ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Albuquerque parents who admitted to leaving their daughter in a bathtub before she died and then burying her, are in more trouble. Monique Romero and David Zuber are back behind bars. According to police, the death of their one-year-old daughter, Anastazia, did not inspire Romero or Zuber to turn their lives around.

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In interview tapes, Zuber and Romero zig-zag their way through a convoluted confession trying to explain to officers with the Albuquerque Police Department how their one-year-old daughter ended up face down and blue in their bathtub. Romero claims she left Anastazia and her two-year-old sister in the bathtub to go look for jobs on her cell phone.

Later telling the police neither she nor Zuber could call 911 that December 2018 night because they couldn’t find her phone. Zuber said he tried to revive his daughter but once realizing she was gone, he told police where he buried her in the backyard. “I’m just so scared and I don’t want child abuse against me,” Zuber said crying.

Both parents are awaiting trial for child abuse resulting in death but were released by Judge
Charles Brown, who did not run for reelection last year. “So I’m going to… order the defendant released on his own recognizance,” Brown said.

According to law enforcement, neither parent managed to stay out of trouble for long. Zuber is now facing federal drug charges. Court paperwork shows he was arrested by the DEA for trying to sell 50 grams of meth last October. He is still in federal custody.

Meanwhile, Romero is back behind bars too. Despite still being married to Zuber, court documents show she was engaged to another man when he tried to break it off earlier this month. Police say Romero stabbed him in the chest with a knife possibly causing his lung to collapse.

Romero originally only had to right to visit her surviving two children but at some point, CYFD gave Romero custody of her young daughter once again. When Judge Brett Loveless was sending Romero back to jail after the alleged stabbing he wrote “most concerning of the court is that Romero was living in a place where drug use was happening and weapons were present, as was her now five-year-old daughter.”

Judge Loveless also said it is possible Romero stabbed her then-fiancee in self-defense because she was the victim of abuse. However, he still ruled she is a danger. No trial date has been set for Romero but Zuber’s trial is set for March.

KRQE News 13 reached out to CYFD to find out why Romero regained custody of her daughter and what kind of supervision she was under. They did not answer our questions only saying their goal is always to reunite children with their biological parents.