'Heartbroken' Mother To Make Trip From Cuba to Bury Son
Slain student's grieving mom coming to Miami
NBCMiami.com
Anais Cruz is overcome with emotion as she speaks about her slain son, Juan Carlos Rivera.
The mother of the teen who was fatally stabbed at Coral Gables High School earlier this week will soon board a plane from her native Cuba to come to Miami to bury her son.
Anais Cruz' visa was approved yesterday and permission was given by the Cuban government for her to fly to the states to attend the funeral services for her son, 17-year-old Juan Carlos Rivera.
She awaits final approval from US authorities now.
Rivera was stabbed to death early tuesday morning on the ground of his high school. Classmate Andy Rodriguez, also 17, has been charged with second degree murder for Rivera's death.
Cruz, 42 was overcome with emotion yesterday as she talked in Havana about her son.
"I feel a great pain that breaks my heart," a nearly hysterical Cruz said yesterday. "My God, how could you have done this to me?"
Cruz, a doctor in Cuba, sent her son to Miami just last year to live with his grandmother.
"It's been very difficult news, very hard, he was a good boy who was beloved by everyone," said family friend Jorge Luis Forte, with Cruz in Havana.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, awaits his next court hearing - scheduled for Oct. 6 - in a juvenile detention center, after a judge denied his attorney's request for his release Wednesday.
The charge against Rodriguez could be raised to first degree murder, prosecutors said.
Posted Friday, Sep 18, 2009 - 11:23 AM EST
