Inset, top to bottom: Hilda Vasquez (WVUE) and Bryan Vasquez (NOPD). Background: An alligator in the lagoon where Bryan Vasquez’s body was found (WVUE).
A 34-year-old Louisiana mother has been arrested after her 12-year-old son disappeared and was later discovered deceased from “blunt force trauma due to an alligator,” leading to his “subsequent drowning.” Authorities announced that Hilda Vasquez was detained over the weekend and is facing charges of second-degree cruelty to a child and negligent homicide in the death of Bryan Vasquez.
Bryan was first reported missing by his mother on August 14, initiating an almost two-week search by local, state, and federal authorities that ended tragically when divers found his body on August 26.
The boy had fled his home after allegations that his mother had previously abused and neglected him.
“This has all been a recurring issue with the mother, and it’s not the first instance where Bryan has suffered trauma or what we consider negligence,” Chief Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier of the New Orleans Police Department stated during a news conference on Sunday. “This is a pattern, and it is documented in the warrant.”
Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon affirmed this, informing reporters that investigators noted “a history of both negligence and abuse over Bryan’s 12 years,” and they believe they can “demonstrate that this pattern of neglect and abuse resulted in severe injury and undue pain and suffering for him.”
Gernon said such abuse began when Bryan was still a newborn.
“When he was just 3 months old, she inflicted a skull fracture, broken legs, and a collapsed lung,” Gernon said. “At that time, he was taken out of the home, but eventually, DCFS returned him to the home.”
A volunteer partaking in the search for Bryan was able to locate his body near a pair of alligators in a lagoon near the home and assisted authorities in recovering the child from the water, NOLA reported.
According to a report from local Fox affiliate WVUE, Vasquez told investigators she gave Bryan a sleeping pill the night before he went missing and then found him wandering around the home at about 3 a.m. while caring for his younger sister. She walked him back to the room he shared with his sister and went back to bed.
The following morning, Vasquez said she got up around 7 a.m. to take her 6-year-old to school, leaving Bryan and his 12-year-old sister home for the day. The siblings were not in school because the family had recently moved, and Vasquez had not yet registered the other children. Upon returning, she said she went into her bedroom and did not check on the kids until about 10 a.m., when her daughter informed her that Bryan was missing from their shared room.
The window in the bedroom had been left open, with Vasquez allegedly telling authorities she did not secure it because Bryan had never before attempted to abscond, local NBC affiliate WDSU reported. However, she did confirm that the boy had tried to run away twice, once he was found and returned home by police, and the other time it was by a neighbor. The second incident was not reported to authorities.
“As a result of Vasquez’s failure to protect and check on Bryan, he sustained serious bodily harm after he left the residence and entered the water,” police reportedly wrote.
It was not immediately clear when Vasquez was scheduled to appear in court or whether bond had been set for her release.
