The Miami-Dade mother who faces the death penalty in the murder of her 9-year-old son was questioned for hours by police after she reported the child as missing to authorities.
NBC 6 obtained Patricia Ripley's interrogation tapes, which reveal the alleged lies she told police as a desperate search for Alejandro Ripley was underway.
“Alejandro is a smart kid. He points,” Ripley said when asked to describe her son, who lived with autism.
Detectives brought Ripley in for questioning after she reported the child missing back in May. An AMBER Alert was issued after the mom told police two men who had cut her off, robbed her and abducted her son.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
After police said she gave conflicting statements, Ripley sat in an interrogation room for hours.
Ripley detailed to detectives what she did in the hours and minutes before she said she last saw her boy.
The footage of the interrogation stretched from late morning to early evening. Most of the time the mother was left waiting alone.
Local
She was also seen and heard sobbing several times when detectives walked out of the room.
The child’s body was found in a canal next to a golf course in southwest Miami-date. Police say the mom pushed him into the water and he drowned. They also say video surveillance proves she tried to do the same thing earlier.
