Parents arrested in death of boy who had begged not to be returned to them

https://news.yahoo.com/parents-arrested-death-boy-had-174910039.html

Justin Chan
,AOL.com•September 27, 2019

The parents of a 4-year-old boy who had begged not to be returned to them have been arrested in his death, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced on Thursday.

Jose Cuatro and Ursula Juarez were apprehended months after they brought their son, Noah, to a hospital and claimed that the child had drowned in a pool at their apartment complex in Palmdale, Calif. At the time, doctors were skeptical of their story, noting evidence of injuries to Noah's body "that was suspicious in nature and consistent with possible abuse," according to police.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office concluded that Noah was the victim of a homicide.

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Noah was pronounced dead on July 6 just months after he was transferred back to his parents's home. In an interview with KTLA earlier this year, Eva Hernandez, the boy's maternal great-grandmother, revealed that he was first removed from his mother's care when he was just a baby. The toddler then spent three months in and out of foster care before Hernandez took him in.

Six months later, a court ordered that Noah be returned to his parents. Following allegations of neglect, however, the 4-year-old was again placed in foster care and later transferred back to Hernandez. The great-grandmother told KTLA that, for the next two years, the child lived stably, but she acknowledged she constantly worried about Ursula's ability to care for him during the mother's visits.

"'Grandma,'" Hernandez recalled Noah telling her once. "'You can't let me go. You can't let me go.' He's looking at me, begging me not to let him go, and I had to let him go."

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In May, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed a 26-page request to remove the boy from his parents's custody. By then, officials had already received at least 13 calls about suspected abuse at the Cuatros' home. Still, Noah was never returned to foster care.

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tags: child abuse