A woman from New Mexico who was taken into custody in February — months after her 5-year-old son reportedly died from lack of food — showed up in court on Wednesday.
Marecella Montelongo’s child passed away in July after he was found unresponsive in their Alberquerque residence. An examination confirmed the boy, who was unable to see and had cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and other impairments, died because he didn't get enough food and fluids, according to USA Today.
Montelongo, 23, was supposed to give her son G-tube feedings three times daily. She said she had just given him food, but a relative claimed the boy vomited and stopped breathing when they tried to clear his airways, according to KOAT.
A relative accused Montelongo of using drugs and neglecting to give her son his required liquid food. The autopsy report indicated that the boy had 0 percent body fat and weighed 13.6 pounds.
Montelongo’s son was the subject of at least four reports to Child Protective Services in the years before his death.
According to KOAT, a source stated in September 2022 that a doctor examined the boy in May 2022 and observed he was pale and hardly moving. The doctor also instructed Montelongo to take him to urgent care, mentioning that his weight had dropped from 26 to 20 pounds.
Montelongo was also accused of failing to take her son to physical therapy after it was found that he had a dislocated hip during an August 2022 visit to a cerebral palsy clinic.
“This defendant made efforts to conceal the abuse and this child’s death from medical providers and from the school, even withdrawing him from the school,” Judge David Murphy said on Wednesday, according to KOAT.
Montelongo is charged with child abuse resulting in death. The judge ordered that she could not file a motion for release until she completed an in-custody addiction treatment program.
[Feature Photo: Marecella Montelongo/Metropolitan Detention Center]