Police: Mother charged with drowning death of 2-year-old son at south Charlotte park

CHARLOTTE — A mother has been charged in the drowning death of her 2-year-old son in March, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.

Investigators said the child was found dead on March 12 in a pond at Park Road Park in south Charlotte.

At the time, a warrant said the boy’s mother, Natalia Suero, 29, gave investigators “vague and inconsistent statements” about what happened.

On May 26, a warrant was issued for Suero’s arrest. Two days later, she was arrested in Westchester County, New York, and will be brought back to Charlotte to face a charge of murder.

In April, Channel 9 obtained a search warrant that shed light on the monthlong murder investigation -- a case with lots of unanswered questions.

People flock to Park Road Park with their families for the ducks and serenity, but that quiet calmness was disturbed by the information found in the warrant. The document said a mother told investigators on March 12 at around 9 a.m., she saw her 2-year-old son go into the water. He couldn’t swim.

Police then found him dead in the pond, according to the warrant.

Investigators then questioned the family, including the mother. According to the warrant, the boy’s mother said she “blacked out” and couldn’t give an “estimated timeline around the incident.” However, police said they consulted an expert who told them the mother’s story of how the child died “was not supported by science.”

Detectives went to a judge, the search warrant says, to get video from the mother’s apartment complex and to find other details to fill in the gaps.

One of the key things that police were trying to determine is if the child died in the pond or somewhere else.

“It’s awful,” said park visitor Mack Bramlett back in April. “It’s truly a tragedy and I can’t understand how something like that can happen.”

Bramlett is a nanny, who said it’s hard to imagine what the arrest warrant laid out -- a mother seeing her toddler walking to the water and not reacting quickly to save him.

“I’m really at a loss for words for things like that,” Bramlett said.

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