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By Cara McCoy 
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 | 2:02 p.m.
Mary Jane Lopez
Sun Archives
A 22-year-old Las Vegas woman whose toddler son drowned in a pool last week told police she was “happy that he’s gone and don’t have to suffer anymore,” according to a Metro Police arrest report released Wednesday.
The boy, 2-year-old Geno Valerio, had diabetes and his mother, Mary Jane Lopez, was his primary caregiver, police said.
She was booked Tuesday into the Clark County Detention Center on a count of felony child neglect with substantial bodily harm resulting in death. The boy’s grandmother found him May 2 in the family’s pool.
Before police were called, Lopez said she and her mother sat in the living room and took turns holding the dead child while they discussed possibly disposing of the boy’s body without involving authorities, the police report said.
She said she told her mother, “I think it will be easier that I don’t have to worry about him any more, about him suffering from his diabetes and measuring his insulin,” investigators said in their report. She also reportedly told her mother “I’m happy he left us now and not when he got older,” the report stated.
Investigators interviewed the boy’s grandmother, who adamantly denied such a conversation took place. She said there was no delay between when the boy was found and when police were called.
According to the report, police responded to the home in the 4800 block of Santa Barbara Street, which is north of the Tropicana Avenue interchange at U.S. 95, after receiving a 911 call in which the caller stated, “I don’t need medical, I need the police to come, my grandson drowned,” the report stated. When the dispatcher asked where the child was, the caller responded, “in my arms, he’s dead,” and said the child had been underwater for about three hours.
The caller, later identified as the boy’s grandmother, is heard saying, “I can’t believe this, Mary Jane,” the report said.
Investigators responded to the home and pronounced the boy dead. They interviewed Lopez and the boy’s grandmother and grandfather, all of whom lived in the home along with Lopez’s three young children.
They determined the child had been unsupervised for about three hours, the report said.
The police report indicated Lopez told police she was angry with Geno’s father because he refused to come home and spend time with her and the children, so she went for a walk and left the children without informing the other adult in the home – her father – that she was leaving.
The boy apparently went outside through a sliding glass door that was left ajar, the police report said. She told investigators she knew the door was open when she left, the report said, and admitted the boy’s death was probably her fault because she should have been watching him, the report indicated.
The boy’s grandmother said no attempts to resuscitate the boy were made because his body was cold and his lips were purple, police said.
A Clark County Coroner’s Office spokeswoman said Wednesday that an official cause of death was still pending.
Lopez is also facing two counts of felony child neglect for her 1-year-old twins, who were also left unattended. Police said earlier this week that the two younger children were taken into the custody of Child Protective Services.
In April 2009, Child Protective Services began an investigation into the boy’s medical care after his parents were suspected of not caring for him properly. A nurse was hired to visit the family and teach childcare skills, authorities said, and the investigation was closed in June 2009.
Lopez is being held without bail. She is scheduled to appear before a judge Thursday.
She's gonna be real "happy" spending the rest of her life in prison for a child's murder..
She deserves the death sentence. We have enough filth on this planet.
I guess she'll be happy in jail for the rest of her life. Useless.
Just one more dirtbag that needs to be neutered.
This may be one of the most tragic stories I've ever read. It almost sounds as if this mother left the house and left the door open in hopes that the child would drown himself. It pains me to think of the poor child's last conscious moments and the feelings of abandonment and fear he surely felt.
The other all-too-common issue here is the lack of a mother and father working together to raise their children. Having both parents in the home providing loving care to the children they created together would likely reduce the number of accidents like this. When will we, as a people, start taking more responsibility for the choices we make? If you're going to have sex, you need to understand that those ingredients often produce innocent babies that deserve loving and responsible parents. If you're not ready to make the incredible sacrifices needed to responsibly raise children, don't go down that path in the first place.
Most of - if not all - of our country's problems can be traced back to the lack of a home with a loving mother and father (who both wanted the children they created) working together to raise their children. When that model fails, the problem reverberates through future generations.
I blame the liberals that don't like religious schools. No one at my Catholic school or the Jewish schools ever did anything like this.
22, three kids, CPS came out once and nothing happened. The father should also be charged in this as well.
Newcomer, you hit it dead on.
Diabetes is not a life sentence. Many people live good lives who are diabetic.
She could have let him be adopted by a family that really wanted a child.
Geezelouise, sometimes I just dont' get how people think.
Not everything is about religion. Being raised in a good home with good family value has NOTHING to do with organized religion. I agree with newcomer, this is a enormous problem that is not going away anytime soon.
The child didn't ask to be brought in to the world, in any good or bad health condition. People like her overshadow those good people who are out there numbering in the millions who take care of ill children and give them humanly love and nurturing, freely under the Grace of God.
I thought she was charged with child neglect?
How does someone think she will even see a jail cell?
It will take at least two years to have a trial and if convicted she will get time served and be out less than 3 months after the verdict.
My heart weeps for these children.
Comment removed by moderator. Language.
SOME TIME I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD:
"Well. I'm up here in this womb
I'm looking all around
Well, I'm looking out my belly button window
And I see a whole lot of frowns
And I'm wondering if they don't want me around
What seems to be the fuzz out there?
Just what seems to be the hang?
'Cause you know if ya just don't want me this time around,
Yeah I'll be glad to go back to Spirit Land
And even take a longer rest,
Before I'm coming down the chute again
Man, I sure remember the last time, baby
They were still hawkin' about me then
So if you don't want me now,
Make up your mind, where or when
If you don't want me now,
Give or take, you only got two hundred days
'Cause I ain't coming down this way too much more again"
Jimi Hendrix "BELLY BUTTON WINDOW"
You can tell a lot about a society when you evauate how they care for their childern. We can find all the money and energy we need to stock pile weapons and fund military adventures all over the world; but come to the aide of a child in need oh' no.
I have nothing more to say, it hurt too much.
only stupid people are breeding...
As a taxpayer I'd rather pay for a tubal ligation for the girl rather than a lifetime behind bars.
I personally know some people with the diabetes that requires insulin shots. 2 of them have had it since childhood. They are happy and healthy there's no reason why this child couldn't have had a nice life if only his parents cared about him. So sad.
Sounds more like a murder investigation and charges would be more more appropriate.
"I blame the liberals that don't like religious schools. No one at my Catholic school or the Jewish schools ever did anything like this."
That has got to be the most retarded thing I read all week. I guess Catholic schools the kids are abused but at least not murdered.
Catholic school kids just wish they were dead.
to geezelouise: Apparently you know nothing about diabetes. It is in fact a life sentence and no one with this dreaded disease lives normally. They have blindness, kidney failure, heart attachs, strokes, poor circulation, amputations, brain damage from high blood sugars, constant injections, testing and on and on. What is "normal" about that life?
to PierreBeauRegard - I don't remember being asked either if I wanted to be born. am sure that no one has ever "asked" that question you fool.
Don't get me wrong, what the mother did or in this case didn't do is appauling and she should be punished to the full extent the law can punish her and her mother. My comments are for people who really know nothing about what they speak of.
Lizzie, wrong... I am a type one diabetic, and according to my doctors I am healthier overall than 95 % of non diabetic patients they see. The advances of this are phenomenal. You don't need to do all the stuff you describe. they have a wonderful insulin pump, that most low income people will get free if they ask about it. it takes away the need to test as it does it for you, plus you only need to change the needle once every 72 hours. So it is not a life sentence, it is an inconvenience at most.
This family talks as if the child was some sort of object as opposed to a living human being. I'm thinking the only reason the child made it as long as he did was he probably represented extra income for the household via welfare etc. It sounds like he ranked lower than a pet in that house. Three hours! This is no less than a selfish monster carrying out a death sentence to a helpless little soul.
Well, this story just keeps getting worse.
This woman must have been very distraught or drugged when she admitted the conversation about disposing of the body to the police. She just doesn't seem very bright - especially since she couldn't realize the hypocrisy of her getting mad at the father for not spending time with the children and reacting by leaving and not spending time with her children.
Having a child with Type I diabetes is much more difficult but not impossible. But this mother just could not handle it, even though she was still living at home with her parents. On some level she knew she did not want to be responsible for her child. This was probably not the first time she was reckless about the child's safety because she no longer wanted to take care of him. She should have allowed the state to take the child from her so that he could have a chance to live his life.
And now...for the rest of the story..."The police report indicated Lopez told police she was angry with Geno's father because he refused to come home and spend time with her and the children, so she went for a walk..." and three hours later after scoring her crack, she stumbled home to find her child dead.
The mother and the grandmother left the two year old unsupervised for three hours by a pool?
Book em both Dano!
I agree with sjatlv....I'm sure she left for a "walk" to buy or use drugs.
My questions are really how much government assistance she was receiving? Was she getting welfare, wic, food stamps. etc? If so, is this how we want our tax dollars spent, on trash like this girl?
Just imagine how lousy that little kid's life was like when he was alive. He was tortured daily by that woman. I just weep when I think of it.
How can there be a God? God permits that kind of behavior? Don't tell me it is a test of faith either. That doesn't do it for me anymore. An animal would not treat an offspring like that.
Bless the children, they're the purest things we have.
I certainly don't believe the mother's story OR the grandmother either. The boy was underwater for 3 hours. Imagine that! How could you hate somebody that much?
She should be charged with first-degree PREMEDITATED murder - for SURELY she was hoping/expecting the outcome she got when she knowingly left these kids alone with the patio door open allowing free access to that pool. What a real dirt-bag...I hope they change the charges from simple child neglect to that which she should rightfully be charged with.
In a better place - Sounds like a bible thumper
They all need to be charged with something. All of the adults in that hell-hole of a house, had a hand at abusing that toddler.
This household was on the radar screen with the CPS. I blame the lax courts, laws regarding parental "rights" and the weak CPS investigations. I'm sure if you ask any CPS worker that ever visited this "family" before the child passed away they are kicking themselves right now as they could see that something like was going to happen. However, no strong interevention was allowed because the mother (and the worthless father) could come to court and be allowed to have the kids back due to the presumptions in place that you keep families together (case plans etc.) This woman is obviously totally warped and not in the same world as us. I'm sure any reasonable person could spend five minutes with her and see it plain as day. Why did this have to happen? She needed to be separated from her kids but that never done. Now we have a dead child that was never loved in the first place and another piece of trash my tax dollars have to support while she sits in the women's prison. . . Weak and lax enforcement and no swift action where it is necessary to separate derilict parents from their innocent children. This from our broke going even further down the tubes state and county. This is going to continue.
azsk8fan is correct, this is premeditated murder.
There is a lot more information in the RJ story published today:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/mother-held-in-...
The grandfather was home the entire time, and the mother has told 3 different stories about what he was doing when the boy drowned. The grandmother was also home at 5pm and napping while the boy drowned. Previously, I had read that the grandmother had just gotten home from work and discovered the child.
Three people could have been watching this and child. And the stories from the mother keep changing.
darthbry - you and your doctors are fools too. you may have it under control but it will get you in the end. My daughter had diabetes from the time she was 18 months old. She is now dead at 38 from the ravishing of this disease. Don't kid yourself my dear - you are headed for a wake-up call. She too was "fine and healthy" for the first 16 years. Didn't do much good the final years.
What are the penalties for these charges?
1. "child neglect with substantial bodily harm resulting in death"
2. "two counts of felony child neglect"
Yea Darthby You fool end it all now! Stop kidding youself and everyone around you.
she killed her 2 year son old because he had diabetes. diabetes.
too funny, I am in better health now than at 18. I am 35 now so I guess I have 3 years left? Guess those docs are dumb, although they are some of the highest recognized endocronologists around... oh well, Lizzie I am sorry for your loss, however don't use your daughters death as a way to frighten others with the disease. That is wrong, and maybe the first 16 years of "fine and healthy were in your own opinion. After all that was when she was most in your care? correct? So if she was fine and healty during that time no responsibility for her health can be placed on you. I sense a little guilt there.
Spock, live long and prosper! my favorite star trek character! :-)