Later, Tom's ex-wife told police he had punished her 10-year-old son by punching him in the stomach. She said Tom DeMille had beaten her occasionally, bruised her kidneys, given her black eyes and split her lips.

But Jan Davies told police she and Tom had never done more than "cuss Ronnie and swat him on the butt."

For a while, DeMille was working for a stucco company in Washington County, but he hurt his back sometime that winter and ended up at home watching Ronnie.

Evidence gathered after the boy's death showed the relationship between Ronnie and his mother's boyfriend. "I don't think I could make it without you," Jan Davies wrote in a letter to Tom dated May 1 of that year. "I know a lot of the problem has been Ronnie and the pain you've been feeling. Ronnie loves you, even though he whines and cries, he loves you . . . if he was just a little older, I think he would understand more and try harder."

Police found another letter in a search warrant of the couple's home.

"Baby, I want you to be happy," Jan Davies again wrote to Tom DeMille. "I don't want all the problems we've been having. I don't want to split us all up. I don't want Ronnie to come between us. What can I do?"

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"I don't know what I'll do about Ronnie. The only thing I can think of is to send him away. I'm one hell of a mother." — Letter from Jan Davies to Tom DeMille from early May.

The week preceding Ronnie's death was a rough one for the small family of Jan and Ronnie Davies and Tom DeMille.

Jan called in sick to her job as a dispatcher for the St. George Police Department on Wednesday, May 1. And Ronnie went to a baby sitter that evening because Jan and Tom needed to talk. The 10-year-old baby sitter from the neighborhood, Mary Moyes, said he ate half of a peanut butter sandwich and played with his toys but then asked to lay down.

"He wanted a cool cloth for his head," the girl told investigators. "He said his head hurt."

Jan stayed home with Ronnie on Thursday, but early Friday morning took him to a new preschool, Play Technology, for several hours.

Ronnie's registration application to the preschool, written in Jan Davies' loopy hand, informed the staff her son liked music.

"I would like him to learn a few basic skills to prepare him for kindergarten," she wrote. "And for him to be able to interact with other children."

Staff at the day-care center later told police he hung out by himself that day. The group talked about the number 4, and Ronnie chose purple pens for coloring.