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, allegedly gave police conflicting accounts of what happened when Bryan Vasquez vanished on August 14, though she stated that she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him in the kitchen. She claimed she sent him back to bed in his sister’s room hours before she prepared her younger son for school, according to KPLC.
Hilda Vasquez reportedly took the younger son to school without checking on the 12-year-old — who is nonverbal and autistic. It was not until around 10 a.m. that she called for her daughter, who told her he was missing, KPLC reported.
Brian Vasquez is believed to have left home through a bedroom window, only wearing an adult diaper. According to NOLA.com, surveillance footage showed him walking around the neighborhood that morning.
He was last filmed near a home not far from the lagoon, where his body was discovered weeks later on August 26. He was reported missing about five hours after he was last seen on camera.
The Orleans Parish Coroner concluded that Bryan Vasquez sustained blunt-force injuries from the alligator mauling before he drowned. Coroners could not pinpoint when he died.
The family had recently moved to the residence, and Hilda Vasquez had not yet installed security measures that previously prevented her son’s elopement. Hilda Vasquez has three other 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.
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[Feature Photo: New Orleans police]
