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Message: <blockquote data-quote="faulkton" data-source="post: 2319505" data-attributes="member: 561910">RICHMOND Mom arrested after son dies -- victim of torture and beating Police officer: 'Most disturbing crime scene I've ever seen'An 8-year-old Richmond boy died after allegedly being beaten, tortured and possibly forced to drink household cleaner by his mother in what police said Monday was one of the worst cases of child abuse they've ever seen.Teresa Marie Moses, 23, was arrested on suspicion of murder, torture, child endangerment and child abuse in Friday's death of her son, Raijon Daniels. The Contra Costa County coroner has conducted an autopsy but is awaiting the results of toxicology tests before determining the cause of Raijon's death, authorities said.Police said the boy may have died from swallowing household cleaner or another poison. The boy, who was covered head to toe with injuries in various stages of healing, lived in horrible conditions, staying in a locked room outfitted with a surveillance camera and eating food that was mixed in a blender, police said.Moses, who works as a United Parcel Service supervisor in Richmond, told police she had disciplined him for what she perceived to be misbehavior, such as urinating or defecating on himself, police said."She said she thought he was playing mind games with her" whenever he defecated on himself, said Richmond police Sgt. Mitch Peixoto. "I think he was scared to death of his mother."Moses also told police that she had been punishing her son, whom she home-schooled, since November 2005, because he ran away by jumping out a second-floor window and then stole toys at a store because he didn't have any, authorities said."That little kid has been going through a living hell," Peixoto said.About 5:15 p.m. Friday, Moses called for an ambulance, saying she had a medical emergency at her home in the Monterey Pines apartment complex on the 700 block of South 40th Street.Paramedics and police arrived to find Raijon nonresponsive with traces of vomit on his face. The boy was rushed to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond."It was pretty apparent that the child was the victim of extensive physical abuse," said Lt. Mark Gagan, who saw Raijon before he was pronounced dead at Kaiser. "It was the most disturbing crime scene I've ever seen."Raijon's room was outfitted with closed-circuit camera, and a cord led to a monitor in Moses' room where she kept an eye on her son, Peixoto said. Police found signs that Raijon had been restrained on his bed, where the sheets were duct-taped, Peixoto said.Raijon had whip marks, burns, cuts and scars "over every inch of his body," Gagan said. "It's obvious that this was a sustained and prolonged pattern of abuse. From what I've seen and heard about this case, I just don't understand how a mother could do this to her child."Richmond police Lt. Enos Johnson said that when he walked into the apartment Friday, he breathed in fumes from a pine-scented cleaner that brought tears to his eyes. "It really just kind of stopped you in your tracks."In an interview with police that lasted several hours, Moses was "strictly business," didn't appear remorseful and never once asked about how her son was doing, Peixoto said. When police told her that her son had died, "In my mind, she tried to cry, but couldn't come up with the tears," Peixoto said.She admitted that she poured a caustic substance on her son's genitals earlier Friday to discourage him from urinating on himself, Peixoto said.Although police found vomit in his bedroom and in the bathroom, Moses didn't admit to forcing cleaner down his throat or making him drink it, Peixoto said. Police also found a brown substance in the home that Moses said was her son's dinner: beans and spaghetti mixed in a blender.Moses told police that at one point Friday, she saw her son flailing and "doing a Stevie Wonder," Peixoto said.Moses is being held in lieu of $2.1 million bail at West County Detention Facility in Richmond. A conviction on the torture charge could bring a life sentence, authorities said."We don't have sufficient information yet to establish a cause of death," said prosecutor Harold Jewett. "Certainly there are substantial indications that some criminal charges are appropriate here."Moses' 3-year-old daughter, who also lived in the apartment, appeared to be unharmed and had toys to play with, police said. She has been placed with Child Protective Services.After Raijon ran away last year, police investigated allegations of ****** abuse of Raijon on the part of a man who did not live with Moses, but no criminal charges were filed, police said. An officer who visited the home at the time noticed a padlocked fish tank in his room. Moses said it was locked because her son urinated in the tank, Peixoto said."It makes me mad with Teresa. Something has gone wrong with Teresa," said her grandmother, Lillian Ponder. "She was keeping her kids away from the family. As far as I know, Raijon was a good little boy."<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/BAGHVM343F1.DTL&amp;feed=rss.bayarea" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/BAGHVM343F1.DTL&amp;feed=rss.bayarea</a></blockquote>

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