7-Year-Old Ohio Boy Dies After Being Severely Beaten By Mother For Several Months

The mother of a 7-year-old child in Columbus, Ohio, was charged with murder after her son was found unresponsive at their home Saturday (May 23).

Columbus police responded to a home on the 2400 block of Azelda Street on Saturday after receiving reports of a drowning. They found Fabian Maldonado-Cortez was unresponsive. The deputies initiated life-saving measures to revive the child and he was given CPR. Medics arrived and rushed the boy to Nationwide Children's Hospital. He was later pronounced dead.

A preliminary investigation conducted into the incident revealed that the boy “had been subjected to severe abuse." Fabian suffered several wounds and lacerations on his body. Police said the abuse led to his death.

According to documents filed in Franklin County Municipal Court, Fabian's mother, 24-year-old Oneida Maldonado-Cortez, confessed to beating her son multiple times and also said she was reluctant to take him to the hospital. Oneida was charged with murder.

Court documents stated that the boy’s stepfather, 37-year-old Jose Santos, confessed to having seen his wife beat the child with various objects over the course of several months. He said he was afraid to call the police for help because he did not want his wife to go to prison. Santos was charged with endangering children.

The investigation was ongoing and no further information was available at the time of this writing.

Meanwhile, the police were seeking help from the public and asked anyone with information on the case to call the CPD Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.

In a similar incident, 31-year-old Hina Sadia, a mother from Fife, Washington, attempted to kill her 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son because she thought the children would not contribute to society. The father of the children was out at a store when Sadia choked her son first, then changed her mind and decided to kill her daughter first. She was taken into custody after she made a 911 call and said she had just killed her daughter and her "baby boy" was next. During the interrogation, she confessed "I am a bad mother and I cannot take care of my kids."