Mother arrested over boy found buried in playground

By Calvin Palmer

The mother of the three-year-old boy found buried in the sandpit of a playground in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been arrested.

Police Chief Ray Schultz said Tiffany Toribio, 23, called police last night and told them she was walking to the police station to turn herself in. Police picked her up.

She told detectives she and her son, Tyruss “Ty” Toribio, were in Alvarado Park before dawn on May 13 and that she suffocated him while he was asleep.

But she had second thoughts, performed CPR on the boy and revived him but then changed her mind again and placed her hand over his nose and mouth until he suffocated.

“She said she waited a few minutes before burying him in the playground,” Schultz said.

Ty’s body was found last Friday by a mother who saw his black tennis shoe sticking out the sand.

For several days investigators drew a blank as to the boy’s identity. But an artist’s impression of the boy on Tuesday led to tips about Toribio.

Toribio was homeless and sleeping in the park, having been kicked out of her mother’s home and a friend’s apartment in the days before her son’s death because she was ignoring the boy and withholding affection, investigators said.

“What makes this story especially sad was when asked the reason why she took Ty’s life, Tiffany said that she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him the same way that she had grown up with no one caring about her,” said Schultz, his voice thick with emotion.

What had baffled police after the discovery of the body was that the chubby-cheeked boy appeared to have been well-fed, showed no signs of physical abuse and was wearing a matching outfit that seemed to suggest he had been well-cared for.

But when no came forward to report a missing child, police came to suspect that whoever buried Ty was a parent or someone taking care of him.

Schultz called it “somber day” in Albuquerque.

He said Toribio attempted suicide in jail and was under close observation. A single mother, she had no criminal record or history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Toribio is a member of the Zia Pueblo Indian tribe. Tribal Gov Ivan Pino said the tribe has asked that Ty’s body be returned to the pueblo for burial. People living near the park raised about $4,000 for a funeral for the boy.

“Let the Pueblo of Zia go through its healing process right now,” Pino said. “Give us the respect to go through our mourning at this point.”

Toribio is due to be arraigned tomorrow.

[Based on a report by newsday.com.]

Advertisement