General Discussion

Patricia Ripley, Miami mother of autistic boy found dead in pond, charged with murder

Patricia Ripley, the West Kendall mother who claimed her severely autistic 9-year-old son had been kidnapped by strange men on a public road, has been arrested on accusations that she murdered the child.

After hours of questioning by police, the 47-year-old Ripley was booked into a Miami-Dade jail just before 3 a.m. Saturday on a charge of second-degree murder.

Law-enforcement sources have told the Miami Herald that Ripley eventually admitted she was behind the death of Alejandro Ripley, whose disappearance sparked a frantic statewide manhunt early Friday that ended when his body was found in a pond at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club....

Miami-Dade homicide detectives spent hours questioning the mother Friday night before she was finally booked. Details of the evidence against her were not immediately available early Saturday.