UNTHINKABLE

Miami Mom Tried to Drown 9-Year-Old Autistic Son an Hour Earlier: Police

Miami-Dade police say neighbors rescued the 9-year-old autistic son of Patricia Ripley from a different canal several hours before his body was found floating near a golf club.

The Miami woman who faked her 9-year-old autistic son’s abduction before allegedly drowning him in a canal near a golf course had tried to kill him an hour earlier, according to police. Neighbors of Patricia Ripley say they heard yelling and rescued the child from a canal about an hour before Ripley allegedly drove to another canal and successfully killed her son. The boy, Alejandro Ripley, was severely autistic and nonverbal. “She tried it once, and people rescued him,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told the Associated Press. “He was alive. He could have stayed alive. She intended, from all the facts of the case, to kill him.” Ripley, who is married and has a second child, is facing attempted and premeditated murder charges. She is being held without bond.