By: WTB BLOGGER
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed last Friday that remains found buried in a Cleveland backyard belong to a 5-year-old boy.
Investigators on Tuesday found Jordan Rodriguez’s body in bags buried outside the house on West 80th Street near Lake Avenue, the medical examiner’s office confirmed.
The medical examiner’s office has yet to rule on a cause of death.
Investigators believe Jordan, who was developmentally disabled and unable to speak, was abused because his body had several broken ribs and showed signs of abuse.
The boy’s mother, Larissa Rodriguez, was arrested Monday and is charged with murder in his death. A Cleveland Municipal Court judge set the 34-year-old woman’s bond at $1 million during her first court appearance Friday morning.
Investigators believe Larissa Rodriguez killed her son sometime around Sept. 22, according to court records
Jordan’s disappearance went unnoticed until his mother’s boyfriend, Christopher Rodriguez, contacted his brother from the Medina County Jail. Christopher Rodriguez said he and Larissa Rodriguez found Jordan unresponsive two months ago and buried the boy’s body in the backyard, police said.
Christopher Rodriguez’s brother, who lives in Pakistan, notified authorities in Cleveland .
Larissa Rodriguez initially claimed her son went to visit his biological father in Houston. She later admitted to burying him and provided the exact location where his body was buried, court records show.
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, but investigators are reviewing his involvement.
Larissa Rodriguez is a mother of nine children and pregnant with her 10 th child. Social workers opened 13 neglect or abuse investigations into her since 1999, officials said.
Social workers noted in court records that her house was in “deplorable and unsanitary conditions.”
Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services took emergency custody of four other children who lived in the house. The agency took custody of two of Larissa Rodriguez’s other children years ago, and another child lives with a biological father, a Cuyahoga County spokeswoman said.
