I hope they lock up that woman in Florida who drowned her autistic son

[malaise]

and then accused two African-American men of killing him.

Earlier the same day the boy was rescued by neighbors as she failed to drown him at the first try.

https://www.ajc.com/news/update-florida-mom-allegedly-tried-drown-autistic-son-twice/RnM61oPPz1n4wSQfG46WUL/
<snip>

A Miami woman faked her son’s abduction after trying to drown him twice, with witnesses rescuing the boy from a canal the first time, and the second attempt ending in the boy’s death, officials said.

Florida mother charged with first-degree murder of autistic sonMiami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Patricia Ripley is facing attempted and premeditated murder charges. Ripley is being held in jail with no bond.The boy, Alejandro Ripley, 9, was autistic and nonverbal. He was found floating in a canal Friday morning.In an interview Saturday, Fernandez Rundle said Ripley apparently tried to drown her son an hour earlier at a different canal but nearby residents heard yelling and rescued him. Then, Fernandez Rundle said, Ripley drove her son to another canal.

A Miami woman faked her son’s abduction after trying to drown him twice, with witnesses rescuing the boy from a canal the first time, and the second attempt ending in the boy’s death, officials said Saturday.

“Unfortunately when she took him to the second canal, and there was no one there,” Fernandez Rundle said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She tried it once, and people rescued him. He was alive. He could have stayed alive. She intended, from all the facts of the case, to kill him.”Fernandez Rundle said an autopsy was being done on the boy Saturday to determine if he had other injuries or perhaps had something toxic in his system.
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[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm sure they will.

This is one of the most appalling stories I've read in awhile.

[malaise]

2. One of my siblings is so upset about this

I'm betting that poor little boy was in a special needs class and his mother hasn't looked after him full time for a full day in years until Covid-19 shut down the schools.

[Doodley]

3. Easy to judge without walking in the mother's shoes. Bringing up a severely autistic child can be

overwhelming to put it mildly. To see the pain and suffering day after day, year after year is heartbreaking. If there isn't support there and a broken care system, people will break.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. It's never OK to kill them.

[Ilsa]

28. No one is defending murder. But it is reasonable to

examine the lack of available help for the child and caregivers, and the mental health problems involved.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

36. I have no doubt that her circumstances were extremely difficult.

But what's so messed up about this case is she tried to drown him twice, and then claimed he was kidnapped by a couple of (nonexistent) black men. There seems to a disturbing element of calculation or premeditation and not suddenly snapping under the strain of caring for a difficult autistic child.

[malaise]

6. I told my sis that given the reality of no school or day care

this was probably a very stressful situation. That said to try it twice and succeed and then blame others is seriously troubling. She could have sought help.

[delisen]

14. Suggestions on seeking help ?

I have found that the hardest part for families with severely disabled children is the lack of love and acceptance from other people.

I have listened to so many stories of pain and considerations of suicide and seen many families torn apart and parents dying young from accidents or stress-related illnesses.
I reserve judgement until I know the story.

[malaise]

18. You make a good point

Society apparently does not care

[Ilsa]

27. Thank you. People love saying "get help", but sometimes it

is near impossible.

Not all states have respite programs.

If you aren't already getting state help, you won't be able to get all of the paperwork from doctors, schools, etc during a lockdown to apply for it.

If you get help, you have to find an agency that has attendants trained in ABA and autism, or you're putting the child in another dangerous situation.

I've been getting "help" from an agency, but it is almost worthless. They understand my son, but they are too afraid to do much of anything with him. Sometimes, it's easier to tell them not to come.

[Ilsa]

26. Not defending her actions, but there isn't much in the way of help

right now. Budgets are screwed. Many states don't have respite programs, and you have to be already in the system for getting state help. Just having him enrolled in school doesn't guarantee, especially in red states, that you can get helpers that won't murder the child themselves after a few days.

Some autistic children are destructive and violent, requiring at least two people to safely subdue them during a bad episode. If the child's teacher or school aides do not make themselves available during the quarantine, I suspect there weren't many options she could think of.

The fact is, there's help for a lot of medical/psychiatric conditions, but getting good help, trained help, for dealing with violent autistics is very difficult. I suspect the mother has mental health conditions of her own.

[malaise]

30. Yes - this one is hard to process but you are right re lack of help

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. No.

[spinbaby]

23. I was thinking about that

I have an autistic grandson just a bit younger. If I had to look after him full time, I’d go out of my mind. As it is, he’s gotten physically big enough that I can’t handle him when he decides to throw a screaming head-banging fit. We’re all missing his school and his therapy, no one more than him because he can’t understand why he has to stay home all the time.

[JI7]

35. She wanted to Bring Pain and Suffering to the family and friends of an Innocent Black Man

[LuvNewcastle]

4. She might end up on death row.

They still use the death penalty in Florida. I'm not in favor of capital punishment, but this would be one of those situations in which a jury or a judge might be persuaded to use it. People have a particular disdain for those who kill children, and the child was not only her own but was special-needs. The other prisoners don't like people who do things to children, either.

[malaise]

9. This one is frightening on every level

she's probably menopausal, and was stressed out over having a special needs child at home 24/7. We can all understand her stress level, but she lost me when she didn't seek help after her first failed attempt at killing her own child and then blamed two African-American men.

[Tipperary]

19. Probably menopausal?

Where are you getting that? Please do not blame mental illness or sociopathic behavior on “women’s troubles” as has been done so often in less enlightened times.

[malaise]

20. Women's troubles?

From where did you draw that inference - I am a woman.

[Tipperary]

21. I know you are.

That really does not make your comment any better. Where did you draw the conclusion she was menopausal? Pretty much every one of my friends is pre or post menopausal...none of them have murdered their children, or anyone else for that matter.

[malaise]

22. How on earth is 'probably menopausal' a conclusion

she's probably menopausal, and was stressed out over having a special needs child at home 24/7. We can all understand her stress level,

If anything the only conclusion I drew is that the woman was under stress as a result of having to deal with a special needs child 24/7

[Tipperary]

24. The picture I saw of her does not look like a woman of that age.

Maybe pms? You would not even think that about a man. Sorry, just found that an odd comment. It just puts me in mind of people who think women are more “fragile” than men for ridiculous hormonal reasons.

[malaise]

25. My sister sent me details from Miami

She's 45. Menopause is not a male issue. I made not one comment about fragility.

[kimbutgar]

7. When I first read that story I immediately knew she killed him

Having a non verbal autistic child is difficult. I know some non verbal adult autistic people and the parents have a lot more patience then me. My adult son with autistism is verbal but haS self control issues. He lives in a group home and one of the other residentS is a non verbal young man. We social distance visited with our son this weekend And the non verbal young man was screaming the entire time we were there. I felt he was in a lot of emotional pain as his parents don’t usually visit him. We used to bring our son home every other weekend but now he is quarantined in the home. He is having a hard time not being with us. it’s been 5 weeks so we decided to bring him home for awhile.

But that story smelled from the beginning. Somebody car jacking you and taking your non verbal autistic child, I don’t think so.

[malaise]

10. I get the non-verbal autistic part particularly when all schools and care center are closed

That must be difficult. So glad you brought your son home for a while. And yes her story did smell.

[kimbutgar]

11. I am a substitute teacher and work in a class with autistic children

I so worry about some of them. At the end of the day two of them are especially difficult and they don’t want to go home. I think about how they are doing being home all the time with their parents and how stressful it must be for the parents. I remember when my son was younger, summers were the hardest because there was no respite for me until my husband came home from work.

[malaise]

15. This must be an especially difficult time for both

the children and the parents.

[HipChick]

16. Her story never added up for me to begin with..

It was just a matter of time before police broke it down..

[Mariana]

12. She obviously spent time planning the murder and the alibi.

I think she'll be spending the rest of her life locked up.

[lunasun]

13. She is a married mother of two, taking away a young life & also a brother and her husband's son

In the story I read many of the boy’s relatives were close to him & grieving
Her reply that “he is in a better place now” was stomach churning

[malaise]

17. She won't find prison a better place

Just saying

[Demovictory9]

29. wow... she tried to drown him earlier that day but no one called the cops

[Ilsa]

31. Exactly. They probably are saying, "she should have sought help,"

but those of us in the know understand how difficult that is jnder normal circumstances.

[malaise]

32. As one person who helped rescue the poor child said

children have fallen in that canal before. The child was non-verbal so he couldn't tell them she pushed him in. She just found another canal. That disturbs me the most - that and blaming African-Americans.

[Demovictory9]

33. I see.

[lindysalsagal]

34. Depending on their location on the spectrum, autistic children live moment-to-moment.

You're starting over literally every 30 seconds. With school teachers, they can be kept busier with lots of attempts at communication and cognitive stimulation. They also enjoy the stimulation they get from other students in the classroom. They're quite attentive to the other student's behaviors, when you get to know them.

Try doing that all by yourself with no breaks and no letup. The longer they're isolated, the deeper they retreat into repetitive self-involved behaviors. I can tell you that as someone who knows a number of autistic children, it wouldn't take me 5 weeks to totally lose my mind. It would only take me a few days.