Social Services Worker, Boyfriend of Cleveland Mom Accused of Murdering, Burying Five-Year-Old Son, Also Indicted

Update: Cuyahoga County prosecutor Mike O’Malley today announced additional charges in the investigation of the death of 5-year-old Jordan Rodriguez, the boy found buried in a backyard on West 80th Street in December. His mother, Larissa Rodriguez, has already been indicted on a host of charges including murder.

Christopher Rodriguez, her boyfriend, is now also charged with murder in the case. It was his brother, calling from Pakistan, who initially reported Jordan’s death and backyard burial to Cleveland police.

A grand jury has also handed up charges against Nancy Caraballo, a social services contract worker from Bright Beginnings, for illegal food stamp trafficking.

Since 2014, she was assigned the family’s case and was supposed to be making monthly visits. Instead, prosecutors say, she accepted bribes in the form of food stamps from Larissa Rodriguez — totaling thousands of dollars over the course of multiple years. She’d purchase Rodriguez’s food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar and restrict her visits to the outside of the residence. Officials said she’d been there three times between when Jordan was last seen alive and when his body was unearthed.

Authorities discovered deplorable conditions inside once the investigation began.

Rodriguez had previously received more than a dozen citations by county social services over the years and even had two of her children removed from her custody.

***

(Original story 12/29/17): A grand jury has indicted Larissa Rodriguez on various counts related to the death of her five-year-old son, Jordan, who was developmentally disabled, and whose remains were uncovered earlier this month. Cleveland.com reports that she is scheduled to be arraigned next Tuesday. 

The indictments, which include murder, abuse of a corpse, felonious assault and child endangering, accused Rodriguez of treating Jordan in a way that would “outrage reasonable sensibilities.”

Rodriguez buried Jordan in the backyard of her home on W. 8oth Street in the city’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Officials began investigating when they were tipped off by the brother of Rodriguez’s boyfriend, who phoned from Pakistan.

The home, according to social workers, was in “deplorable” condition, and the four children who lived with Rodriguez were taken into emergency custody.

Rodriguez has received more than a dozen citations by county social services over the years and even had two of her children removed from her custody. She is the mother of nine children and is currently pregnant with her 10th.

This article appears in Dec 27, 2017 – Jan 2, 2018.