NM mom charged with killing son on the playground

[Old Coot]

Source: Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A mother playing with her children at a park spotted a little black sneaker sticking out of the sand underneath the playground equipment. Figuring a youngster had lost his shoe, she bent down to pick it up. It was strangely heavy.

She had made a ghastly discovery: a dead little boy, buried in the sand.

For nearly a week, who the toddler was, how he died, and who put him there were a chilling mystery until Thursday, when a drawing of the youngster circulated by police led to the arrest of a young mother on murder charges.

Albuquerque police said Tiffany Toribio, 23, confessed to suffocating her 3-year-old son, Tyruss "Ty" Toribio, as he slept on the climbing gym — a crime so cold-blooded that neighbors struggled to comprehend it, and even veteran officers became choked up.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_playground_body;_ylt=AoswdH6eNXbs8zJXMJmK8rNI2ocA

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Suffocated him, resuscitated him, then suffocated him again

The police chief said Toribio told detectives that she suffocated her son in Alvarado Park before dawn on May 13 by putting her hand over his mouth and nose. She said she had second thoughts and performed CPR on the boy, resuscitating him, but reconsidered and smothered him again. Investigators said she then buried him under the climbing gym's hanging bridge, where the body was found two days later.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_playground_body


There are no words for this horror. :cry:

[emilyg]

2. No words. Just tears.

[Abacus]

12. What an adorable little guy...

:cry:

[Quantess]

3. This woman sounds like she has some serious psychological issues:

...when asked the reason why she took Ty's life, Tiffany said that she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him the same way that she had grown up with no one caring about her...

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I often wonder how nature's usually sensible directions can sometimes

go so awry.
Such damaged people should not have children.

[Quantess]

6. But when people like that DO have children,

there should be mental health counseling available for them, for free.

[JI7]

9. so why didn't she just have an abortion when she got pregnant

[Quantess]

10. Who can predict what goes through the mind of a mentally disturbed person?

But to your question, yes, some parents' behavior toward their children makes me wonder why they didn't get an abortion or give baby up for adoption.

[Seedersandleechers]

25. Money

possibly. :shrug:

[AngryOldDem]

28. She's also homeless. See my post downthread. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

5. Why are threads like this allowed on DU? I'm sick of them. We cannot solve these

types of problems in here. This is obviously a very disturbed person. We're not a bunch of professional psychologists.

This is a political forum. Someone has got to stand up and stop this distracting nonsense. I, for one, am willing to forgo all of this heart-wrenching bullshit and focus on what's going on that matters to the country as a whole, not the sickness of certain individuals and the harm they inflict on their families and loved ones.

THERE IS NO POLITICAL ISSUE HERE. So stop posting these stories!

[phusion]

7. Why don't you just hide the thread?

instead of taking the time to respond? I'm not trying to flame you or anything but I, for one, use the "Latest Breaking News" forum as a sort of news aggregate so I don't have to jump around to find, well, the latest news from around the world.

[kiva]

8. They are here because people are interested.

There are many forums here, and some people never participate in the political side of things, but they are members and many help support the site. GD:P has dozens of picture threads and threads about all sorts of non-political news; GD is exactly that, general discussion. And LBN isn't restricted to political news. Ignore thread is a good thing.

[mbperrin]

11. Certainly it is political. Consider just a few of the issues:

Have we drawn the current structure of society where this act seems reasonable to her?

Regardless of the first issue, what should society do now? Imprison her? Execute her? Sterilize her and turn her loose? Something else?

How have we allowed people to become so isolated that this could even be done in a so called public place?

Is there a loss to all of us when a child is killed? Or does it matter? Or is the child her property to dispose of as she pleases?

All these and many more are political issues around an incident like these.

If you find them too unpleasant, hide the thread. Many people are much more concerned about American Idle or another blonde from California with implants denied a title.

[Fumesucker]

13. I agree, there are many political questions that relate to this horrendous incident..

Our society has many problems, some of them could have exacerbated this mother's rather obvious mental instability and it is illuminating to some of us to discuss the ramifications, both political and social.

[mopinko]

15. they do not belong in this forum.

they are fine in general discussion, but lbn threads should be of national importance. alert. i will, too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. But it is LBN

[mopinko]

30. it may be lb, but that does not make it n

stupid crap like this really does not fit the criteria. as you can see by the fact that this has been moved.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. When there are "sluts" to be "shamed," it's always national news

Bad Mommy slut! Bad Mommy slut! Bad Mommy slut!!!

[TheMadMonk]

17. Political, cultural, social, and probably a few more "...al"s besides.

With access to decent psychiatric help, or even just counseling much earlier in the peice this may well have not happened.

Single mothers are still frowned upon and often treated badly, particularly at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder.

Mental illness is still a near taboo subject.

Homelessness, that was in there too.


Stories like this one most certainly have their place on DU. They show just how out of kilter society is. And they seriously beg the questions: Why the fuck did you do this to yourselves? Why did you allow this to be done to you? Why have you consistently voted for so long against your own best interests? Why do you continue to do it even now? Why is a political candidate's stance on irrelevancies (eg. Teh Gay) the deciding factor for so many people when it comes to voting for him, not his open ties to corporate interests?

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. No one is forcing you to read it.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. I think children are important, news about children, good or bad, are welcome in LBN in my opinion

.
.
.

you are correct in saying we are not a bunch of professional psychologists

But most of us have a natural concern over children's safety.

Medical attention for parents is a government responsibility IMO

ergo

it's VERY political

Isn't available health-care a big issue in the USA today?

We don't get enough attention to disturbed parents.

Children suffer, society suffers, we ALL suffer

when people do not get enough medical assistance, be it physical or psychological.

You are so wrong on many points . .

Something just popped into my head from decades ago

"suffer the little children to come unto me"

We don't ever want to ignore our children, or their needs

even on DU

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Megathumbsup

:thumbsup::thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

This is stupidity for idiots.

[Jennicut]

14. I have a 3 year old. And a 4 year old. I have trying days with them but clearly this woman was

mentally not stable. I have a degree in psych as well. She clearly had some major issues going on here. She was kicked out of her mother's home for not caring for the boy. Just tragic.

[proteus_lives]

16. God, poor kid.

I don't understand how anyone could harm a child.

For a mental case like her, the DP might actually be a mercy.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. The AP puts up with some yellow prose these days

Jeez.

[Dark]

22. WTF?

nt

[varkam]

26. What? No Torture Brigade? No Keyboard Commandos?

You're slipping, DU!

[BoneDaddy]

29. Why do WOMEN do these things to their children?

Now that I got your attention, I really don't think it has anything to do with her gender. She was clearly mentally ill and disturbed to do that to her child.

I wrote the title to counter the idiots who, when a man kills a member of his family, ask "Why do men do this?", to bolster their immature vendetta against men.

[varkam]

31. Huh?

:shrug:

[AngryOldDem]

27. This part of the article is pertinent.

<<Toribio was homeless and sleeping in the park, having been kicked out of her mother's home and a friend's apartment in the days before her son's death because she was ignoring the boy and withholding affection, investigators said.

"What makes this story especially sad was when asked the reason why she took Ty's life, Tiffany said that she did not want him to grow up with no one caring about him the same way that she had grown up with no one caring about her," said Police Chief Ray Schultz, his eyes watery and his voice thick with emotion.<<

This, folks, is just one more dimension of the tragedy of homelessness. Homeless families are under horrendous, unspeakable stress and more often than not the outlet for that stress is the little ones. Parents often feel overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, and humiliated at their situations -- and that's when they are at places where they are getting intensive help.

When I see homeless children at my job, I have to wall off a part of my heart. Otherwise, I could not do my job. I have seen toddlers berated and yelled at because they can't walk fast enough to keep up with Mom; whipped with belts because they soiled their pull-ups; kept unkempt because their parents just don't have the motivation for basic hygiene. Recently in a fit of anger and helplessness, a mom dumped her baby out of his stroller and offered to give him away.

Children's protective services here is an absolute joke. They do next to nothing. And our hands are tied with management, for only management can make a call to children's services. It's bullshit.

So not only is this poor little soul a victim of his mother, he is also a victim of society where he and his mother have become invisible.

[vadawg]

32. tiffany meet Mr. Needle, Mr Needle meet Tiffany N/T