A Minnesota mother has been charged with murder in the death of her 20-month-old son after a county coroner ruled his death a homicide.
The Moorhead Police Department reported that Valerie Connie Zamora, aged 32, was apprehended in Fargo, North Dakota, and is presently detained in the Cass County jail awaiting extradition to Minnesota.
A criminal complaint issued in relation to the matter stated that Zamora took Jose Lazarus Zamora to the hospital on the evening of May 15, where he was declared dead shortly after 11 p.m., as per WCCO. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office uncovered bruising on the child’s body and determined his cause of death to be complications of blunt force injury resulting from an assault.
The autopsy reported contusions all over his body as well as rib fractures.
Zamora indicated to authorities that she resides in Moorhead with her partner and their three children, revealing that the 20-month-old had been vomiting on the morning of May 15. She mentioned administering Tylenol and Gatorade to him before proceeding to run errands with their children and her partner.
The boy “basically” slept all day and was not himself. Ultimately, she told her partner they should take him to a doctor, but on the way to the hospital, she stopped at a Walmart to buy Pedialyte. While she was inside, her partner came to tell her the child was throwing up blood. At that point, the “sped” to the hospital, according to court documents.
As for the bruising, she told investigators the child bruised easily.
But police said she changed her story regarding how ill the child was before the hospital visit. She eventually said the child had started throwing up on May 14 and that the vomit material was “normal” then but changed to a black or dark substances.
Witnesses told police they’d seen the boy “at various times” on May 15 and had urged Zamora to take him to a hospital. One of her other children told investigators that she felt the child needed immediate medical care when she got home from school that afternoon, but her other said she would wait until her partner came home from work.
According to the court documents, Zamora told police she never hurt the boy but was afraid to take him in for treatment because it was “obvious neglect” and she feared having her children taken away.
