Police arrested a 25-year-old Texas woman Tuesday, four months after authorities said she brought her 4-year-old son to an abandoned building in Juarez, Mexico, and left him.
Mexican authorities found the boy, who identified himself as “Luis,” on Feb. 22. Officials believed he might be American, because he understood and spoke English. Juarez is just across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso.
El Paso police learned about the child last week when a supervisor in the department's Crimes Against Persons Unit heard about him during an Amber Alert seminar in Mexico City, Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told the El Paso Times.
Police released images of the boy last week in hopes of learning his identity. Authorities said the boy’s mother, 25-year-old Ruby Esmeralda Gonzalez, saw the photos on a local television station Saturday and called police to report her son missing.
Investigators determined that Gonzalez took her son across the border and left him in the abandoned building on Feb. 22, the same day he was found, before returning to the U.S.
Gonzalez was charged with abandoning or endangering a child with imminent danger. She was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $10,000 bond.
Her son remained in the care of social services in Juarez, according to the El Paso Times.
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