About two dozen people gathered Friday for a memorial service for the boy outside The Friendship Circle of Miami, a center for children with special needs, that the boy attended before a shutdown because of coronavirus rules, according to the station.
Florida mom facing murder charge after autistic son, 9, found dead, police say
WFLA News Channel 8
Patricia Ripley, the West Kendall mother who initially
claimed her severely autistic 9-year-old son had been kidnapped, ultimately admitted she was to blame for the child’s death at a canal and “he’s going to be in a better place” police said.
The shocking details of her confession emerged Saturday as Miami-Dade homicide detectives booked Ripley, 47, into jail on a charge of first-degree murder. The arrest came about more than a day after she reported that Alejandro Ripley had been kidnapped by two robbers who ran her car off the road — a report that sparked a frantic statewide manhunt and ended early Friday when his body was found in a pond at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club.
Alejandro was non-verbal and in the past appeared to have attended
Greater Heights Academy, a West Kendall school for special-needs children. Ripley is a married mother of two.
Investigators were immediately suspicious of the kidnapping as Ripley gave multiple accounts, according to a police report obtained by the Miami Herald.
She continued giving conflicting statements. But police confronted her with evidence that she had been at the canal — video surveillance footage that showed her pushing the boy “into the canal,” according to the police report. Witnesses also placed her at the scene.
Ripley recanted her story, police said and admitted at about 8:30 p.m. she “led the victim to the canal where he drowned. She states he’s going to be in a better place.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article242952751.html
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