Jeremiah Valencia New Mexico murder: Three individuals are arrested, including the victim’s mother and her boyfriend after a teen boy was relentlessly beaten and forced to live in a dog kennel before his death.
New Mexico authorities have arrested three individuals in the fatal beating death of thirteen year old Sante Fe teen, Jeremiah Valencia.
Arrested over the weekend was the victim’s mother, 35-year-old woman, Tracy Ann Pena, her 42-year-old boyfriend, Wayne Ferguson, along with 19-year-old teen, Jordan Anthony Nunez.
Each were charged with abuse of a child resulting in death, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence.
The trio’s arrest follows authorities discovering Valencia’s body over the weekend in a shallow grave after a week long search for the missing child.
In a statement on their Facebook page, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office told of the teen’s death occurring after the boy had been allegedly abused by his mother’s boyfriend for years and spending his last days in a dog kennel.
Reiterated the FB post, ‘Jeremiah Valencia died after being subjected to horrifying circumstances.’
During a Tuesday press conference, Santa Fe Sheriff Robert Garcia told of the victim ‘suffering at the hands of a monster.’
Garcia said Jeremiah was fatally beaten about two months ago; after, his body was taken to the side of a road, where they buried the child’s remains, according to KRQE. Although he had been missing for months, his disappearance was never reported to authorities.
Jeremiah Valencia New Mexico teen beaten for years left crippled….
Investigators were tipped off to the teen’s death after something the boy’s mother, Pena told a fellow inmate when she was behind bars for an unrelated case. At the time the mother discussed her missing son, telling the other individual he had been killed according to court documents.
The inmate alerted deputies, which sparked an investigation into the teen’s whereabouts. The search ended over the weekend when his body was found in a shallow grave down a steep embankment off State Road 503, near Nambe, KRQE reported.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
Investigators believe Pena’s boyfriend, Wayne Ferguson had been beating Jeremiah for years, to the point where the teen was in a wheelchair or had to use a cane to walk.
The victim spent much of the final days of his life in a dog kennel, according to authorities.
Told District Attorney Marco Serna, ‘He was placed in a dog kennel for hours on end without food. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, these acts are senseless’.
Nunez, Ferguson’s son, told deputies he witnessed his father hit the boy and then take him to the back of their house. The three suspects allegedly took the body and buried him on the side of the road.
Jeremiah Valencia mother tried leaving abusive relationship claims friend:
Of note, Crystal Valdez, a friend of Pena’s told of the victim’s mother previously trying to escape her abusive relationship with her son’s murderer.
Told the friend after rejecting her desperate friend’s overtures of calls for help in July of last year, ‘It hurts really, really bad because I feel if I would have stepped in and done something we wouldn’t be standing here today,
KOB reported Ferguson having a lengthy criminal history that went back about 20 years. The suspect’s background included aggravated assault, abandonment abuse of a child, criminal sexual penetration, domestic violence, kidnapping and drug charges.
The media outlet citing court documents, also reported that the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department had investigated Pena back in 2011, and her two children — Jeremiah and an unnamed sister — were in the temporary care of their grandparents for about a year while the agency looked into the case.
‘CYFD can only be brought back into a family’s life if we receive additional calls of allegations of abuse or neglect and so that the last investigation we had was in 2011,’ CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson told KOB.
‘He was a wonderful kid he loved to play,’ reiterated Valdez following attending a memorial for Jeremiah. ‘He loved joking around. He loved playing. He loved playing basketball.’
