Louisiana police arrested a woman on Sunday, weeks after her 12-year-old son left home and was fatally mauled by alligators.
Hilda Vasquez, 34, reportedly provided police with varying explanations of the events leading to Bryan Vasquez’s disappearance on August 14. However, she claimed she awoke during the night and found him in the kitchen. She mentioned sending him back to bed in his sister’s room several hours before she readied her younger son for school, as reported by KPLC.
It appears Hilda Vasquez took the younger son to school without verifying the whereabouts of the 12-year-old, who is nonverbal and autistic. It wasn’t until approximately 10 a.m. that she contacted her daughter, who informed her of his absence, KPLC stated.
Bryan Vasquez is thought to have exited the house through a bedroom window, wearing only an adult diaper. NOLA.com reported that surveillance video captured him walking in the neighborhood that morning.
His last recorded appearance was near a house close to the lagoon, where his body was found weeks later on August 26. He was declared missing roughly five hours after he was last observed on video.
The Orleans Parish Coroner found that Bryan Vasquez suffered blunt-force injuries from an alligator attack before drowning. However, coroners were unable to specify when death occurred.
The family had recently relocated, and Hilda Vasquez had not yet installed security features that previously prevented her son from wandering off. Hilda Vasquez has three additional children, including an infant.
Hilda Vasquez allegedly mentioned two instances in which her son vanished days before his final disappearance. She stated that on August 1, police found her son naked and drinking from a drainage ditch. Three days later, the mother was sleeping when a neighbor knocked on the door and informed her that they had found her son, according to KPLC.
New Orleans police Deputy Nicholas Gernon said they believe Hilda Vasquez regularly abused and neglected her disabled son before his death. Reports indicated that she pleaded guilty to simple cruelty to juveniles by negligent treatment or neglect after she faced more serious charges in 2014.
The charges pertained to Bryan Vasquez, who was an infant at the time.
“When he was three months old, she committed a skull fracture, broken legs, and a collapsed lung. At that point he was removed from the home, and at some point subsequent to that, DCFS returned him back to the home,” Gernon said, according to WWL.
Concerning her son’s death, Hilda Vasquez was charged with second-degree cruelty to juveniles and negligent homicide. The case is now being handled by New Orleans police’s Homicide Division.
[Feature Photo: New Orleans police]
