Mom who claimed her nine-year-old autistic son was kidnapped now charged in the boy’s murder
On the morning of May 22, police in Miami-Dade released word that their officers discovered the body of a deceased young boy in a golf course waterway at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club. Speculation quickly followed that this could be the body of nine year old Alejandro Ripley, the autistic boy whose mother claimed had been kidnapped– after her car was forced off the road and two black men demanded drugs from her before making off with her son.
See: Nine-year-old autistic boy abducted from Home Depot in Miami-Dade found dead
According to investigators, uniformed officers responded to the south side of the course located along SW 62nd Street and made contact with a witness who discovered the body while walking alongside the embankment. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue also responded and pronounced the child deceased. Detectives are actively working to identify the victim.
Turns out, police ended up arresting and charging Alejandro’s mother after 47-year-old Patricia Ripley recanted her original story and confessed that she was to blame for her son’s death along the canal and informed police that, “he’s going to be in a better place,” according to The Miami Herald.
The mother has since been jailed and charged with her son’s murder.
Police became suspicious regarding the mom’s involvement in her son’s death after Alejandro’s lifeless body was discovered in that canal. Police say that she changed her story several times and gave conflicting accounts about the boy’s supposed abduction.
… a security camera at a Home Depot near where the alleged abduction took place showed Ripley sitting in her car alone — without Alejandro — for 20 minutes before she called police at 8:47 p.m. on Thursday.
But it was the video evidence gleaned from the golf course and multiple witnesses who said that she had been at the canal that finally persuaded the mother to confess. Police say that the surveillance video footage they obtained, depicted her “pushing the boy into the canal.”
Police say that when they discovered Alejandro’s body, “he was still wearing the Captain America T-shirt his mother had told officers about on Thursday night,” according to Local-10 News. Police also reported noting trauma to Alejandro’s head.
Patricia Ripley is currently being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center charged with first-degree murder and attempted premeditated murder.
Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
