A three-year-old toddler tragically died at the hands of his abusive uncle after his mother was deported from the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to prosecutors.
Orlin Hernandez Reyes, aged three, passed away on March 4 in Escambia, Florida, after allegedly being tortured by his uncle, Samuel Maldonado Erazo, 28. Erazo had been entrusted with the care of the boy following the deportation of Orlin's mother, Wendy Hernandez Reyes, to Honduras in January, alongside her sister, who was separated from Maldonado, as reported by The Washington Post.
Wendy, who arrived in the US while pregnant with her only child in 2022, was taken into custody by federal agents on January 8 after a Baldwin County sheriff's deputy pulled over a car in which she was a passenger. She and her sister, Osiris Reyes, were traveling that day in Minette, Alabama, for their jobs laying concrete foundations for new homes across the Florida-Alabama border.
After stopping the car, the deputy asked everyone inside for identification, as Alabama law requires officers to check the immigration status of individuals they suspect are in the US illegally. Wendy and Osiris only had their Honduras passports, leading the deputy to alert ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations agents, according to federal records and the mother's lawyer.
The sisters were then handcuffed on the side of the road as ICE officers arrived and asked them what they wanted to do with their children. Under US ICE policy, officers must ask arrested individuals if they are parents or primary caregivers to minor children and allow them to make arrangements for their children during the deportation process.
Wendy informed officers that she was a single mother, pleading with them to release her so she could care for Orlin, but they refused. 'I had no other option. The police stopped me. They didn't want to release us,' she recalled. It was then that she decided to place her baby boy with Erazo, who was already looking after Orlin's cousins. At the time, Wendy thought it was a good idea because her son's cousins were like siblings, and she wanted them to remain close while she and her sister were away. After confirming that he would take care of her child, Erazo assured Wendy he would be safe in his care.
Once inside the detention center in Louisiana, Wendy said she constantly tried to contact her child and planned to talk to him whenever possible until they were reunited. However, when she was officially sent back to her home country, the tablet provided by the agency stopped working. 'I told them to help me with my boy. I needed him,' she told WaPo. Wendy was also deported without her passport and other documents needed to prove she was Orlin's parent.
While Wendy and her sister returned to their home country, Erazo, a heavy drinker, often whipped Orlin and his three cousins. According to the little boy's autopsy, Orlin was the most severely abused. He suffered multiple broken bones, burn marks from where Erazo used a lighter on his skin, numerous bruises, and a swollen stomach and testicles believed to have been stomped on by his uncle, District One Chief Medical Examiner Deanna Oleske said in her report. Orlin's death was ruled a homicide after he suffered multiple blunt force traumas.
On the day Orlin died, his uncle called Wendy and told her that her son was ill, claiming he had accidentally dropped a 12-pack of soda on the boy and that Orlin had been bitten by bugs. However, after conducting an autopsy, Dr. Oleske stated that was not what happened. 'Absolutely no toddler has "normal" injuries like bruising to the back of the hand/knuckles from doing toddler stuff,' the medical examiner told police.
Erazo was indicted by a grand jury on March 26 for first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse. He has pleaded not guilty. The alleged abuse began on at least February 1 and continued until the day Orlin died.
Wendy not only missed her son's third birthday in February but will never get to celebrate with him again. ICE released a statement a week after Orlin was killed, blaming the mother for leaving the child 'with a violent murderer.' 'This little boy suffered extensively and died when his mother abandoned him to Maldonado-Erazo’s care,' ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said. 'I encourage parents to self-deport with their children, but even if they choose not to do that, ICE gives them the opportunity to be removed with their kids.'
Wendy is now working on having Orlin's body shipped to her in Honduras so she can bury him and see him one last time. A GoFundMe campaign started by Latino Media Gulf Coast Owner Grace Resendez McCaffery is raising money to help her do so.
