Murder charges reveal horrific injuries as mother is accused in death of toddler son
A Moorhead mother has been charged with murder following the death of her 20-month-old child earlier this month.
Valerie Zamora, 32, has been charged with 2nd-degree murder after her son, Jose, died at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo on May 15, having been brought to the hospital by Zamora.
Warning: The following contains upsetting details.
Police had been called shortly after Jose died as his body showed signs of bruising. Detectives who arrived at the hospital "noted various bruising all over the victim and that the [boy's] belly was distended."
An autopsy later revealed the boy's death was the result of "complications of blunt force injuries due to assault," with Jose suffering a number of bruises to his abdomen, head , face, jaw/neck, chest, arm, back, and legs. He had a perforated bowel, hemorrhages to the liver and pancreas, and healing rib fractures.
Interviewing Zamora at the scene, she said her son woke up on the morning of May 15 and was vomiting. After she gave him Tylenol and Gatorade, the boy "basically" slept all day, but said she noticed he was breathing different and "not acting like himself," according to the charges. She explained the bruising by claiming he bruises easily.
Zamora said she lives at a home with Jose, her two other children, and an individual referred to in the complaint as DEP. She said on the evening of May 15, she drove to Walmart in Dilworth with DEP to get her son Pedialyte, but while she was in the store, DEP came in to tell her Jose was vomiting blood, at which point she "sped" to the hospital.
But the complaint says Zamora's story began to change regarding how sick he had been leading up to his arrival at the hospital, saying that the vomiting had actually started a day earlier and got progressively worse, to the point he was vomiting "a black or dark substance."
She claims she told DEP they should take the boy to the hospital, but she didn't seek medical care until at the Walmart.
Police spoke with several neighbors, friends, and Zamora's two other children, who said they had seen the boy during the day of May 15 and said they told Zamora she needed to take him to the hospital, and later told her to call an ambulance.
One of her children told police she got home from school and "immediately noticed" her younger brother needed medical care, and told Zamora to take him to the hospital, saying he was "struggling to breathe and cold."
The girl told police she was worried her brother was going to die in her arms.
When she came to be interviewed four days after her son's death, Zamora's "timeline of the events leading up the death continued to change," the complaint claims.
"Defendant was adamant that she did not hurt the victim however she admitted that she did not take him for medical care initially because she said it was 'obviously neglect' and was afraid social services would take her children away," it continues.
"Notes from medical personnel at the hospital indicate when the victim was brought into the lobby, the victim was pale, clammy, cold and pulseless."
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