Background: News footage of the Moorhead, Minn. apartment where Valerie Zamora resides with her family (KVLY). Inset: Valerie Zamora (Cass County Sheriff’s Office).
A Minnesota woman, accused of making a detour to a store while supposedly hurrying her 20-month-old son to the hospital, faces murder charges after the boy’s death was classified as a homicide by the medical examiner.
WCCO, a CBS affiliate, reported that the 32-year-old mother — identified as Valerie Zamora by local NBC affiliate KVLY — was charged with second-degree unintentional murder following the death of her 20-month-old son at a hospital in Moorhead, a city bordering Fargo, North Dakota. Court documents accessed by WCCO state that on May 15, Zamora took her son to the hospital with her partner and at least one additional child — however, police claim the family stopped at a local Walmart during their trip.
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According to court documents, investigators said that the boy became extremely ill on May 14. The next day, he reportedly showed no improvement, and witnesses told police that they urged Zamora to bring the boy to the hospital. Police stated that Zamora instead gave the boy Tylenol and Gatorade and ran errands.
That evening, when one of Zamora’s other children got home from school between 4:30 and 5 p.m., she “immediately” noticed that the boy was in need of medical care. Zamora allegedly told her that she would take the toddler to the hospital once her partner got home.
The girl told police that at one point, she was afraid that the little boy was going to die while she held him.
On the night of May 15, Zamora and her family finally decided to take the little boy to the hospital. On their way there, surveillance cameras caught them at 10:12 p.m. as they stopped at a Walmart store where Zamora bought Pedialyte, a drink for dehydration. When Zamora’s partner ran into the store to tell her that the boy was vomiting blood, they all left the store and “sped” to the hospital, according to the documents.
The little boy was dead by 11:05 p.m.
When Zamora was questioned by police, she said that the boy had started vomiting the day before, but they accused her of changing her story. Police confronted her about the bruises they observed on the boy’s body, and she reportedly explained that he bruised easily.
According to the court documents, the county coroner who performed an autopsy on the boy stated that he had suffered blunt force injuries due to an assault and had rib fractures and contusions. The coroner ruled the manner of death as homicide.
WCCO reported that during a subsequent interview with Zamora, she admitted that she hesitated to seek medical care for her toddler because there was “obviously neglect,” and she feared that social services would take her children.
Zamora was arrested in Fargo on Friday and was booked into the Cass County Jail. She is expected to be extradited to Moorhead where she faces a charge of second-degree unintentional murder.
