Mom killed her toddler - twice

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Just when you thought you heard it all.

N.M. cops: Mom confesses to suffocating boy

They say 23-year-old smothered him, revived him, then killed him

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Police said Thursday that the mother of a 3-year-old boy found buried at a playground told investigators she suffocated him, had second thoughts and brought him back to life, then changed her mind and suffocated him again.

Police Chief Ray Schultz said Tiffany Toribio, 23, told officers that 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.

She told detectives she had second thoughts and performed CPR on the boy, reviving him, but again reconsidered and placed her hand over his nose and mouth until he suffocated, Schultz said. She said she waited a few minutes before burying him in the playground, the chief said.

Ty's body was found Friday by a mother who saw his black tennis shoe sticking out of the sand. Police released an artist's rendering of the boy's image on Tuesday, which led to tips about Toribio from family members and others, Schultz said.

Police picked up Toribio after she called them late Wednesday saying she had left home and was walking to the police station to turn herself in, the chief said. At first she denied being Tiffany Toribio, but officers found her identification and she acknowledged who she was, he said.

'Somber day'

Neither the district attorney's office nor police knew if Toribio had an attorney, but she would have to have representation by her Friday arraignment.

Schultz called it "somber day" in Albuquerque.

"He was a very special child and that's what makes this case so hard for everybody within the Albuquerque Police Department that's worked on it for the last six days," he said.

At the playground — filled now with flowers, plaques and candles — about a dozen people gathered, some part of the regular vigil held there since last week and others who came down after hearing of the arrest on the TV news.

"We named him 'Baby Angel' and it's important now that we know his real name," said Sarah Sandoval, who lives nearby. "Now, his mother will find out this baby has a lot of people who love him and will do anything for a child."

[JimandChristy 1,689]

That's awful..what on earth would drive a mother to do that to their own child? Speechless

[Mary Lou 682]

OMG, i felt sick after reading that.

That poor little boy

[jundp 191]

[Chica Yeyé 41]

OMFG. when I read ####### like this and think of all my hermanas who are having problems having babies, my blood boils.

you all (except the mean b1tches)

[scandal 951]

Sometimes it just feels like a sad, twisted, hopeless world out there. RIP Tyruss.

[Peikko 1,575]

Stress/mental illness at a guess. It also 'suggests' that the child was disabled in some way. I don't know another interpretation of a 'very special' child. All children are special - until they reach the age when they can be considered young thugs of course.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[MichelleN 0]

It just made me sick to read that. To know enough that she'd done something wrong where she revived the boy and the decided to kill him AGAIN? That's just.....no....I just can't understand how a woman could do that to her own child. Before I had my daughter, stories like this just made me shake my head in disgust and go on with my life. But now, it's just so much more heart wrenching and sickening to even consider a mother doing that to a child.

[Peikko 1,575]

Postpartum depression. How can one hope to know what goes through the mind of someone who does something like that anyway? All that can be concluded is that something like this does not fall into 'normal' patterns of behaviour. You don't have to have a child to understand that. Postpartum depression would explain it though.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Postpartum depression. How can one hope to know what goes through the mind of someone who does something like that anyway? All that can be concluded is that something like this does not fall into 'normal' patterns of behaviour. You don't have to have a child to understand that. Postpartum depression would explain it though.

thanks for saying that Cleo. It sickens me when people assume that not having a child makes one a complete idiot.

[MichelleN 0]

If my post came off as me implying people who don't have a kid can't understand it, I'm sorry. That's not what I was trying to say. I was just trying to explain how having a child has changed how severely things like this affect me personally. They seem to be more 'real' and more personal to me, just because I can't help thinking about something like that happening to my daughter. As for postpartum though...he was 3 years old. Would it even last that long?

[Peikko 1,575]

Well, to be fair, I don't think that was the intention. Needless to say, anyone who reads about such things is naturally going to feel terrible sadness. The loss of a child who can't defend himself at the hand's of his mother is shocking and rightfully so. However, someone did ask how these things happen, and in this instance I think it is reasonable to conclude that the mother was suffering from some acute stress, perhaps postpartum depression, perhaps not - or some other mental aberration because it is not at all normal for a mother to act in this way.

[trinket 30]

RIP

[Peikko 1,575]

It can, although I am sure that's rare, my grandmother ended up dying from postpartum depression, when my mother was in her thirties.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

oh sister Michelle, I didn't mean you! I meant in general it irks me when people imply things like that