Mother Admits To Killing Her Autistic Son After Lying About His Abduction: “He’s Going To A Better Place”

A Florida mother has admitted to killing her autistic 9-year-old son after lying about him being abducted.

Patricia Ripley, 45, initially told the Florida Police Department that she was driving with her son Alejandro Ripley when two men sideswiped her, demanded drugs, and kidnapped Alejandro around Thursday at 9 p.m. The mother claimed the men stopped her, opened her car door, and demanded drugs. When she did not comply, they took her phone, tablet, and Alejandro. However, after contradicting witness statements and video footage surfaced, Ripley confessed to killing the child during an interrogation.

Authorities found the boy’s body hours later still wearing a Captain America T-shirt. The woman admitted to leading Alejandro to a canal and pushing him in, which video footage corroborates along with statements from witnesses. “Upon being confronted with this information, the defendant recanted her initial story, including that she had been robbed,” police said in the affidavit.

According to authorities, Ripley made her first attempt at killing the child around 7:30 p.m on Thursday. In the video, you can see Ripley stroke Alejandro’s head before forcefully pushing him in the canal. About 20 seconds later, Ripley returns with a bystander who heard the child’s screams, and they rescue him from the canal. An hour later, the woman took the non-verbal child to another canal where he drowned after she pushed him. “She stated he’s going to be in a better place,” the Miami-Dade County Police said in the affidavit.

Defense attorney Nelson Rodriguez Varela told CNN in a statement, “At this point, the contents of the arrest affidavit are merely allegations and not proof of Mrs. Ripley’s guilt … any conclusion about the case is grossly premature.” He continued. “Our position is that Mrs. Ripley is a good woman and mother who always looked after the best interest of her son Alejandro. This is not the time to rush to judgment in this matter. At this very preliminary stage, Mrs. Ripley is presumed innocent as any person charged with a crime would be.”

Ripley was arrested and booked in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Saturday, according to Miami-Dade County Corrections records. Ripley has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree premeditated attempted murder, KMOV reports.