Affidavit: Mother abandoned son in Juarez because she “wanted a better life for the child”

The mother accused of abandoning her 4-year-old son in Juarez on February 22, 2017 allegedly confessed to detectives she left the boy in an abandoned building because she “did not want her mother to take the child,” a complaint affidavit obtained by ABC-7 states.

Ruby Esmeralda Gonzalez, 25, is charged with “Abandoning and Endangering Child/Imminent Danger/Bodily Injury.” Gonzalez was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility on a bond of $10,000.

Sources close to investigation in Juarez tell ABC-7 the boy was found in the Colonia Central near Francisco Villa and Cristobal Colon streets, not that far away from the international port of entry.

A man who appeared to be an American tourist spotted the boy and brought it to the attention of a parking attendant. When police arrived, they questioned the boy, who told them his name is Luis and that his mom had left him there. The officers took the boy to a judge’s office, who sent the boy to a children’s home where he has been cared for since.

On June 2, 2017, authorities in Juarez reached out to El Paso Police for help identifying the boy. Images of the boy, identified as Luis Mendez in court documents, were posted on social media and shown on local television stations. ABC-7 first broke the news on the KVIA ABC-7 Facebook page.

A complaint affidavit states Gonzalez called police to tell them the boy found in Juarez was her son. Gonzalez claimed her son was kidnapped by his biological father on February 18, 2017.

Detectives, through information obtained from border crossing cards, learned Gonzalez crossed into Juarez and back into El Paso the day Juarez police found the boy.

Under interrogation, Gonzalez allegedly admitted to investigators she took her son to Juarez and abandoned him in a vacant white building.

“The defendant Gonzalez stated she abandoned the victim Mendez because she wanted to provide a better life for the child and did not want her mother to take the child,” the document states.