Jaden Alexander Lopez was born on January 3rd, 2013, in Texas. His mother was Rebecca Suzanne Rivera; the name of his father was not released to the public. He had a younger brother named Axel. Jaden had dark hair, dark eyes, long eyelashes, and a slightly upturned nose. At the time of our story, he was four years old, but was quite small for his age and he was very thin. In a picture taken shortly before the events of this story, he was wearing a striped blue and white shirt, black pants, and Spider-Man shoes. Just 3 months shy of 5 years old, he would have been talking and almost ready for kindergarten. He still had his baby teeth, and his mother said he had been to the beach and liked the water. Based on his Spider-Man shoes, it’s reasonable to think that he might have been a fan of superheroes, but unfortunately, we will never know, and not much has been disclosed about who Jaden was as a person. The forensic artist who sketched the little boy said he had full lips and beautiful eyelashes. She could picture him smiling, and he reminded her of her own grandson.
On October 20th, 2017, a woman walking along the beach by the seawall in Galveston, Texas, noticed something in the water. From a distance, it looked like a log or maybe a big fish, but she wasn’t really sure what she was looking at. Concerned and likely acting on some sort of intuition, she called the local police. When officers arrived, they found the body of a child in the water just offshore. It was a boy; he had no clothes on, was about 3 ft tall, very skinny, and possibly 3 to 5 years old. They picked him up gently and brought him to the shore. Police searched the beach and collected dozens of pieces of potential evidence. They concluded rather quickly that the parents were likely still alive. That section of beach isn’t a popular destination, especially not in October. Captain Joshua Sherard of Galveston PD said, “There’s not a lot of beach in between the dunes and the actual tide line, so it’s definitely not heavily trafficked, not heavily populated, and we really don’t get a lot of people walking to and from.”
Officers checked with nearby law enforcement agencies as well as the Coast Guard, but nobody had heard anything. They expected the boy would be reported missing that night or the following day, but that did not happen. Law enforcement said there was no family, no friends, no outcry, and nobody to claim this little boy. When days passed and no one reported an accident or a missing child matching his description, police then suspected foul play. Their suspicions grew after the body was examined; it showed signs of neglect and injuries consistent with child abuse. The medical examiner was certain that the boy hadn’t died by drowning, so he had to have been placed in the water once he was already dead. Galveston Police Detective Jeff Banks said, “Somebody knows him. We are going to do right by him. We’re going to find out who did it, who put him in the water.” Banks was the lead detective and would spend over 1,600 hours on the case before it was finished. Because it involved such a young victim, the FBI assisted the Galveston police in their search of missing persons databases. They also submitted DNA samples to labs that handled missing persons cases.
For a couple of days, they thought they might have a match. The sketch of a missing boy from Hawkins County, Tennessee, looked similar, but they soon determined the cases were unrelated. He was given the nickname “Little Jacob.” The FBI asked forensic artist Lois Gibson to draw a sketch based on the photos from the crime scene. Lois is a world-renowned sketch artist and has been involved in many difficult cases. Lois wanted to make the boy come to life in her sketch. She said, “I want to reach out to that grandmother, or the relative, or the mommy, or the daddy, or some neighbor—somebody knows the baby.” She said, “You can’t figure out who murdered that child because you don’t have a name, but as soon as you have a name, it’s so easy to solve. Once you find the parents, you’re done. You get to look in their face and say, ‘Where’s your little boy?'”
In November of 2017, the sketch of Little Jacob appeared in a billboard campaign around Texas, as well as Kentucky and Tennessee. The FBI offered a reward of $10,000 for any information. Lots of tips did come in, but none of them helped identify Little Jacob. Some callers volunteered to pay for the boy’s funeral, but he could not be laid to rest until his case was solved. The FBI decided to take the search nationwide. Crime Stoppers organization got involved and offered their own $5,000 reward. Police asked the public to be vigilant and to be on the lookout for certain suspicious actions, because Little Jacob’s parents may be acting differently; he might be missing work or might have abruptly moved. Furthermore, the police thought it could be possible that they may have a plausible explanation for their child’s sudden disappearance. Possible explanations they mentioned included them saying CPS had taken the child, or he was staying with other family members or friends, or potentially that the child had been having health or behavioral problems. A Crime Stoppers representative said, “You have a neighbor where you see that the child is no longer coming outside, and then may be giving an explanation that sounds plausible. Be aware, be curious, call Crime Stoppers.”
On January 30th, 2018, the police decided to release an edited version of one of the actual crime scene photos. This was considered quite the controversial decision. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, photographs of dead bodies, especially those of very young children, are not often released to the public for obvious reasons; but in this case, they hoped the picture of his face would help someone recognize him. Lois said the difference between the sketch she drew and the actual photo was the emotional response the picture evoked. In this photograph, his eyes were closed, and at first, some described him as looking like he was asleep; however, a closer look revealed mottled skin, pale lips, and a lifeless expression. Police hoped an extreme step would finally help them identify a little boy whose body was found on the beach. They released a photograph of the deceased boy, which is rare, and even more rare for us to show it to you, but it’s what they feel they have to do in order to get some answers.
Hundreds of tips came in, and two of those tips put police on the right path. One caller recognized the boy in the crime scene photo, while another said he thought Little Jacob might be the son of Rebecca Rivera and her girlfriend, Dania Amis Gomez. Rebecca had two children, but when the callers saw her and her girlfriend in December of 2017, they only had one child with them. The child with them looked like the picture of Little Jacob and appeared malnourished and sickly. The caller also reported hearing a conversation in which the two women said they moved to Chicago in October of 2017. The couple had returned to Houston in December for a special occasion. In April, another tip led police to talk to Diana Amis, who is Dania’s sister. During the FBI interview, Diana said she asked where Rebecca’s older son was, and Rebecca told her that he was with family. The FBI contacted members of Rebecca’s family, but they said they didn’t know where her son was; however, they did share a picture of the boy with police. It did, in fact, look like Little Jacob.
The FBI and Galveston police tracked the couple to an apartment on Kingsgate Circle in Houston, where they were staying with a friend. Police knocked and announced themselves. A woman responded by crawling out the second-floor window and running away. Police officers contacted the friend who was leasing the apartment, who subsequently agreed to let them search it. Police returned to the apartment a few days later; this time, they found Rebecca inside, along with Dania and Axel, Rebecca’s three-year-old son. Rebecca said her son had been kidnapped, but she refused to provide any additional information. When she was pressed about it, Dania said she hadn’t seen the boy for 6 months and that she believed he was staying with family. She came home and he wasn’t there; Rebecca told her the boy was fine. After the police showed her the picture of Little Jacob, Dania changed her story; she said Rebecca had told her the boy was dead. She claimed she had only found that information out 4 days prior.
At some point, officers realized Dania didn’t have proper immigration paperwork. She was subsequently brought to the ICE immigration facility in Harris County and she was held there. Officers gathered information about Rebecca’s son. They found out he had broken his left femur 2 years ago and had been treated at the Texas Children’s Hospital. They also connected DNA from Rebecca to test against samples obtained from Little Jacob. The medical examiner confirmed that Little Jacob had a healed left femur bone, just like Rebecca’s missing son. The DNA results came back on April 25th, showing that Rebecca was 49 million times more likely to be the mother than any other person. Jaden Lopez was Little Jacob.
On Friday, October 20th, 2017, Galveston police officers were forced to recover the naked, dead body of a baby boy from the shores of Galveston. There was no family, no friends, no outcry, nobody that claimed this little boy. So, they immediately launched an investigation to determine the cause of death and his identity. They tried all the old-school tricks: databases, phone calls, every contact we had across the country, to no avail. They then held a press conference and released a sketch of Little Jacob in hopes that someone would come forward. Even with hundreds of tips that came in, they followed up on all of them but made little progress. When the investigators arrived in January, their only goal was not justice; it was to give this baby a name. So, they met and asked: “Is there anything we haven’t done? Is there anybody we haven’t called? Is there any technology we can borrow?” One of those ideas was to release a crime scene photo, which is very controversial. So, they reached out to some experts to see what the public reaction would be. Then, on January 30th, 2018, they released that edited crime scene photo of Little Jacob. They again received hundreds of tips and continued to follow up on them. And two of those tips led them to a possible identity of a baby named Jaden in Houston, Texas. Because of the public involvement, they followed up on more leads, found that this baby was under the care of his mother and her girlfriend at the time, and so they were able to get a DNA comparison and positively identify Jaden Lopez—Jaden Alexander Lopez, who was four years old at the time of his death.
FBI Agent Brian Gaines, the supervisory senior resident agent at the FBI office in Texas City, stated: “This investigation into the circumstances of Jaden’s death has been ongoing for the past 8 months and has involved investigators from the Galveston Police Department working closely with special agents from the FBI’s Texas City office. Even though I’m not a parent, I can say that this case has been immensely difficult to work.” At a press conference announcing the boy’s identity, Agent Gaines said, “No one reported Jaden as missing. No one was looking for him. Someone took a beautiful, innocent child and discarded him in the ocean as if he was a piece of trash. For many of us in the Bureau, this was an appalling crime that made our hearts heavy, yet steeled our resolve to find justice for Jaden.” Agent Gaines also stressed the important role the public played. He said, “This is a perfect example of how the police, the media, and the citizens came together. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate the help of the media and the hundreds of phone calls from not only around the country, but around the world.”
Now that they had a name, investigators needed to figure out what happened to Jaden. He and Axel lived with his mother and Dania in an apartment on Banet Street in Houston. How did he end up an hour away in the waters off of the coast of Galveston? Police located key pieces of video and photographic evidence from October 19th, just hours before Jaden’s body was found. Rebecca’s Isuzu Rodeo had passed a toll booth in the middle of the night headed toward Galveston. The video showed the vehicle exiting Beltway 8 via an exit ramp. A photo taken through the front window showed Rebecca in the driver’s seat and Dania in the passenger seat. In May, FBI interviewed Dania at the ICE detention center. She claimed that she was too drunk to remember anything else. As they continued to question her, she claimed she had been out drinking; when she returned, Jaden was dead. She claimed Rebecca didn’t tell her what happened.
On June 19th, Rebecca was taken into custody, and her 3-year-old son Axel was placed in foster care after they could not locate the father of the boys; he, thankfully, was found completely unharmed. During a police interview, Rebecca said Jaden had run into the wall and hurt his head a couple weeks before his death. She said she tried to clean the wound out by pouring alcohol on it; she said Dania argued with her while she was pouring the alcohol, and she accidentally spilled it all over his face. After his accident, she said he acted differently and became a problem; she often blamed him for causing problems in her relationship with Dania. She said she would hit him with cloth hangers or whatever she could find. Although she claimed this behavior started after he hit his head, the evidence on his body, including the broken left femur that occurred 2 years before, suggested she had been beating him for much longer than that. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services had previously been involved with Rebecca, though they did not release their records regarding Jaden. The day after his head injury, she said Jaden’s face swelled, he was tired and lacked energy, and complained of stomach aches. Over the next two weeks, he got sicker and sicker. She said she didn’t take him to the hospital because she was afraid that he and her younger son would be taken away from her. Dania was at the apartment during those two weeks; she watched his health decline in front of her eyes, but she chose to do nothing.
Rebecca said Jaden passed away in the middle of the night. Because he liked the beach and the water, she decided to put his body in the ocean. According to her, it had nothing to do with hiding his death or her part in it. Rebecca said she and Dania traveled together to Galveston along with her toddler. It should be noted that Jaden’s dead body was also in the SUV while Axel was in the car the entire time. It would be reasonable to assume that Axel was exposed to this. The couple dumped the body in the water off of East Beach, not far from where it was found the next day. Rebecca was arrested and charged with a felony count of tampering with or fabricating evidence of a human body. Dania was charged with a misdemeanor count of the same crime. Rebecca’s bond was set for $250,000. Dania’s bond was set for $100,000, but since she was on an immigration hold, she wouldn’t have been released. Both were held in the Galveston County Jail. A few days after Rebecca’s confession, charges against both women were increased to first-degree felony offenses of injury to a child by omission. In Texas, a legal guardian is required to take action when necessary; when failure to act causes a child to suffer serious bodily injuries, it is a crime under Texas law. With the new charge, Rebecca’s bond was raised to $500,000.
For the trial, Rebecca asked the court for special treatment since she had never been convicted of a felony in Texas or any other state. However, she was not completely unknown to the justice system. She had been convicted of a DUI in 2003; though this was not a felony conviction, she was also arrested in 2011 but eventually released. Still claiming to be an upstanding citizen, she pled for leniency and asked the court for a suspended sentence and probation. Dania took a plea deal; in exchange for her testimony against Rebecca, she would receive a shorter sentence, although ICE was in the process of deporting her. Rebecca’s trial began on January 27th, 2021. Prosecutors were two district attorneys from the Special Victims Unit of Galveston County. Galveston County Medical Examiner Dr. Aaron Barnhart performed the autopsy; she found signs of neglect and child abuse so severe she characterized it as torture. In addition to the broken femur, Jaden had scars all over his body consistent with being beaten with cloth hangers. He had ligature marks on his wrists and ankles, indicating he had been tied up and restrained. He had cigarette burns all over his back. He also had numerous bruises and blunt force trauma injuries. His lungs showed signs of pneumonia. Jaden was also extremely malnourished, to the point of emaciation; he was about 3 ft tall and weighed only 28 lb. Please keep in mind, a healthy weight for a boy his age would have been between 35 to 39 lb. Dr. Barnhart was certain he had not drowned; he was dead before he was dumped in the water.
The trial lasted 7 days. The jury deliberated for an hour before finding Rebecca Rivera guilty of injury to a child by omission. For sentencing, the prosecutor said, “You can’t rehabilitate evil, and this defendant earned every day of a life sentence.” Rebecca was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years. She appealed her conviction, but her appeal was denied on February 28th, 2023. She is currently serving her time at the William P. Hobby women’s prison in Falls County, Texas, and will become eligible for parole in 2048. Dania pled guilty and was sentenced to 2 years for her part in Jaden’s death; she was also sentenced to 2 years for an unrelated crime, harassment of a public servant. A search of Texas inmates shows that she is no longer incarcerated there; she was likely deported after her release.
The people of Galveston were shaken by Jaden’s story. On February 19th, local residents Valerie Sutton and Pamela Willum held a candlelight vigil for Little Jacob on the beach close to where his body had been found. Dozens of people gathered to honor his short life. Valerie said she was troubled by his case; she said children are supposed to be happy and taken care of, and apparently this didn’t happen to him at all. She wanted to hold a vigil because, in her words, “He was a precious little boy. He was precious and deserves to be honored.” Pamela said, “This boy needs to be remembered. We don’t have to know somebody to love them, especially a child.” The mystery of a toddler nicknamed “Little Jacob” has shaken this island. Pamela Willum and Valerie Sutton organized a candlelight vigil, hoping to see the whole seawall lit up with lights to honor his life.
Locals, saddened by the case, created a small shrine in his memory on the seawall near Seventh Street, not far from where he was found. They set up several crosses, one painted with the words, “You mattered, little guy.” Visitors left stuffed animals, toys, and other small gifts. Another memorial of blue wooden crosses was constructed down on the beach; mourners left flowers and a baseball for Jaden. Jaden’s family didn’t want to talk to the press, but his aunt organized a funeral for him on July 6th, 2018. Laza Funeral Home in Houston donated its services—the casket, the hearse, and a plot for his burial. White teddy bears sat on top of his small white casket.
The casket of four-year-old Jaden Lopez was carried to Hollywood Cemetery in North Houston after a funeral service for friends and family. Galveston police officers, some of whom had worked around the clock to identify Jaden, led the procession. He was buried in the Baby Land section of Hollywood Cemetery. A woman who attended the funeral, known only by the first name Maria, said what everyone was thinking out loud: “A mother is supposed to protect their child no matter what, and she failed.” Father Francisco Xavier Aponte conducted the service; afterwards, he spoke about the role we all play in stopping tragedies such as these. He said, “We need as a community to be more aware of our surroundings. We need to stop this. This child deserved a better life. The way we can honor this child now is to do something for the next one.”
