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Remains Found In Garbage Bag In Backyard Of Vacant Home Identified As 4-Year-Old Boy
The mother, who is currently imprisoned for unrelated charges, wants to find out what happened to her son.
A mother is demanding justice for her son whose remains were found in a garbage bag this past September. According to Cleveland.com, Ashley Makuhan wants to know what happened to her 4-year-old son Eliazar Ruiz and why he was found dead in a vacant Cleveland home.
"My son was an amazing kid," she said. "He was always so happy. I can't wait until the person involved in this is brought to justice."
The 27-year-old is currently incarcerated at Northeast Reintegration Center in Cleveland. She is serving an 18-month sentence on drug-related charges.
Police were unable to identify the remains of the child until this past Wednesday, when they received a tip from Makuhan. According to Cleveland.com, when authorities released a forensic sketch of the unknown boy's remains to local media, Makuhan saw the broadcast and believed the sketch looked like her son. She notified prison staff, who then contacted detectives.
Authorities shared that no one had reported the child missing, and Eliazar's godmother, a family friend, had taken care of Eliazar since 2015.
Eliazar's cousin, Nikki Clark, said she regularly checked in with the godmother and was told Eliazar was doing well. Allegedly, no one in their family knew he was missing.
"There was no sign that anything was wrong," Clark said. "That's what makes all of this so confusing."
Police believe that he died sometime in the late spring or early summer. Although a cause of death has not been released, the death was previously described by the medical examiner as "extremely suspicious."
A tree pruner initially found a garbage bag of bones, a complete skeleton, in the backyard of a vacant home.
Investigators entered the boy's DNA into the national missing persons database, but didn't find a match.
"Someone was responsible for this child. Whoever it was, there's some culpability in some way," Cleveland police homicide Det. Lt. Ali Pillow said. "We don't know the totality of the situation, but we have to find out who this child was before we figure that out."
As of now, no charges have been filed in the death. There were no signs of trauma.
[Photo: Facebook]
