New Orleans police arrested a mother on Monday and charged her with second-degree cruelty to a juvenile and negligent homicide after her 12-year-old son was found dead in a lagoon and the coroner determined he died in an alligator attack and drowning.
Bryan Vasquez, who was autistic and non-verbal, was reported missing in mid-August and was discovered on Aug. 26 in a lagoon near the family’s home in Village De L’Est, authorities said. Police said records from the Office of Children and Family Services show multiple reports filed against the boy’s mother, Hilda Vasquez, for child physical abuse and lack of supervision between 2013 and 2025.
According to Hilda Vasquez and reporting by local outlets, the boy woke her around 3 a.m. one morning in August because he had trouble sleeping. She said she took him back to his sister’s room, gave him a melatonin sleep aid and later left the house at about 7 a.m. to take her younger son to school, leaving Bryan and an 11-year-old daughter at home. She said she did not check on Bryan before leaving because his bedroom door was closed and she believed he was asleep. She learned he was missing about 10 a.m. when her daughter told her so after being asked to run errands.
Vasquez told reporters she later found the window to Bryan’s bedroom open. She said the window had been left unlocked because he had never tried to leave that way previously. Neighbors and relatives had searched for him after he disappeared, and volunteers in the community organized daily searches that continued for nearly two weeks.
Family members and neighbors said Bryan had run away from the prior house twice in the weeks before his death. The first episode occurred on Aug. 1 and the family and police located him. A second episode on Aug. 4 ended when a neighbor found and returned him; that incident was not reported to authorities at the time, the family said. The family had recently moved from a house near a playground where neighbors knew to bring Bryan back; at the new residence, Vasquez had not yet installed an alarm or other security measures, witnesses said. The family had an iron security gate but investigators said the boy exited through his bedroom window.
Relatives, friends and community members conducted searches across Village De L’Est, combing streets and nearby wetlands. Volunteers said they searched daily from about 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., pausing when daylight faded and mosquitos and other hazards increased. Vasquez told a local news outlet that her son had been anxious and "felt cooped up" after the move and could not return to school because a special-needs bus route for him had not been set up, and she said, "He just wants to run."
After Bryan’s body was recovered in the lagoon, the Orleans Parish coroner determined the cause of death to be an alligator attack and drowning, officials said. The New Orleans Police Department said it received the child-welfare records showing multiple reports involving Hilda Vasquez and that those records were reviewed as part of their investigation.
Police charged Hilda Vasquez with second-degree cruelty to a juvenile and negligent homicide. She was taken into custody and will face proceedings in Orleans Parish criminal court, where the case will proceed through the judicial process. Detectives and child-welfare officials continue to review the circumstances surrounding the boy’s disappearance and death, authorities said.
The case has drawn attention in the neighborhood, where volunteers had posted multilingual flyers and mounted searches. Investigators said they will release additional information as the inquiry and prosecution move forward.