The mother of a nine-year-old Florida boy with special needs who she claimed was abducted in Miami by two men and was later found dead by police is now facing a murder charge related to his death, according to multiple reports.
Detective Chris Thomas said at a news conference late on Friday after Alejandro Ripley’s body was found the department is “not ruling out foul play.”
Authorities questioned Ripley hours after the 9-year-old severely autistic child was found dead in a lake Friday morning. She initially told authorities a dramatic story that her son had been abducted by two men who blocked her car and demanded drugs from her Thursday night.
Ripley told police that after she told the men she didn’t have any illegal substances, they snatched her cellphone and pulled her son out of the vehicle.
“The passenger of the vehicle exits the vehicle, approaches the mother, and demands drugs. She says she does not have any drugs. And so the passenger at that point reaches in, grabs her cellphone, steals her cellphone, and takes her child,” Miami-Dade police detective Angel Rodriguez said.
‘Sweet and Happy Boy’
The boy’s body was found floating in a lake at the Miccosukee Golf and Country Club in the southwest area of Miami-Dade, about 4 miles from the place the boy was reportedly abducted.The Florida Department of Law Enforcement initiated a statewide Amber Alert for the child’s abduction, which sparked a massive search Thursday night.
Antoinette Uribe, the boy’s therapist at My Kid Therapy Center, said, “He [Alejandro] was the world to his parents.”
A large memorial was held Friday afternoon after the news broke out on Alejandro’s death at the Friendship Circle of Miami, a nonprofit organization that offers services for children with special needs.
Ripley is married and has one other child.
