Dead boy found buried in sand at playground

[goinsfl]

By Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- An autopsy is under way on the unidentified body of a small child found buried in the sand of an Albuquerque playground.

Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh says the examination was started Saturday morning at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.

The body was found Friday by a woman who had taken her children to the city park. She spotted part of a child's shoe sticking out of the sand and called police.

Walsh said detectives don't have any idea how the 3- to 5-year-old boy ended up buried in the park. He said no one had claimed to be his parent or guardian.

A team of about 50 investigators canvassed the area around northeast Albuquerque's Alvarado Park until early Saturday and resumed the effort Saturday morning.


http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2009/05/17/news/doc4a0ed101a5eb2309579162.txt



How sad no one has come forward to claim this sweet child.

[goinsfl]

Police: Unidentified 'Baby Justice' buried in playground sand

(CNN) -- Walking through an Albuquerque, New Mexico, park a passerby made a startling discovery -- a tiny black and lime shoe protruding from beneath the playground sand.

It led police to the body of a young boy, who had been buried there in a shallow grave less than 48 hours earlier.

That was Friday.

On Tuesday, police still had no answers as to what happened at Alvarado Park -- or even who the boy was.

His name is unknown, though the community has dubbed him "Baby Justice" or "Baby Angel." Nobody in the area has claimed his body, and nobody has reported a child of his age missing.

Police said they couldn't even show a photo or give a sketch of the boy because his body was so disfigured by the sand's heat.

All they have is a description based on how they found him.

Police say the Native American or Hispanic boy was between 3 and 5 years old, 38 pounds, 38 inches in height, with brown eyes and dark quarter-inch hair. When he was found, he was wearing Arizona brand clothing, size 3T -- nylon black running pants with red stripes, a red shirt with a monster truck on it and black, gray and lime green Skechers sneakers.

Police aren't sure how he died.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman John Walsh said a preliminary autopsy didn't reveal a cause of death. Walsh said there were no obvious signs of bruising on the boy.

Walsh said the department is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create a forensic reconstruction of what the boy may have looked like in hopes that someone will recognize him.

"We have canvassed the entire adjoining neighborhood," Walsh said. "We're knocking on every door. We've been broadcasting and pleading for tips from the community. But still, nobody has come forward."

Though police have received numerous tips from the public, Walsh said nothing has come from them.

Albuquerque police are working with other local, state and nationwide law enforcement officials to try to piece together what happened.

Until then, members of the community have spent hours at memorials for the boy -- who none of them knew -- praying for him and raising money.

French Mortuary, in the town, has offered to pay all funeral costs for the boy.


Resident Rachel Lesperance told CNN affiliate KOAT-TV she spent her weekend collecting $3,600 for the boy. Her money, and the donations raised by others, will go toward a plaque at the park in the boy's honor, buying extra lights for the playground and to a fund toward finding out what happened to the little "Baby Justice."

"He doesn't have a family," Lesperance told KOAT-TV. "We're his family now, and we want him to be taken care of like one of our own."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/19/nm.buried.boy/index.html



This is so sad, I do not understand what is happening in to day's world. May god be with the precious baby.

[goinsfl]

New Mexico Police Search for Relatives of Dead Boy


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —  Albuquerque police are going door-to-door again Monday in the neighborhood around a city park where the body of a young boy was found buried in a playground as they search for the child's relatives or caretakers.

"We're canvassing the entire area once again to see if there's the possibility that anyone saw something who wasn't watching the news," Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said Monday.

Despite intense media coverage of the case, no one has stepped forward to identify the boy, who was 3 to 5 years old. A preliminary autopsy Saturday also yielded no clues to how the boy died.

Though the boy's family hasn't come forward, the community has stepped in with spiritual and financial support for the child.

Neighbors have left teddy bears, toy trucks, flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial at the playground in Alvarado Park, where a mother playing with her children saw a shoe sticking out of the sand and made the gruesome discovery.

Forensics experts have said the child's body had probably been there no more than 48 hours.

The discovery has stumped police so far because the department has not received any recent reports of missing children. Checks on missing persons reports in other states also have not provided an identity.

The 38-pound boy was wearing a red shirt with the image of a four-wheel drive truck on the front, black nylon pants with red stripes and black shoes. He had short straight black hair and was 3-feet-2 inches tall.

Walsh said the preliminary autopsy determined the child was either "Native American or Hispanic."

For two nights in a row, hundreds of neighbors and others have gathered at the playground for candlelight vigils in honor of the boy and a held a cookout fundraiser.

Two funeral homes have offered free plots and burial services. Neighbors told KRQE-TV they have raised more than $4,000 to pay for a casket.

Medical investigators plan blood and toxicology tests and more advanced pathology techniques to learn more about what happened to the boy.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520512,00.html

[goinsfl]

Police release composite photo of boy buried in playground sand

(CNN) -- Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, released a composite image Tuesday of a young boy found buried beneath the sand of a local playground.

The boy was discovered on Friday by a passerby who saw a tiny black and lime shoe protruding from beneath the playground sand.

It led police to the body of a boy, who had been buried there in a shallow grave less than 48 hours earlier.

On Tuesday, police still had no answers as to what happened at Alvarado Park -- or even who the boy was.

His name is unknown, though the community has dubbed him "Baby Justice" or "Baby Angel." Nobody in the area has claimed his body, and nobody has reported a child of his age missing.

Before the composite image was created, police weren't able to release a photo of the boy because his body was so disfigured by the sand's heat.

Police say the Native American or Hispanic boy was between 3 and 5 years old, 38 pounds, 38 inches in height, with brown eyes and dark quarter-inch hair. When he was found, he was wearing Arizona brand clothing, size 3T -- nylon black running pants with red stripes, a red shirt with a monster truck on it and black, gray and lime green Skechers sneakers.

Police aren't sure how he died.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman John Walsh said a preliminary autopsy didn't reveal a cause of death. Walsh said there were no obvious signs of bruising on the boy.

"We have canvassed the entire adjoining neighborhood," Walsh said. "We're knocking on every door. We've been broadcasting and pleading for tips from the community. But still, nobody has come forward."

Though police have received numerous tips from the public, Walsh said nothing has come from them.

Albuquerque police are working with other local, state and nationwide law enforcement officials to try to piece together what happened.

Until then, members of the community have spent hours at memorials for the boy -- who none of them knew -- praying for him and raising money.

French Mortuary, in the town, has offered to pay all funeral costs for the boy.

Resident Rachel Lesperance told CNN affiliate KOAT-TV she spent her weekend collecting $3,600 for the boy. Her money, and the donations raised by others, will go toward a plaque at the park in the boy's honor, buying extra lights for the playground and to a fund toward finding out what happened to the little "Baby Justice."

"He doesn't have a family," Lesperance told KOAT-TV. "We're his family now, and we want him to be taken care of like one of our own."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/19/nm.buried.boy/index.html

[goinsfl]

Updated at 10:40am -- Buried 'Baby Angel' ID'd

By Hailey Heinz and Bruce Daniels     
Thursday, 21 May 2009 10:40 


APD chief says 23-year-old mom confessed to suffocating child in park.

Tiffany Toribio, 23, confessed this morning to killing her son, Tyrus (or Tyree) Toribio, 3 years and 7 months old, in the early morning hours of May 13 by holding her hand over the boy's nose and mouth, reviving him for a time, then completing the job of killing the child.

She then buried him in the sand beneath playground equipment at Alvarado Park, between Hannett and Haines NE, and had been walking the streets of Albuquerque ever since, Police Chief Ray Schultz said at a news conference this morning.

The mother told police during interviews this morning that she had been thrown out of her mother's house, then again from a friend's apartment where she was staying just two blocks from the northeast Albuquerque park -- both times because of objections to the way she was treating her son, Schultz said.

Toribio was placed under arrest early this morning and charged with an open count of murder and a number of child abuse counts, as well as tampering with evidence. She is being held on a $250,000 cash-only bond.

Schultz said Toribio has already attempted suicide this morning and has been placed under close observation.

The chief said Albuquerque police officers took Toribio into custody on Central Aveue around 11 p.m. Wednesday, and that she had left a home on Churchill SW with the intention of turning herself in, but when officers first asked her identity, she denied being Tiffany Toribio.

The mother also initially told police that her missing 3-year-old son was in the custody of the state Children, Youth and Families Department, but a check with CYFD proved that was not the case, Schultz said.

Schultz said Toribio had been walking the streets of Albuquerque since the boy's death on May 13. The boy's body wasn't discovered until Friday, May 15, according to earlier reports.

When asked why she killed her son, Chief Schultz said Toribio told officers "she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him, the same way she grew up with no one caring about her."

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/crime-blotter-mainmenu-59/12590-police-seeking-person-of-interest-in-baby-angel-case.html

[Carol]

I truly want to throw up after reading this thread.

[Hollys G-Mom]

We should have an icon for bawling! Cause that's me just now.  I literally had to walk away from the screen and compose myself over this one. Why is this happening? There seems to be s very sudden rash of people killing thier children. Is it truely becoming Armegedon? That's what it seems like. When will we ever be able to convince people to go to DCFS when someone is abusing or mistreating thier child(ren). IMHO if you think someone is "unfit"...you're probably right!