The stepmother of missing Colorado 11-year-old Gannon Stauch has been arrested on murder charges in the boy’s presumed death, authorities said at a Monday press conference.

Letecia “Tecia” Stauch was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is being held there without bond. She will eventually be extradited back to Colorado Springs.

She faces charges of murder in the first degree of a child under 12; child abuse resulting in death; tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with physical evidence, El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said in a press conference on Monday.

View photos Letecia Stauch More

“We do not believe Gannon is alive,” El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mitch Mahalko stated at the press conference, also noting that details of what led to Leticia Stauch’s arrest will not be released in deference to the ongoing investigation.

“This case has become very personal and will forever remain in our hearts,” he added.

Though authorities have not yet recovered Gannon’s body, FBI Special Agent Dean Philips said, “At this point, all the evidence points to [Gannon’s] disappearance being related to foul play … and we have no evidence of an [ongoing] threat to the community.”

From early on, public suspicion swirled around Stauch after a neighbor’s video surveillance surfaced that seemed to contradict what she told the police.

View photos Letecia Stauch More

In an exclusive statement to Fox Denver 31, Stauch thanked those looking for her stepson, and begged him to come home — and also appeared to imply that the boy may have been abducted.

“I encourage you to think of any suspicious cars that may have been in the area watching a few days prior and keep praying for G,” she said in the statement.

Initially, the sheriff’s office responded to the stepmom’s statement by saying they have no reason to believe the boy was kidnapped. But since then, the sheriff’s office has asked the public to notify them if they’ve seen a strange car in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood.

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Gannon was reported missing Jan. 27 by his stepmother. Stauch allegedly told police the boy left home between 3:15 p.m. and 4 p.m. to walk to a friend’s house, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Initial reports from the sheriff’s office described Gannon as a “runaway,” but on January 30, the agency’s social media posts shifted to describe him as missing and endangered.