Father speaks out after 5-year-old daughter killed, mother and her boyfriend in custody

EL PASO, Texas (KRDO) -- The father of a 5-year-old girl who was killed in Colorado Springs is now working on bringing her body back to Texas.

On January 13, 2022, officers with the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to an "urgent request for assistance." Firefighters were attempting life-saving measures on a young girl, later identified as Emily Canales.

According to police, she succumbed to her injuries at a hospital. The El Paso County Coroner's Office ruled her death a homicide. The cause was listed as "multiple blunt force injuries."

Police eventually arrested her mother, 27-year-old Brianne Escamilla, and her mother's boyfriend, 26-year-old Matthew Urias.

According to police, Urias was taken into custody on June 29, 2022. With help from the U.S. Marshalls Service and the Littleton Police Department, Escamilla was taken into custody Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in Littleton.

In March, Emily's father Manuel Canales reached out to our sister station KVIA in El Paso Texas. At that time, he began an online fundraiser to try and bring her body back to Texas.

"I still can't wrap my head around that I'll never see my baby again," Canales told KVIA. "I still can't figure that, I still don't understand that."

Before her death, Canales told KVIA had been taking legal action to try and get Emily to live with him.

"We were just trying to get everything right in December," Canales said in a July 6, 2022 interview. "But in January they tell me it was an accident," Canales said. He covered his face with his hands, his voice cracking. "They said that it was an accident, that something had happened. Nobody would tell me what was going on."

Now, Canales said he hopes Escamilla and Urias "get what they deserve."