By HENRY K. LEE
Sunday, November 05, 2006
An 8-year-old boy died after allegedly being beaten, tortured and possibly forced to drink household cleaner by his mother in what police said was one of the worst cases of child abuse they've ever seen.
Teresa Marie Moses, 23, was arrested on suspicion of murder, torture, child endangerment and child abuse in Friday's death of her son, Raijon Daniels. The Contra Costa County coroner has conducted an autopsy but is awaiting the results of toxicology tests before determining the cause of Raijon's death, authorities said.
Police said the boy may have died from swallowing household cleaner or another poison. The boy, who was covered head to toe with injuries in various stages of healing, lived in horrible conditions, staying in a locked room outfitted with a surveillance camera and eating food that was mixed in a blender, police said.
Moses, who works as a United Parcel Service supervisor in Richmond, told police she had disciplined him for what she perceived to be misbehavior, such as urinating or defecating on himself, police said.
"She said she thought he was playing mind games with her" whenever he defecated on himself, said Richmond police Sgt. Mitch Peixoto. "I think he was scared to death of his mother."
Moses also told police that she had been punishing her son, whom she home-schooled, since November 2005, because he ran away by jumping out a second-floor window and then stole toys at a store because he didn't have any, authorities said.
"That little kid has been going through a living hell," Peixoto said.
About 5:15 p.m. Friday, Moses called for an ambulance, saying she had a medical emergency at her home.
Paramedics and police arrived to find Raijon nonresponsive with traces of vomit on his face. The boy was rushed to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond.
"It was pretty apparent that the child was the victim of extensive physical abuse," said Lt. Mark Gagan, who saw Raijon before he was pronounced dead at Kaiser. "It was the most disturbing crime scene I've ever seen."
Raijon's room was outfitted with closed-circuit camera, and a cord led to a monitor in Moses' room where she kept an eye on her son, Peixoto said. Police found signs that Raijon had been restrained on his bed, where the sheets were duct-taped, Peixoto said.
Raijon had whip marks, burns, cuts and scars "over every inch of his body," Gagan said. "It's obvious that this was a sustained and prolonged pattern of abuse. From what I've seen and heard about this case, I just don't understand how a mother could do this to her child."
Post new comment