Two Florida parents were arrested after their autistic child escaped and drowned in a containment pond at their apartment complex, police said. It was at least the fourth time that the boy left the residence alone.
Officers said the boy’s parents, Barbara Ruiz and Lester Ortiz, had bloodshot eyes and reeked of “fresh marijuana” when they arrived at the scene after Ortiz reported her son missing about 30 minutes earlier. Both parents face charges of aggravated manslaughter.
Police also noticed that the entire house had “a strong smell of freshly smoked marijuana” while searching for the boy, Ethan Ortiz Ruiz, 3, whose body was found floating in a pond directly behind his apartment about 20 minutes later.
He was taken to Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford, where he was pronounced dead.
According to police, Ethan had left the apartment without his parents’ knowledge on at least three other occasions. On two of those occasions, helpful neighbors took him to the main office and saw the young man walking around the apartment complex unsupervised.
On a third occasion in March, a member of the apartment complex’s administrative staff called the police after seeing Ethan outside alone again. Ortiz told officers that he had fallen asleep without realizing the child was gone.
Police said that during this visit to the apartment they saw that the boy was able to open the front door on his own, despite additional security measures that had been installed to prevent him from doing so. Police then contacted Seminole County Child Protective Services to inform them to send an investigator for a follow-up.
Lester Ortiz, 39, and Barbara Ruiz, 37, have been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after their three-year-old son left their apartment and drowned in a retention pond behind their home. .
After speaking with the parents on Saturday, police charged them both with aggravated homicide of a child. If convicted, Ruiz and Ortiz could face life in prison.
Ortiz, who police also described as “sweating profusely,” was taken to the hospital for a medical issue. Ruiz was arrested and taken to the John E. Polk Correctional Center without incident. Both are being held on $25,000 bail.
Both Ortiz and Ruiz told police they have state-issued medical marijuana cards and said they smoke it “regularly.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn