The mother who reported her 4-year-old son as missing early Saturday morning has been charged with a misdemeanor for misleading police.
Martha Alicia Guerrero-Rivas, 25, of the 1100 block of Montana Avenue, is charged with one count of making a false report. The charge is a misdemeanor.
Shortly before 4 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, Las Cruces police were dispatched to the report of a missing 4-year-old boy. Guerrero-Rivas initially told police her child was missing, and she last saw the young boy about 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Officers canvased the immediate area to no avail and investigators questioned Guerrero-Rivas who denied having any knowledge of her son’s whereabouts.
About 7 a.m. Saturday – roughly 30 minutes after the Las Cruces Police Department issued a news release on the missing child – Guerrero-Rivas indicated to police that she now remembered that she allowed her son to stay that night at a friend’s house. Officers went to that home and located the boy there.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department took custody of the young boy.
Guerrero-Rivas was arrested and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center on Saturday morning. She was released on her own recognizance later that day.
Information from Las Cruces Police