Mother Charged After Son, 12, Fleeing ‘Negligence and Abuse’ in Home Killed by Alligators: Police

On Monday, Fox affiliate WVUE reported that the magistrate told her to stay away from her other three children, including a newborn infant. She will also ordered to appear in court next week to determine if she will be held with or without bond.

The remains of Bryan Vasquez, 12, were found on August 26 after a nearly two week coordinated search effort in Louisiana by local, state, and federal authorities by divers in a lagoon near his home with two alligators nearby, according to The Times-Picayune.

His cause of death was determined to be “blunt force trauma due to an alligator” attack, which caused him to “subsequently drown.”

But it was how the boy came to be there that triggered the arrest and charges, after Hilda Vasquez, 34, had first reported her son missing on August 14, per WVUE. According to authorities in the state, Bryan had fled his home to escape ongoing neglect and abuse.

“This is all been a pattern of behavior by the mother; this is not the first time that Bryan has been the victim of some sort of trauma and/or anything that we deem to be negligent,” said Chief Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier of the New Orleans Police Department in a news conference Sunday. “So this is all a pattern and this is all established in the warrant.”

In that same press briefing, as detailed by Law&Crime, Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon said that their investigation uncovered “a pattern of both negligence and abuse over Bryan’s 12 years.” Further, authorities believe they can “prove that pattern of negligence and abuse led to a severe injury, undue pain, and suffering on his part.”

While he didn’t go into specific details on any alleged abuse that would have occurred shortly before the boy fled the home, he did reveal that the boy’s alleged suffering began almost from birth.

“When he was 3 months old, she committed a skull fracture, broken legs, and a collapsed lung,” Gernon said. “At that point, he was removed from the home, and at some point subsequent to that, DCFS returned him back to the home.”

The Times-Picayune detailed that he suffered a traumatic brain injury at his mother’s hands at that time and she was charged with cruelty to juveniles and second-degree cruelty to juveniles in 2014, ultimately pleading guilty to the lesser charge of cruelty to juveniles by negligent treatment or neglect.” KVUE adds that DCFS validated allegations of lack of supervision in 2022.

Hilda described her son as autistic and nonverbal to authorities, but a report from his school stated his disability was classified as a “traumatic brain injury (non-accidental).” That report, per the Times-Picayune stemmed from school officials noticing bruises on his inner thigh and face.

In interviews with detectives, Hilda opened up about Bryan’s final night in the home. She said that she gave him a sleeping pill and later found him wandering around inside at around 3 a.m. while she was with her newborn, according to CBS affiliate WIBW. Hilda said she walked him back to the children’s shared room and he went back to bed.

She told investigators she woke up the next morning at around 7 a.m. to take her 6-year-old son to school, which was about five blocks away, per court records, leaving Bryan and his 12-year-old sister at home.

She explained that she’d not yet registered her new address at the older children’s school, so they did not have bus transportation, per the affidavit. She ultimately opted to let them stay home, she told detectives. Hilda further explained that because they had just moved, she’d not yet installed security measures to keep her son contained, per the Times-Picayune.

When she returned home from dropping her younger child off, Hilda said she went back into her room without checking on the older kids. It wasn’t until about 10 a.m. that she became aware that Bryan was gone, when his sister told her that he was missing.

Hilda said the window in their shared room was open and she believed that he had climbed out of it. Hilda told police, per the Times-Picayune, that he was wearing only an adult diaper when he left the home. The outlet further reported that neighbors said the boy often snuck out to visit a nearby playground.

In the initial missing persons report for the pre-teen, Bryan was described as a boy with “serious medical issues.” A subsequent release stated that he had a neurodevelopmental condition, with fliers characterizing him as a “nonverbal autistic boy.”

Hilda told police that Bryan had tried to run away twice before in recent days. On August 1, which Hilda said was before the family moved, police found him naked and drinking water from a drainage ditch, per WIBW. The second instance was just three days later, with a neighbor bringing him home that time. Hilda said she never reported the second instance to authorities.

The Times-Picayune reported that some of Bryan’s final movements were captured on neighbor’s door cameras and security surveillance systems. He was seen at 5:20 a.m. walking on a street alone in one video, while another showed him walking to the door of a home that was not his before walking away.

The last footage was from 6:40 a.m. where he was spotted near the lagoon from which his body would ultimately be recovered. Investigators also recovered his discarded diaper in that block.

A statement from the mayor’s office shared the news of Bryan’s passing, saying that his life, “though far too short, left a lasting impression on all who knew him. Bryan was a bright, charismatic, and energetic young boy whose joy and spirit touched the lives of his family, friends, and community.”

The statement went on to thank and praise all of the agencies involved in the search efforts to find the boy, including the New Orleans Police Department and the United Cajun Navy. “Bryan’s memory will forever remain in the hearts of those who loved him, and his light will continue to shine as a reminder of resilience, innocence, and love,” the statement concludes. “May he rest in God’s eternal peace.”