Mother charged in slaying of son
CLEVELAND — A 34-year-old Cleveland mother is charged in the death of her 5-year-old son, whose remains investigators found buried in the backyard of their home this week.
Larissa Rodriguez was charged Thursday with murder in the death of her son Jordan, who was developmentally disabled and unable to speak. She is expected to make her first court appearance on Friday.
The Cuyahoga County medical examiner has not yet officially identified the body found Tuesday by the FBI and medicalexaminer investigators as Jordan’s. There also hasn’t yet been a cause of death determined. But court records identify the body as Jordan’s, and say the body had several broken ribs and showed signs of abuse.
Investigators believe that Rodriguez killed Jordan sometime around Sept. 22, according to court records.
Larissa Rodriguez admitted to burying the child and, after initially lying to police, gave the FBI and medical examiner the exact location of where she buried Jordan, according to court records.
In a rare move, Cleveland police asked a judge on Tuesday evening to find probable cause to continue holding her in the city jail past the 48-hour limit for suspects to be held in jail without formal criminal charges. Cleveland Municipal Judge Ronald Adrine approved the request.
Larissa Rodriguez is accused of killing Jordan and burying his body in the backyard of their home on West 80th Street, between Detroit and Lake avenues in Cleveland. Investigators unearthed the body on Tuesday after three hours of digging.
Jordan’s disappearance went unknown until the brother of Larissa Rodriguez’s boyfriend called Cleveland police from Pakistan, police said.
The boyfriend, Christopher Rodriguez, is serving a six-month sentence in the Medina County jail for failing to pay child support. He has not been charged in Jordan’s death.
The brother told police that Christopher Rodriguez had called him from jail and told him that Christopher and Larissa had together buried the child in the backyard of the home two months ago, after finding him unresponsive, according to police reports.
Larissa Rodriguez told police that her son had gone to Houston, Texas, to visit his biological father, police reports say. But she was unable to provide contact information for the biological father or any other information about her son.
Larissa Rodriguez is a mother of nine children. Social workers noted in court records that her home was in “deplorable and unsanitary conditions,” the court records say. A social worker noted that one of the children inside the home was eating a cockroach-filled sandwich when they arrived.
The four children who lived at the home were taken into emergency custody by the Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services. Two of Larissa’s other children were taken by the county years ago and another lives with a father, a county spokeswoman said.
Social workers have opened 13 neglect or abuse investigations against Rodriguez since 1999. The most recent was in December 2016. That case was closed in February.