect or vehicle descriptions and despite the sheriff’s departments’ deploying helicopters and K-9 teams in the search for Emmanuel, neither the child nor a suspect was located.  

In the days following the alleged kidnapping, new revelations emerged, including that the couple was being uncooperative with investigators from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, that video of Rebecca with a black eye on Aug. 3 may exist, that officials removed the couple’s 2-year-old from their custody and that Jake Haro has a previous felony conviction for willful child cruelty.  

Investigators have since turned their attention to the parents, using cadaver dogs during a search of the family’s Cabazon home and seizing Jake’s vehicle, along with cellphones and other electronics to preserve and process any potential evidence.  

It has now emerged that Rebecca’s brother, James Beushausen, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend in their Palm Springs apartment and staging it as a suicide, according to a source with knowledge of the family.  

The brutal killing, according to reporting from the Desert Sun, unfolded on March 15, 2017. 

Jaylynn Amanda Keith, 27, was found in the bathtub of the couple’s apartment with a single gunshot wound to the head.  

Beushausen, described by prosecutors during the trial as a “gun enthusiast,” struggled with alcoholism that led to rehab stints and relationship problems with Keith. The 27-year-old woman was reportedly at a breaking point with his drinking, telling family members a day prior to her murder that she was going to leave the then 35-year-old.  

Prosecutors also said Keith grew scared at one point when Beushausen took a pistol from his gun safe, prompting her to later hide the keys to the safe.  

Investigators alleged and the jury believed that on the night she was murdered, Beushausen knocked her out, put her in the bathtub and shot her in the head while using the shower curtain to shield himself from blood spatter.  

He then told a 911 dispatcher and responding emergency personnel that he had been sleeping when his girlfriend took her own life in the bathroom.  

Detectives found a head wound independent of the gunshot that suggested Keith had been assaulted and her death had been staged to look like suicide.  

As the investigation continued, Beushausen quit his job and moved to McAllen, Texas, where he was arrested on Oct. 18 in a shopping center parking lot by investigators from Palm Springs. 

Nearly a year later, in October 2018, he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for Keith’s murder.  

While Emmanuel remains missing nearly a week after the alleged kidnapping, Vincent Hughes, the Haros’ attorney, insists his clients are innocent, telling KTLA the couple has been pleading for information and updates and providing whatever information they have.  

“They don’t care what anyone thinks about them,” Hughes added. “They just want the child to be found. They want him home.”  

KTLA’s Sara Welch contributed to this report.