The mother of a boy whose 12-year-old son was mauled by alligators in New Orleans, Louisiana, is under suspicion with respect to the incident.
Bryan Vasquez was found dead in a New Orleans lagoon, according to a report from NOLA.com, with Jon Gusanders, a volunteer from the United Cajun Navy, locating his body on Thursday.
The discovery ended a massive 12-day search for the missing child that involved the New Orleans Police Department and several other agencies.
Gusanders said that he located the body after observing a “violent movement under the water’s surface.”
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said, “and I hope to never see anything like that again,” per NOLA.com.
There appear to have been two alligators trying to take what remained of Bryan’s body and move it elsewhere in the lagoon.
Gusanders attempted using the drone to distract the creatures and get them to leave the body alone, which eventually succeeded.
“We did everything we could to protect his body, to protect his honor,” Gusanders said. “The NOPD got their boat out to successfully recover him.”
After Bryan’s body was recovered, Hilda Vasquez, his mother, fell under renewed suspicion.
New Orleans Police Department confirmed that she had been served with a search warrant.
WDSU-TV revealed that Vasquez had previously been convicted of simple cruelty over injuries Bryan received in 2013, when he was just three months old.
The boy had a collapsed lung, retinal hemorrhages, fractured ankles, fractured legs, and a fractured skull, plus other injuries.
The doctors believed the injuries were consistent with child abuse, per WDSU.
Vasquez was sentenced to five years in prison, but she received probation and later regained custody of Bryan.
Then she was arrested for a probation violation in 2017.
Christiane Rosales Fajardo, a spokesman for the Vasquez family, issued a statement regarding Vasquez’s possible involvement in the death of Bryan.
“All I can say is that as a community advocate for this community I know for a fact in Hilda’s past she was a victim of domestic violence,” Fajardo said.
“I know that in her past she has done everything to protect her children and that her child was living with her at the time he walked out of the house,” the statement continued.
“All four of her children was living with her so if the state and DCFS believe she is a danger then that means they failed him again,” the statement said in reference to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.
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