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Ohio woman charged in son's death after buried remains found

The child's body reportedly showed multiple signs of abuse, including broken ribs.
Larissa Rodriguez (Cleveland Police)

CLEVELAND (AP) — A woman charged with murder in the death of her 5-year-old son told authorities where they could find his body buried in the backyard of a Cleveland home and four of her other children were found living there in squalid conditions, according to an arrest affidavit.

Larissa Rodriguez was charged Thursday in Cleveland. Court records don't indicate whether she has an attorney and she is scheduled to appear in Cleveland Municipal Court on Friday.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office hasn't yet identified the remains found Tuesday as those of Rodriguez's developmentally disabled son, Jordan, and hasn't said how he died. Cleveland police have said Jordan died Sept. 22.

The arrest affidavit submitted by a Cleveland homicide detective Wednesday said Rodriguez "buried the child inappropriately" and led authorities Tuesday to where his remains could be found.

The affidavit said that the "corpse exhibited multiple signs of abuse, including broken ribs."

According to a police report, officers went to the home Monday after receiving a tip from Pakistan from the brother of Rodriguez's boyfriend that Rodriguez and her boyfriend buried Jordan's body in the yard after finding him unresponsive. The boyfriend is currently jailed in another Ohio county on drug charges.

Rodriguez, a 34-year-old mother of nine children, told officers Monday that her son went to Texas with an aunt in early December and was living with his father. She told officers she didn't know how to contact him, the police report said.

Rodriguez lost custody of her two oldest children years ago and two of her children, ages 3 and 8, live with their fathers, said Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan.

The county took emergency custody of her other four children, between the ages of 16 months and 12 years, after Rodriguez was arrested Monday. An affidavit from the county said the children were living in squalid conditions and that the home was infested with cockroaches and rats.

One of the children was seen eating a sandwich that contained cockroaches, the county affidavit said.

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