Infant’s body empasizes heroin’s toll
Cops say mother, unable to care for her son, hid his body in a hole
Heaven Puleski was too high on heroin to care for her 4-month-old son and when he eventually died she hid his body in a hole behind their State Street home, police allege in court documents filed Wednesday.
Police do not yet know Rayen Puleksi’s cause of death, but on Wednesday they charged his mother with several felonies for allegedly wrapping the infant’s body in a plastic bag before leaving his remains behind 766 State St.
In documents filed in City Court, police accuse the 38-year-old woman of being too incapacitated by heroin to care for the baby during his final days. Police have not said when the boy died but court documents say the drug use occurred between July 17, the last day police and relatives say the baby was seen, and July 23.
Puleski was arraigned Wednesday afternoon on charges of concealment of a corpse, tampering with evidence and child endangerment. Puleski’s lawyer,
Lara Barnett, asked that she be released into the custody of the probation department so she can continue treatment for drug addiction. But City Court Judge Teneka Frost set her bail at $20,000 and sent her to the county jail.
City detectives interviewed Puleski on Tuesday evening and she was charged partly based on what she said during the questioning.
She pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and will appear in county court in the future for the felonies. Her next scheduled court appearance for a preliminary hearing is Monday.
Earlier in the week, police said more testing on the badly decomposed child’s body that was found Aug. 9 behind the State Street apartment building where the Puleskis lived would be needed before they could pinpoint the exact cause of death.
Outside court, Tremante Pelham said Wednesday that “the presumption at this point, based on the investigation, is that the remains that were found were Rayen.”
As more details emerge about Rayen’s life, his mother’s aunt, Lisa Dutcher, is furious that Heaven Puleski and Child Protective Services in Schenectady County didn’t do more to ensure the safety of the infant.
But more than anything else, Dutcher said Wednesday outside court, she wants justice for Rayen.
Dutcher recalled the first time she saw Rayen in person in late May and said that both mother and baby looked well.
“The baby was about a week old when I seen him and he was great, he was so light, he weighed a little over five pounds when he was born,” she said. “When I seen her (Puleski) she had short sleeves on and I didn’t see no fresh track marks on her arms because, oh trust me, I always looked.”
According to Dutcher, Puleski seemed to be getting her life together after Rayen’s birth while under the care of the Saratoga County Social Services Department.
At the time, a family friend named John Williams Jr. was helping Puleski by giving her rides to the baby’s doctor’s appointments or letting her use the car, Dutcher said.
Puleski stayed at Cocca’s Motel on Route 9 in Ballston Spa, according to Dutcher and a man named Pervaiz, who identified himself Wednesday as the manager.
He said Puleski had a child with her at the motel and that DSS paid for her roughly threeweek stay, which he said ended around June 22.
Dutcher said she and her niece would talk just about every day when Puleski was in Saratoga County.
The place was small and Puleski wanted more room, so she jumped at the opportunity for a bigger place in Schenectady. With that, her case was transferred to Schenectady County Child Protective Services.
Dutcher blasted Schenectady CPS, accusing the agency of failing to more closely monitor a child with a mother with a history of drug use. She also questioned why the agency did not confirm the whereabouts of the baby when Puleski claimed Rayen was in the care of Dutcher’s daughter.
“I’m furious at CPS because the second Heaven told whoever she told that my daughter had the baby, they should have contacted my daughter immediately and they would have found out that my daughter hadn’t spoken to Heaven in four years, if not more,” Dutcher said.
County officials, including County Attorney Chris Gardner, have said they are prohibited by law from discussing Puleski’s case.
Dutcher recalled her last faceto-face meeting with a female case worker on Aug. 8 in front of the police headquarters after Puleski was picked up by cops and brought to the station for questioning.
She said it was then the county employee told her that the last time she saw Rayen was on July 17.
That county Child and Family Services employee, who Dutcher identified as one of the case workers handling Heaven Puleski’s case, declined comment Tuesday during a visit by a reporter to her Rotterdam home.
In mid-july, authorities said, an image of the baby was captured in a video surveillance recording made by a camera outside the State Street building.
Dutcher recounted how despite Puleski’s adoration and love for Rayen her niece’s addiction apparently got the best of her after she moved at the end of June from Saratoga County to Schenectady. There, her new landlord told her she would have a spacious renovated apartment for $600 a month that she and her son would have to themselves. She instead arrived to find a male roommate, Dutcher said.
Dutcher said she advised Puleski to go to the county Department of Social Services, but Puleski feared she might end up homeless and no longer qualify for assistance from the agency.
“Heaven was very loving, she loved that baby,” said Dutcher, adding Puleski’s sobriquet for Rayen was “Bubs.”
By mid- to late-july, Dutcher said Puleski stopped responding to her text messages and wouldn’t answer phone calls.
When she finally managed to get her on the phone, Puleski assured her that Rayen was doing well, even though, Dutcher said, there were rumors that Puleski was doing drugs again and the baby was being left with different people.
In one of their last conversations before Puleski vanished and police appealed for the public’s help in finding her, Dutcher said, she pleaded with her niece to leave Rayen with her if she wanted to get high.
She said Puleski appeared haggard and wasn’t “the beautiful Heaven” she knew.
“I want her to know that I love her with all my heart and soul, and I forgive her, but I’m also here to see that this baby gets justice,” she said. “This baby has to get justice. “