FLAGLER BEACH — A Flagler Beach couple remained jailed Monday on charges of child abuse and child neglect of a toddler and an infant, authorities said.

Elizabeth Stua, 20, was charged with child abuse after police and state investigators received reports that she dragged her 2-year-old son down a Flagler Beach street by his arm, causing bruises and scrapes on the child, and threw a chair at her 6-month-old daughter.

Stua’s live-in boyfriend, Frank Rodriguez, 36, also was charged with child neglect for failing to protect the children from their mother, reports state.

Each of them was being held Monday with bail set at $2,500. The amount was reduced during their first court appearances from the $10,000 set when they were taken to jail on Friday.

A friend told police that Stua showed up at her house July 3 with her two young children, saying she was homeless because she could no longer afford the motel where they’d been staying. The woman said the family arrived at her home with only a box of cereal and suspicious bruises and injuries covering their bodies.

The woman told police Stua then spent the day screaming at her toddler son and “dragging him around” by his arm. At one point during the day, the woman said she went to the beach to find Stua there with her toddler son. But Stua had left the infant at home unattended, the woman said.

Stua told her “the baby would be fine alone,” a police report states.

The woman said she went to the house and retrieved the baby before she confronted Stua about her behavior and about bruises on the mother’s own face. Stua said she became bruised when Rodriguez “hit her because she threw a chair at the baby” and Stua offered “stress” as her explanation for treating the children badly.

Police reports indicate that when the children were taken into state custody Friday, the baby had no bruises or marks on her body but she appeared thin and underweight. Meanwhile, the toddler had multiple bruises, marks, abrasions and burns on his body. Some of the injuries were new, the reports state, and others were in varying stages of the healing process.

Stua denied abusing her children to police, saying the toddler’s injuries were the result of temper tantrums, play and bumping into furniture.

As they were being transported to the county jail, police said Stua told Rodriguez that she didn’t know why he was being arrested because he hadn’t done anything wrong.

The officer said Rodriguez replied, “I don’t know why either. I did nothing wrong. You’re the one who always hits him.”