A Jayuya mother is demanding answers after her four-year-old son died in a Puerto Rico Department of the Family foster home in Arecibo. Axniel Oneill Ríos Rivera died on Monday, October 12. His mother, Shelsy Rivera Rivera, said: "I gave her two beautiful, chubby, healthy boys, and she is handing me one in a little box and the other one is in the home, and I have no answer from her."
She was referring to Nexy Román Colón, a Department of the Family social worker, whom she blames for the removal of her two children over domestic violence allegations that she rejects. According to relatives, the siblings were removed on September 18 and first placed with their paternal grandmother, Carmen Ríos Huertas, who said she had prepared a room in her home for them.
She said the social worker called her on the 7th and told her to bring the boys to the police station, where the children were taken from her. The Department of the Family maintains the residence did not meet safety requirements but did not say what deficiencies were found. The children were then placed in the Arecibo foster home.
The mother said she got a call at 2:40 AM on October 11 saying the boy ate rice, began vomiting, turned pale and shaky, and asking whether she authorized taking him to a doctor; she said yes. The family questions whether he received medical care. The Department neither confirmed nor denied the call, said it cannot give details because the case is confidential, and said the matter is under investigation. Autopsy results are pending to determine the cause of death.