The mother of a nine-year-old Florida boy with special needs who she claimed was abducted in Miami by two men and was later found dead by police is now facing a murder charge related to his death, according to multiple reports.
Detective Chris Thomas said at a news conference late on Friday after Alejandro Ripley’s body was found the department is “not ruling out foul play.”
After hours of questioning, 45-year-old Patricia Ripley was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her son, Local10 reported.
Authorities questioned Ripley hours after the 9-year-old severely autistic child was found dead in a lake Friday morning. She initially told authorities a dramatic story that her son had been abducted by two men who blocked her car and demanded drugs from her Thursday night.
Ripley told police that after she told the men she didn’t have any illegal substances, they snatched her cellphone and pulled her son out of the vehicle.
“The passenger of the vehicle exits the vehicle, approaches the mother, and demands drugs. She says she does not have any drugs. And so the passenger at that point reaches in, grabs her cellphone, steals her cellphone, and takes her child,” Miami-Dade police detective Angel Rodriguez said.
Surveillance footage from a Home Depot parking lot near to where Alejandro was allegedly abducted showed Ripley sitting alone in her car for approximately 20 minutes before she called police, a law enforcement official told the Miami Herald.
Ripley is now held without bond after she admitted to detectives she was behind the death of her son. She is currently at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is facing charges of first-degree murder and attempted premeditated murder, according to Local10.
‘Sweet and Happy Boy’
The boy’s body was found floating in a lake at the Miccosukee Golf and Country Club in the southwest area of Miami-Dade, about 4 miles from the place the boy was reportedly abducted.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement initiated a statewide Amber Alert for the child’s abduction, which sparked a massive search Thursday night.
Antoinette Uribe, the boy’s therapist at My Kid Therapy Center, said, “He [Alejandro] was the world to his parents.”
Uribe told Local10 Alejandro was a “sweet and happy boy” and had been spending more time at home because of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.
A large memorial was held Friday afternoon after the news broke out on Alejandro’s death at the Friendship Circle of Miami, a nonprofit organization that offers services for children with special needs.
Ripley is married and has one other child.