The mother of a nonverbal 12-year-old boy who died following an alligator attack more than a week after he went missing from his New Orleans home was arrested.
Hilda Vasquez, the mother of Bryan Vasquez, was taken into custody Sunday evening on charges of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile and negligent homicide, the New Orleans Police Department said at a news conference.
Authorities said Vasquez was charged with cruelty to a juvenile because this was not the first time Bryan had been “the victim of any sort of trauma.”
She was previously arrested and convicted after Bryan, then 3 months old, suffered a skull fracture, broken legs, and a collapsed lung, authorities said. He was removed from the family’s home, but later returned to Vasquez’s care.
An attorney for Vasquez did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Police Deputy Supt. Nicholas Gernon said investigators also learned that there had been at least two instances in the two weeks before Bryan’s Aug. 14 disappearance that he had escaped from the house.
Gernon told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans that the mother allegedly did not take steps to make sure Bryan could not get out of the house and did not check on him throughout the night.
“It was not this tragic event that occurred in August that led to these charges. It was a pattern of abuse and neglect that occurred throughout his entire 12 years of life,” Gernon said.
The deputy superintendent said it was Bryan’s younger sister who discovered him missing on Aug. 14. His family previously told WDSU that he left through his bedroom window around 5 a.m. Security video obtained by the station showed him less than an hour later walking around in an adult diaper.
His body was discovered on Aug. 26 in a lagoon in the city’s Michoud neighborhood. Police believe he drowned after suffering blunt force trauma from an alligator.
Assistant Superintendent Hans Ganthier said the investigation into his death is ongoing.
“Our detectives continue to pursue every fact and every aspect of any investigative leads,” he said at the news conference. “Out of respect for the ongoing process, a lot of the details cannot be released.”
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