A Miami woman who claimed her 9-year-old autistic son was kidnapped by two Black men has been arrested and charged with the boy’s murder.
Patricia Ripley, 47, was booked into jail on a charge of first-degree murder at 3 a.m. Saturday, according to the Miami Herald.
An Amber Alert was issued for Alejandro Ripley a day before his body was found in a Miami canal, the Miami Herald reports.
Patricia confessed to police that she told the non-verbal boy “he’s going to a better place.”
She claimed her car was run off the road near Home Depot by two Black men who demanded drugs and abducted her son.
Hours later, Alejandro’s body was found in a canal at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club, about 4 miles from where Patricia Ripley said her son was snatched.
Surveillance video shows a woman leading a boy by the hand and pushing him into the water. Separate surveillance video shows Patricia sitting in her car at nearby Home Depot for 20 minutes before she called 911 to report her son’s false abduction.
The mother of two is being held in jail without bond.
