Found Deceased FL - Alejandro Ripley, 9, autistic, Miami-Dade County, May 2020 *mother arrested*

[Eloise]

Couple of years back my friend was on her way home from work (night club) on the highway someone short stopped infront of her quickly, she hit the back of the guys car then another car came from behind n trapped her btw 2 cars. They came out grabbed her ...threw her into their car, robbed her and let her out couple blocks away. So these instances are possible. And others really just drive on by and mind their business.

i even had a similar situation with a car infront of my jeep, it was scary.

This was a busy road in the middle of the day though. edit: oops, not middle of the day. STill, apparently a busy road and definitely still not the middle of the night.

Oh... but wouldn't a non-verbal child be able to make some noise? I can't believe anyone would miss a probably very stressed out 9-year-old boy in the backseat.

yes, non-verbal definitely does not mean "never makes noise". And a severely autistic child put into an unusual and frightening situation would be inclined to make a lot of it, just based on my own experience.

Anyway, I will be watching this case closely. Children with autism are very vulnerable, it is a difficult job to look after them even with support. I note the family had never come to CPS's notice, so it will be interesting to see if this really came from nowhere and she just cracked under the pressure of two months of lockdown or whatever, or if things were being well-hidden.

 

[PhoneJockey]

Couple of years back my friend was on her way home from work (night club) on the highway someone short stopped infront of her quickly, she hit the back of the guys car then another car came from behind n trapped her btw 2 cars. They came out grabbed her ...threw her into their car, robbed her and let her out couple blocks away. So these instances are possible. And others really just drive on by and mind their business.

i even had a similar situation with a car infront of my jeep, it was scary.

I agree that stuff like this DOES happen - but most burglars/carjackers/robbers do NOT want to grab/hurt a child (unless that was their intended target). Usually they will either not take a car with a child or will drop the child somewhere unharmed.

Adding to that, according to a lot of WS members on this thread, this is a VERY heavily traveled and trafficked road/area, even for the particular time of day the incident was alleged to have occurred (although we now know it was purely fabricated).

I grew up in a suburban place that was bordering city and rural. One night my brother was traveling down a rural highway not 5 minutes from our suburban home and some vehicles did exactly as you described, only my brother was able to avoid any collisions and get he and his girlfriend away unscathed. It was very scary but it was just some (probably drunk) hillbilly kids out messing with people for their idea of "fun". If they HAD gotten my brother to stop, I'm sure it would have gotten violent.

 

[PhoneJockey]

This was a busy road in the middle of the day though. edit: oops, not middle of the day. STill, apparently a busy road and definitely still not the middle of the night.



yes, non-verbal definitely does not mean "never makes noise". And a severely autistic child put into an unusual and frightening situation would be inclined to make a lot of it, just based on my own experience.

Anyway, I will be watching this case closely. Children with autism are very vulnerable, it is a difficult job to look after them even with support. I note the family had never come to CPS's notice, so it will be interesting to see if this really came from nowhere and she just cracked under the pressure of two months of lockdown or whatever, or if things were being well-hidden.

Well-hidden, or yet ANOTHER case of caseworkers not following up and/or doing due diligence? You said you note that the family had not come to CPS notice, but where did that info come from? I'm sorry if I misread or read too fast and didn't notice, but as far as I saw he was getting services for his special needs, which usually indicates that the family would *at least* be on radar. I do admit that WAY too many kids fall through the cracks in this country, so it could be a case like that - especially since this happened during the pandemic/lock-down, which DOES create extra stress and pressure on caretakers. Not enough to excuse something like this, but I digress.

And YES! Non-verbal does NOT mean SILENT for our autistic bebbies! There are so many "non-verbal"kids that can and DO use their "voices" to "speak" - just in their own special way, whether through gestures, grunts, sounds, motions, screaming, sign language, etc. Just because one of our special guys (or girls!) do not speak on their "normal" level, doesn't mean that they cannot indicate that they are distressed or in danger.

 

[PhoneJockey]

Dead boy’s mother arrested in his murder after lying about abduction

This article says that security footage at the Home Depot showed his mother sat inside the car for about 15 minutes before reporting the abduction, and that Alejandro experienced head trauma (it isn't yet clear if this was the cause of death).

Oh ,wow. I didn't see the bit about head trauma. Dang it.

 

[Stormi76]

Well-hidden, or yet ANOTHER case of caseworkers not following up and/or doing due diligence? You said you note that the family had not come to CPS notice, but where did that info come from? I'm sorry if I misread or read too fast and didn't notice, but as far as I saw he was getting services for his special needs, which usually indicates that the family would *at least* be on radar. I do admit that WAY too many kids fall through the cracks in this country, so it could be a case like that - especially since this happened during the pandemic/lock-down, which DOES create extra stress and pressure on caretakers. Not enough to excuse something like this, but I digress.

And YES! Non-verbal does NOT mean SILENT for our autistic bebbies! There are so many "non-verbal"kids that can and DO use their "voices" to "speak" - just in their own special way, whether through gestures, grunts, sounds, motions, screaming, sign language, etc. Just because one of our special guys (or girls!) do not speak on their "normal" level, doesn't mean that they cannot indicate that they are distressed or in danger.

One of the articles (I think the one I posted) says that someone from CPS made the statement that they had never been in contact with the family.
A disability does not put a child it family on the CPS radar. That would be like being on their radar because your child was born blind. No abuse, no (known) reports of abuse, so no reason for CPS to even know this family or child even existed.

JMO but based on personal experience/some knowledge of CPS protocol.

 

[California Sunset]

What on earth? This is such a strange and tragic story.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 9-year-old boy with autism who police said was abducted Thursday night in The Hammocks has been found dead, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed Friday morning as it canceled an Amber Alert for the child.

Sky 10 was above the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club Friday morning as authorities were conducting a death investigation after a body was pulled from a nearby canal. Police have not confirmed whether that body was that of Alejandro Ripley, although the area is just four miles away from where he was allegedly abducted.

According to Miami-Dade police, the boy’s mother, Patricia Ripley, 47, was driving west on Southwest 88th Street from 157th Avenue when she noticed that she was being followed by a light blue, four-door sedan.

Police said the driver tried to side-swipe Ripley’s car, forcing her to veer onto Southwest 158th Avenue.

The car then blocked her as a passenger got out of the car, ambushing Ripley and demanding drugs from her, authorities said.

Police said Ripley told the man she didn’t have any drugs, at which time he snatched her son, Alejandro Ripley, and her cellphone before getting back in the car and fleeing south.

The driver and passenger of the blue sedan were identified by police only as two black males.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

9-year-old boy found dead after allegedly being abducted in The Hammocks

This story sounds so darn familiar. Susan Smith?

 

[California Sunset]

I'm not Chubby Checker. But I feel a twist coming.

You're either giving away your age or your propensity to listen oldies.

 

[California Sunset]

I agree that stuff like this DOES happen - but most burglars/carjackers/robbers do NOT want to grab/hurt a child (unless that was their intended target). Usually they will either not take a car with a child or will drop the child somewhere unharmed.

Adding to that, according to a lot of WS members on this thread, this is a VERY heavily traveled and trafficked road/area, even for the particular time of day the incident was alleged to have occurred (although we now know it was purely fabricated).

I grew up in a suburban place that was bordering city and rural. One night my brother was traveling down a rural highway not 5 minutes from our suburban home and some vehicles did exactly as you described, only my brother was able to avoid any collisions and get he and his girlfriend away unscathed. It was very scary but it was just some (probably drunk) hillbilly kids out messing with people for their idea of "fun". If they HAD gotten my brother to stop, I'm sure it would have gotten violent.

When you mentioned your brother, I recalled someone telling me a similar thing happened with her son. In the process of trying to get away from the guy that had hit the brakes, he got lost. He didn't know where he was. He was on the phone with 911, the other guy was on the phone with 911 (giving a different version of the story.) It must have been terrifying.
But this poor little guy lost his life.

 

[California Sunset]

This was an updated article. Has anyone ever heard there is a certain time for an amber alert to be broadcast? By the way, the sentence was highlighted in blue when I copied it over.

Many Floridians say they didn’t receive an alert until news stations began pushing it out on mobile apps. The FDLE says that the Wireless Emergency Alert system is only active from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

South Florida Amber Alert cancelled, 9-year-old boy found deceased

I've received alerts in the middle of the night, but at the time I was in Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. There were two of them within hours of each other. Maybe it's a state thing.

 

[California Sunset]

Too many people complained that it went off in the middle of the night. So they shortened the hours. Never mind that some people work night shift.

But I can control whether I want to get those alerts or not. Can't most people?
Someone told me he was in a meeting at work and all of a sudden, everybody's phone went off. You gotta love the people who care, don't you?

 

[California Sunset]

I’m very familiar with this area (I actually know someone who works at that Home Depot). Southwest 88th Street is a REALLY busy road, and there are always a lot of people at that Home Depot and the Walmart right across the street.

This is not a “Kidnapped from a desolate parking lot” situation. If the abduction occurred the way his mother says it did, this was an astoundingly brazen abduction. I know people aren’t going out as much because of the pandemic, but there have to be witnesses. At the very least, another driver HAD to have seen them attempt to sideswipe the mother’s car.

The area where his body was found is right by the Miccosukee golf course. There is a bike trail (a paved one where you share the road with cars) that runs around the golf course, and there are always people running or biking there throughout the day. There are frequently drivers on the road as well. IMO, whoever did it would have had only a few minutes at most to dump the body before someone passed by.

But why grab a child just to kill him? (Someone just did that a few months back. Grabbed the little girl at a party just to kill her.) Why her and not somebody else? What would make someone single a person out? Had they followed her from somewhere? Did they think they knew her? I dunno.

 

[California Sunset]

Hope they charge her with a hate crime for blaming two black men. MOO

That's the thing that jumps out at you, doesn't it? Susan Smith said that about her carjacking. I first saw it on Yahoo news, and it was in their report.

 

[California Sunset]

I am not getting the Maleah Davis vibe here. I can't say why. But what if the asking for drugs was not random. What if the two men did it because they had picked out someone who they thought was a player in the distribution of narcotics? Seems plausible. And the kidnapping might have been a bumbling perp's hurried plan on realizing that the car only had mom and a kid in it and not whatever drug kingpin they had expected. So they take the kid thinking that they will trade him for drugs. But the Amber Alert goes out, and they just get rid of the kid before the cops find them.

What you say sounds more plausible than the way the mother explained it. I'm sorry, but as soon as I heard about this (yesterday evening?) I didn't believe it. IMOHO. I feel terrible admitting it.

 

[California Sunset]

Marked to follow...

Brings memories of Sky Metalwala. My first WS case.

Did you have a funny feeling when you first heard what the mother said there? (Sky's mother)

 

[California Sunset]

They never even considered this in Maleah Davis's case. Derion Vence accused Hispanic men of kidnapping Maleah. He was never charged with a hate crime for blaming men who were Hispanic.

The thing is, it seems like in many of the cases over the years where it seems to point to the person who had the child with them, like Susan Smith, the white people blame it not on a white guy but on nonexistent blacks. Susan Smith's case is over 25 years old now.
I don't get it. If you can't handle the kid, why kill them? Why not just give them up? I don't care what the child is like, the child is a child, and especially if you are the biological parent, how can you harm that baby? Susan Smith murdered her children. I know someone that said she did it right away. I asked her why she believed that, (she was right) and she said the way she wouldn't look up, she kept her eyes down. When we were talking about it at the time, my neighbor was furious. (This was before we even knew Susan Smith did it.) I went down the list of how people say all of some country's people do this, or do that, or Indians (Native Americans) are something, and my neighbor's mother started grinning and nodding her head. I think I went down the list for everyone on the planet. It happens. It's a shame, I don't know why it is but it is.

 

[California Sunset]

one too many. Sorry

 

[California Sunset]

They never even considered this in Maleah Davis's case. Derion Vence accused Hispanic men of kidnapping Maleah. He was never charged with a hate crime for blaming men who were Hispanic.

Do you suppose, for some strange psychological reason, people tend to want to blame another race from their own?

 

[California Sunset]

Oops.

 

[California Sunset]

As far as I am concerned, this Mother was always a suspect. The story, "two masked men took my child out of my car", is so improbable, to be absurd.

Sadly, children who have disabilities are more at risk for child abuse.

I talked with a mother of a child with difficulties, including ADHD. She said a counselor had told her the same thing. That kids like her son were more likely to be abused. He's always been a handful, but you have to learn to choose your battles with those kind of children. I've learned a lot from watching other parents, teachers, counselors, and many great books on children.
I know of another situation, and I want to say, some people apparently just don't know how to properly deal with it. Because I know of a child that was abused by the stepfather, and the mother allowed it to happen. I guess it happens so often with step parents or boyfriends of the mother or girlfriends of the father that I tend to think the kids are better off if the parents can put up a front and keep it together without it affecting the children.

 

[California Sunset]

Well-hidden, or yet ANOTHER case of caseworkers not following up and/or doing due diligence? You said you note that the family had not come to CPS notice, but where did that info come from? I'm sorry if I misread or read too fast and didn't notice, but as far as I saw he was getting services for his special needs, which usually indicates that the family would *at least* be on radar. I do admit that WAY too many kids fall through the cracks in this country, so it could be a case like that - especially since this happened during the pandemic/lock-down, which DOES create extra stress and pressure on caretakers. Not enough to excuse something like this, but I digress.

And YES! Non-verbal does NOT mean SILENT for our autistic bebbies! There are so many "non-verbal"kids that can and DO use their "voices" to "speak" - just in their own special way, whether through gestures, grunts, sounds, motions, screaming, sign language, etc. Just because one of our special guys (or girls!) do not speak on their "normal" level, doesn't mean that they cannot indicate that they are distressed or in danger.

Sometimes all it takes is the expression on their face, yes? Or body language.