Charges have been upgraded to murder against an Illinois woman accused of pushing her 3-year-old nephew into Lake Michigan near Navy Pier late last month.
34-year-old Victoria Moreno threw Josiah Brown into the water and watched as he sank below the water, where divers found him about 30 minutes later, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Josiah was transported to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition. He died about a week later, on Sept. 25, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Moreno was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child and was ordered held without bail. The murder charges were announced Tuesday.
On the morning of Sept. 19, Moreno stole the keys to the family’s truck in Des Plaines and “snuck out of the residence without anyone knowing that she had left,” prosecutors said.
She was not allowed to drive the car because she takes medication for “mental health issues” and because of an incident a week earlier when she drove to Navy Pier with several children, prosecutors said.
After shoving Josiah in the water, Moreno walked several feet away and stood on the sidewalk, “again doing nothing,” while passersby called 911 and threw a life preserver in the water, prosecutors said.
Moreno was scheduled to appear again in bond court Tuesday.
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