A Minnesota mother has been charged with murder in the death of her 20-month-old son after a county coroner ruled his death a homicide.
As reported by the Moorhead Police Department, a 32-year-old woman named Valerie Connie Zamora has been detained in Fargo, North Dakota. She is currently in the Cass County jail, awaiting extradition to Minnesota.
According to a criminal complaint, Zamora took Jose Lazarus Zamora to the hospital on the evening of May 15, where he was declared dead shortly after 11 p.m., as reported by WCCO. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office discovered bruises on the child’s body, determining that his death resulted from complications due to blunt force trauma from an assault.
The autopsy reported contusions all over his body as well as rib fractures.
Zamora allegedly informed the police that she resides in Moorhead with her partner and three children. She stated that on the morning of May 15, the 20-month-old boy was vomiting. She mentioned giving him Tylenol and Gatorade before running errands with her children and partner.
The boy “basically” slept all day and was not himself. Ultimately, she told her partner they should take him to a doctor, but on the way to the hospital, she stopped at a Walmart to buy Pedialyte. While she was inside, her partner came to tell her the child was throwing up blood. At that point, the “sped” to the hospital, according to court documents.
As for the bruising, she told investigators the child bruised easily.
But police said she changed her story regarding how ill the child was before the hospital visit. She eventually said the child had started throwing up on May 14 and that the vomit material was “normal” then but changed to a black or dark substances.
Witnesses told police they’d seen the boy “at various times” on May 15 and had urged Zamora to take him to a hospital. One of her other children told investigators that she felt the child needed immediate medical care when she got home from school that afternoon, but her other said she would wait until her partner came home from work.
According to the court documents, Zamora told police she never hurt the boy but was afraid to take him in for treatment because it was “obvious neglect” and she feared having her children taken away.
