Mom Thinks Son She Horrifically Killed Was “Resurrected by God
Alexandro Gabriel Rida was born on January 30th 1998 to ail and Rica ritaa who immigrated from Romania to Canada in 1985 13 years before his birth Rica was a stay-at-home mom and Emil worked in construction the ridas had a big family Alex had seven siblings five older and two younger he also had another sister born in 1990 who died at 3 and A2 years old Alex was a sweet-natured little boy with a bright smile his kindergarten teacher described him as very outgoing she said he was inquisitive he asked lots of questions and he loved going to
school according to his younger sister he was a smart creative boy who enjoyed drawing and making art he also liked playing with Legos and Pokemon however Alex had some troubles early on in life a month and a half before his third birthday in the early evening hours of December 13th 2000 Alex experienced his first medical crisis he was taken to the the emergency room of Siri Memorial Hospital in British Columbia doctors noted that he was feverish and quite ill Alex was suffering from belly pain he was vomiting and he was extremely thirsty he
had dark circles under his eyes and exhibited an altered state of consciousness to be clear he wasn’t unconscious in small children an altered state would likely mean the child seemed lethargic confused or inattentive Dr White the onall pediatrician also noted the distinct fruit smell of ketones on Alex’s breath once the laboratory tests returned they confirmed what Dr White already could tell Alex was suffering from type 1 diabetes in order to understand Alex’s story it is important to understand type 1 diabetes many
people are familiar with type 2 diabetes which is the disease that can be associated with obesity type 2 which is usually found in adults the body still makes insulin but it can’t use it efficiently there are a lot of ways to treat type 2 diabetes such as diet exercise and a variety medicines however type 1 diabetes also called insulin dependent diabetes produces similar symptoms but it’s a very different disease in type 1 diabetes which is usually found in children and young adults the body loses the ability to
produce insulin there’s only one treatment people suffering from type 1 diabetes must take insulin via something like a syringe a pen or a needle or even a pump type one never goes away there is no cure for it and those affected by it must take insulin every fre day for the rest of their lives insulin is a hormone that lets the body use glucose in food and turn it into energy is often described as a key that unlocks the energy and sugar a healthy body makes small adjustments to insulin secretion every few minutes based on physical
activity and food eating and can easily access the energy stored in glucose if a diabetic eats a normal amount of food with no insulin to turn it into energy no key to unlock it the glucose in that food will be trapped in the bloodstream leading to high blood sugar this stresses the kidneys and they will try to flush the excess sugar from the body with no glucose to provide energy the body will burn fat which causes acids to build up in the blood these acids are called ketones the cause of the fruity breath Dr White smelled when examining
Alex this state is called diabetic keto acidosis and is characterized by nausea vomiting and lethargy followed by coma shock and then death with proper treatment children with type 1 can live long lives without proper treatment death is UN avoidable before insulin was discovered in 1922 babies born with this disease died within a year a starvation diet was found to prolong life by preventing diabetic keto acidosis but left the children with no energy to move grow heal or fight off the disease whatsoever Dr White spoke with Rica and
explained that Alex had type 1 diabetes what it was and how he would need to be treated however Roa insisted that the diagnosis was incorrect and that she and God were going to to prove all of the doctors wrong now Dr White found this Behavior most unusual most parents he observed in similar situations were more concerned with how ill their child is but she was more concerned with challenging the diagnosis Dr White was not the only official frustrated by the behavior of Rica and Amil there was a pattern to their abuse described as odd
stubborn and often hostile to medical personnel the couple had challenged doctors and case workers before in 1991 while living in Ontario the ridas had a 3 and a 12-month-old daughter who died without any medical care according to the coroner’s report the ridas told the investigators they were new to the country arriving in 1990 and didn’t realize there was Health Care available to them now this is incorrect according to a reporting from the National Post the ridas immigrated in the mid 80s years before the infant girl
died it is hard to believe they remained ignorant for so long Rica also had a baby boy in the ’90s the exact date is unclear but the child was not Alex the baby was born premature and required oxygen roica refused life-saving treatment so adamantly that the Children’s Aid Society had to temporarily cease custody of the child at 5 and A2 months old the same child developed a seizure disorder and Rica again rejected the advice of the doctors refusing to give him the prescribed anti-seizure medication social workers
once again had to take custody returning him once the redas agreed to comply with the doctor’s orders in both cases not long after officials were involved the redita family moved before the investigation could be completed first to Windsor Ontario and then to kitner Ontario and then leaving the province of Ontario all together for British Colombia on the other side of the country approximately a 40-hour car drive away because the various provinces didn’t have robust procedures to follow families that left their jurisdictions
no one taking care of Alex in British Colombia knew that his family habitually rejected medical advice in the past once Alex’s condition was stabilized in the surri emergency room he was transferred to the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Intensive Care Unit where they had more resources to care for the severely ill little boy along with a staff and a clinic designed to teach parents about diabetes and train them to take care of their diabetic child Alex arrived at the Children’s Hospital on December 14th 2000 where his new
pediatrician Dr Daniel Meer also diagnosed him as a type 1 diabetic in the state of diabetic keto acidosis confirming this diagnosis with lab work Dr Meer soon realized that the ridas were in what he called gross denial of Alex’s disease he alerted the hospital social worker as well as the ministry for Children and Family Services the officials told Rica and ail they would not be allowed to take Alex home when he recovered if they did didn’t take training at the diabetes clinic and agree to administer his medicine
properly at the bcch clinic Rica and Amil learned how to test Alex’s blood sugar keep a log book of his readings plan a healthy diet calculate how much insulin was needed based on this diet to administer that insulin and what symptoms signified danger they were given a hotline number they could call 24 hours a day if they were confused or had any questions about his care in addition they would have learned that proper treatment has to happen every day in Alex’s case he would test his glucose at least four times a day and eject
insulin at least three times a day the clinic also provided all diabetic supplies including insulin free of charge on December 22nd 2000 Alex was released to the care of his parents BC arranged for a nurse to visit twice a day and they had to keep regular appointments with Dr Meer a couple of months later in February of 2001 Dr Meer suspected the ridas were lying about Alex’s blood sugar readings because the log book full of normal readings didn’t mesch with the weight Alex had lost he asked the nurse to double check the readings and she
confirmed his suspicions high blood sugar readings were followed by low blood sugar readings within minutes in a way that was not medically possible they were testing the blood of someone without diabetes instead of testing Alex’s blood putting him in serious danger of another bout of diabetic keto acidosis this was so dangerous and so dishonest that Dr Meer reported it to the Ministry and recommended that Alex be placed in the ministry’s care the ridas responded by saying that Dr Meer was picking on them and claimed that
they didn’t understand because they hadn’t had enough training as if Advanced Training was required to understand the blood samples had to come from the sick child not from someone else in their house Alex was placed in the Siri Memorial Hospital to help him recover from the mismanagement and the ridas were required to complete additional diabetic training instead of being taken away way Alex was returned to his parents custody and switched to the care of Dr White who had first diagnosed Alex in the ER Alex had 11
visits with Dr White from April 2001 to September 2001 at first the visits were weekly then every two weeks and finally once a month in June July and August and September now that they had a new doctor the redas complied with the instructions just enough and just long enough to avoid suspicion both Amil and Roa came to almost all of the meetings Dr White did have some concerns sometimes Alex appeared gray and clammy and sun and well but over the course of Dr White’s care Alex gained approximately 12 lbs so it appeared that the ridas were giving
him insulin injections Alex weighed 44 lbs which is near the top of the healthy weight range for an almost 4-year-old boy at his September 18th visit Dr White stressed again that the ridas should not lower Alex’s insulin dosage without consulting a doctor that appointment would would be the last time Alex saw a doctor for years according to Dr White he often only saw patients for a short time while the parents were getting used to the care regimen and didn’t realize Alex and his parents had stopped coming to the clinic this was just one of the
times that a lack of follow-up placed Alex in a dangerous situation over 2 years later on October 16th 2003 Dr White was on call when Alex was again brought via ambulance into the ER of Siri Memorial Hospital instead of diabetic keto acidosis this time Alex was suffering from the last stages of malnutrition in hypoglycemia he was also unconscious and near death Dr White found a chunk of unwed undigested hot dogs stuck in his throat when they resuscitated him in addition to this immediate emergency Alex was also in the
throws of multi-stem organ failure his heart was failing his eyes were sunken his belly swollen and his arms and legs were stick thin his hair was falling out in clumps he couldn’t lift his head arms or legs he could barely talk he could just whisper a few words at a time his teeth were rotted away Alex was again transferred to the Intensive Care Unit of the Children’s Hospital under the care of Dr seir and K Dr Korn described the seriousness of his condition saying Alex quote had profound malnutrition he had no subcutaneous tissue and he had
what we call peripheral edema his legs were very swollen he had a big swollen abdomen which had fluid in it called aites he had plural Fusion which is fluid between the lung wall and the lung itself fluid shouldn’t be there and he had fluid around his heart we also know he had a big liver he had a mass behind his stomach which I believe was finally diagnosed as a pancreatic pseudocyst the blood work was entirely consistent with the concerns in that his protein in the blood was very low and that’s what was causing the edema with malnutrition he
also was profoundly anemic his hemoglobin was 44 which is really really low for a child of this age and he was very pale he had mildly enlarged kidneys because when you’re profoundly dehydrated you end up with damage to the kidneys end quote he was so starved that his immune system didn’t have any energy to fight off disease records show he had pneumonia in his lungs and stafl cacus orius in his blood there was candida growing on his tongue and present in his urine Dr Seer had never seen such an extreme case of starvation instead Alex
had no more than a day to live when he arrived at the hospital Rica however was busy telling stories she told one doctor he had only been sick for a week and told another that he had only been sick for 2 weeks the insulin was giving him a rash so she had to change his dosage that he gotten a flu and that was why he was sick none of these stories were consistent with the state Alex was in when Dr Korn asked roica whether she understood Alex had diabetes she refused to respond the starvation Al was experiencing has a medical name quashi
or core it happens primarily to children with severe lack of protein in their diet it causes distended bellies and stick limbs often seen on children in countries with widespread famine if the RAS had been feeding Alex and not giving him any insulin he would have likely ended up with diabetic keto acidosis like he had in the year 2000 if they hadn’t been feeding him at all he would have likely died before developing quaser core what this means was truly horrific Alex was being given a minimal amount of insulin and a minimal amount
of food just enough to keep him alive and starving for months at least 2 months but likely more within a month of being in the hospital where he was given appropriate amounts of food and Insulin Alex was healthy again with access to energy his body was able to clear the multiple infections the cyst disappeared and he was able to put on weight and he was able to walk and talk and play like a little boy again Alex was taken from his parents and placed some foster care with Vera boyoko who Alex called Grandma Vera she herself was a type 1 diabetic
with 30 years experience in child welfare this could have been Alex’s happy ending the two attended church together he went to regular doctor’s appointments with Dr meder to manage his diabetes he was enrolled in school for the first time and he loved going to school he learned how to poke his finger and do his own blood sugar test he spent time playing with Vera’s granddaughter going swimming in Kitty pools and pictures but there was a cloud over his time there on weekends he had scheduled visitations with his parents when he
returned his blood sugar hadn’t been managed properly even at 6 years old he knew he needed insulin in an interview he told Corporal Charlene Beck that his mother said don’t take your blood sugar at home while he was on his scheduled visitations all of the professionals involved all the doctors his foster mother his social worker Patricia McDonald his kindergarten teacher Sandy Wong the police investigator Corporal Beck they all thought Alex should stay with his foster Mother where his medical needs were taken seriously where he was
safe but Roda started spinning the truth again she claimed that she never denied that Alex had diabetes she claimed the slow starvation was simply because she didn’t understand the complex treatment regimen and again claimed she hadn’t been trained properly despite all the testimony about their neglect and despite Patricia McDonald explaining that the ridas had already twice moved in order to evade the oversight of child protection agencies in the past Judge Gary Cohen decided to return Alex to the care of AAL and Rica in his own words
Cohen said they saw their child almost die do you think that will have no effect will they actually do anything as foolish as completely taking away one type of insulin again they would have to be crazy to do it again in January of 2005 Alex was given back to his parents and the family was placed under 6 months of supervision and again the couple complied with the diabetes regimen just enough to avoid suspicion they attended regular appointments with Dr meder at these appointments Alex’s height weight and A1C were monitored at his April 4th
visit Alex was 7 years old he weighed approximately 74 lb and was 3 11 in tall his A1C was 8.0 which was on target for a child of his age over the rest of 2005 and into the beginning of 2006 Alex continue to grow and present with good A1C readings in May of 2006 at 8 years old Alex’s A1C was a little too high and Dr Meer explained that because he was a growing boy he would need more insulin rtica started complaining again this time saying that the insulin was giving Alex cold sores even though that is impossible because cold sores are
caused by a virus she did not want to increase his dosage due to this at his two appointments in 2007 his diabetes was under control on January 16th 2008 his A1C was high at 8.8 and Dr Meter advised an increase in his insulin Rica again complained that the insulin was giving Alex cold sores and resisted the increase Alex never saw a doctor again like they had before the ridas took the kids out of school and moved almost 600 miles away this time to Calgary Alberta no one in Alberta Social Services was ever alerted a representative from Dr
meter’s office tried to find him but she was unable to a social worker found an address for Alex’s brother in Calgary but her supervisor told her to close the file in 2009 Alex was enrolled in the school of hopes online program in Alberta he never submitted any work and was withdrawn by the school in June of 2010 after repeated failed attempts to contact his parents Alex lived with his parents and seven other siblings in a two-story home located in the Citadel community of Northwest Calgary the house had four bedrooms upstairs and two large
shared bedrooms in the basement Alex apparently shared an upstairs bedroom with his parents five of his siblings were above the age of 18 and worked outside of the home one of his younger siblings was attending school and one of his younger siblings was not enrolled in school on May 7th 2013 just after 10: p.m.
Alberta EMS responded to a 911 call regarding a teenage boy who was not breathing a on arrival they found Alex in a bed upstairs in his parents’ room he was a skeleton so emaciated that paramedic Deborah bombach described him as mummified he had black necrotic sores on his face one of which that was so deep she could see his Jawbone the paramedic estimated his waistline to be 3 in I don’t know how that’s possible Alex was wearing a yellow T-shirt with blue sleeves and a diaper his eyes were open he was cold to the touch he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing it was
quickly clear that he could not be revived Alex ritaa was pronounced dead at the scene he was just 15 years old downstairs family members along with up to 20 members of the Romanian Apostolic Church were praying the pastor nicolay branu had arrived at 9:00 p.m. to find Roda lying on the bed touching Alex Pastor branu realized that Alex was already dead and told a me to immediately call an ambulance which Emil did after talking to his family Emil told paramedic bomach that Alex had been diagnosed with diabetes 1 month prior
and said Alex was on two types of insulin he also told her that he had last seen Alex alive the day before found him in his current condition at 6 p.m. but waited until the church came over to call EMS finding the situation suspicious she called the Calgary police who arrived at 1010 p.m. Constable pugal interviewed Emil and Rica and they both continued to tell half truths and lies Emil told the conable that Alex was diabetic and there was insulin in the fridge Rica told him that Alex had no medical issues and took no medication
when the consal told her ail said something different she said Alex was diagnosed with diabetes when he was three but she didn’t believe it but she still gave him insulin anyway she said Alex had the flu and diarrhea she said he had a yeast infection in his throat so she was feeding him baby formula and baby food but failed to mention the gaping hole in his jaw Amil said he didn’t call EMS at 6 p.m.
because Alex didn’t want medical treatment due to a bad experience with doctors when he was 3 years old but he also said Alex was already dead at 6: p.m. which seems to contradict his first statement Rica said Alex was still alive at 600 p.m. in actuality Alex had died somewhere between 24 and 36 hours earlier an autopsy revealed that Alex weighed only 37 lbs at the time of his death the average 15-year-old boy weighs about 120 lb Alex weighed less than he did when he was 3 and 1/2 years old he was only 4 3 in tall the average height of a
15-year-old is 5′ 5 in tall His official cause of death was bacterial sepsis in the context of neglect and severe malnutrition the autopsy also confirmed that Alex was a type 1 diabetic as if anyone but Rica had any question about that diabetic children in teens need a certain amount of insulin in order to grow his body mass index was in the .
1 percentile for his group confirming that he had not received enough insulin for a long period of time his body was covered in 44 sores some of these sores occurred near his death but others were deep showing signs of chronic inflammation indicating that they had been there much longer possibly weeks or even months there was no evidence that the wounds were cleaned and the only sign of treatment was a single piece of gauze on his leg the large neck wound which was so deep that the Jawbone and salivary glands were showing would have required
immediate medical attention and possibly surgery the muscles in his neck were near liquefication I don’t even know how that happens they were so infected they were no longer present and they just turned into this necrotic liquid judging by the overall condition of his body the medical examiner concluded that the ridas had been starving Alex and giving him just enough insulin to survive for years while he slowly and painfully died his death was unnecessary and completely avoidable Roda and Amil were arrested
and charged with Alex’s death 10 months later in February of 2014 they were denied bail and held in prison until their trial began on May 24th 2016 the couple conceded a manslaughter but pled not guilty to first-degree homicide they chose a trial by judge alone meaning there would not be a jury involved much of this trial focused on proving the couple planed to kill Alex and proving they killed him while he was forcibly confined in order to prove the charge of first-degree homicide the testimony was at times so horrific that people
including the judge Justice Karen Herer were brought to tears but the parents sat in the prisoner box unmoved and showed no emotion during this trial it was revealed that Rica had proclaimed Alex had died and been resurrected the morning of May 7th news of the Resurrection spread among churchgoers who visited the home to pray Alex appeared dead to the church members but Rica said he was alive because he had blinked his eyes and had a bowel movement since Alex had died a number of hours earlier it seems like Rica mistook
afterdeath changes in the body such as eyes opening and the body expelling waste as Signs of Life as part of their defense the ridas presented a video of Alex on his 15th birthday as evidence that they love their son I’ll warn you it’s extremely difficult to watch and we can absolutely not show it to you here in the video Alex struggles to open a birthday card and to pull a teddy bear from a gift bag but despite his bruised and skeletal appearance he smiles at the camera his gifts seem appropriate for a much
younger child the video played while Alex’s younger sister testified for the defense since she was a minor at the time she was referred to as AR to protect her identity when the video showed her brother Sayang thanks for the gifts AR cried on the stand under cross-examination AR explained that her parents didn’t believe in doctors because of their Religion she said her mother provided most of the care for her brother and that when he was sick she would treat him with tea and herbs she recounted a time when she dislocated her
knee jumping on a trampoline and her mother massaged it instead of taking her for treatment in separate testimony the pastor from the Romanian Apostolic Church Church said distrusting doctors was not part of their faith and not something taught by their church when Dr CR who treated Alex at bcch saw a picture taken of the 15-year-old on the day he died he was audibly upset saying my God and noting that the blood on his lips and teeth was evidence of scurvy a disease unheard of in modern Canada he called Alex’s condition quote utter
neglect with an emaciated corpse in the middle of it he has no muscles the common expression is Skin and Bones there’s only tendon and Bones there is nothing left end quote prosecutors use records showing the purchase of insufficient diabetic supplies to show that the ridas planned Alex’s death and expert in Diabetic Care testified that insulin the couple obtained through Alberta Healthcare was enough to provide adequate care for Alex for only 260 out of the 365 days in 2011 80 Days in 2012 and zer days in 2013 leaving the boy
severely undermedicated records showing Alex never attended school or visited a doctor were used to prove he had been unlawfully confined on February 24th both Amil and Rica were convicted of first degree homicide and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after her conviction Rica tried to appeal saying that the tears Justice Horner shed during the trial were evidence of bias against her she also complained the judge called her AR arguments nonsensical and said the judge did not understand how to properly apply the law
Rica did not win her appeal thankfully Patricia McDonald the case worker who fought so hard to have Alex Place permanently in foster care suffered PTSD and had to retire after hearing of his death in his honor she has been advocating for legislation establishing an Alex Alert in Canada similar to the Amber Alert System here in the United States Canada has not yet passed such legislation but they have have made some improvements they now have an automated system that detects when students are not registered for schooling and alerts
the school boards it’s not perfect but had the Safeguard been in place in 2009 school officials might have checked on Alex’s welfare and prevented this tragedy the government also held a fatality inquiry that started in September of 2022 and continued into 2023 judge Sharon vanine examined Alex’s case to see if the government could make changes to prevent similar deaths in the future improvements she has considered our better supervision of online education better collaboration between provinces in order to protect vulnerable
children and a public awareness campaign to let people know that some illnesses require treatment with Pharmaceuticals her official report is still forthcoming Alex’s Foster mother Vera boyoko passed away shortly after Alex and never got to see Justice for the little boy she treated as her own Vera’s daughter Tracy Brady likes to focus on the happy times they shared as a family she said quote what I keep remembering is all the times with Alex and my daughter who was a year younger than him I remember them going
trick- or treating as he had never gone out for Halloween he wore the pumpkin costume and he was so excited about the candy we had to be careful what he could have and substitute most of it for something healthy end quote she also reminisced about celebrating Canada Day when the two youngsters got flags painted on their cheeks his time with Grandma was a happy time a time when his diabetes was accepted accommodated and treated every day it seems appropriate to think of the reunion they must have had in a better
place
