Florida woman who lied that Black men kidnapped son admits to drowning him, Miami cops say
The mother killed her 9-year-old son, who dealt with severe autism
In a shocking twist to an already tragic story, a Miami woman has been arrested for the drowning death of her son after originally telling authorities two Black men kidnapped him.
Patricia Ripley, a resident of Miami’s West Kendall community, was taken into custody for the murder of Alejandro Ripley, a 9-year-old with severe autism.
Ripley, 47, initially told Miami-Dade Police Department last Thursday that two Black men came to her home and held her at knife-point in a robbery, claiming that they took the boy and her phone.
READ MORE: Teen, who prompted city-wide Amber Alert, confesses she staged her own kidnapping
An amber alert went out for Alejandro and his body was found the following day in a pond at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club.
According to the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade investigators became suspicious of Ripley as several inconsistencies came up in her several accounts of the alleged kidnapping. According to the police report, video surveillance footage showed Ripley pushing her son “into the canal.”
Alejandro Ripley
Police confronted her after seeing the footage and getting accounts from witnesses that she was seen at the canal. The authorities state that after questioning she admitted that she “led the victim to the canal where he drowned. She states he’s going to be in a better place.”
It won’t be the first time Black men are conveniently used as props and falsely blamed for a crime. And, unfortunately, probably won’t be the last.
This incident is eerily reminiscent of the 1994 Susan Smith case, where the white South Carolinian drove her two children into a lake, but accused a Black man of the crime via a carjacking.
