METAIRIE, La. (AP) — A man faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of his girlfriend, who was found bludgeoned in her suburban New Orleans apartment over the weekend, officials said Monday.

Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas, 43, was arrested early Monday with his three children in a trailer park in Katy, Texas, Jefferson Parish sheriff’s Col. John Fortunato said.

“Unless he fights extradition to Jefferson Parish, he will be returned here and face a second-degree murder charge” in the death of Heidi Monroy, 24, Fortunato said.

Fortunato said Monterroso-Navas’ three children were with him at the time of his arrest and are safe. Monroy was the mother of the youngest, age 2.

Around 3:35 a.m. Sunday, Monroy’s two other children, ages 5 and 8, asked neighbors for help, Fortunato said. Deputies found the woman unconscious with head wounds and she died in her Metairie apartment, Sheriff Newell Normand said.

An autopsy Monday confirmed that Monroy had been bludgeoned, Fortunato said. Investigators do not know what she was hit with, he said.

Fortunato said Texas authorities tracked down Monterroso-Navas, a Honduran living in Metairie, after a woman reported that his 12-year-old daughter had called her daughter, who was in Katy.

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