Baby dies inside cabinet; druggie aunt arrested

A 23-year-old woman was arrested in Caloocan City on Wednesday for the death of her 1-year-old nephew whom she had stuffed into a cabinet because his crying annoyed her.

Maria Ruth Mariano confessed that she was high on drugs when she taped Bryan Jay San Agustin’s mouth shut, bound him with a piece of cloth and placed him inside a cabinet where he suffocated.

She later threw the body into a canal near their house on Palong Street, Barangay 70, but a neighbor saw her and told her family.

Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna, Caloocan police chief, said a murder case would be filed against Mariano.

Based on the investigation, the suspect was about to take a bath in the afternoon of July 4 when the baby cried.

“She found the baby too noisy so she wrapped him with a piece of cloth and placed him inside a cabinet,” Bersaluna said.

An annoyed Mariano kept him there because he kept on crying. At that time, only she and the boy’s grandmother was home, but the latter said she never heard the baby’s cries.

During questioning, Mariano admitted that she  took “shabu” earlier that day.

However, the police said they did not test her for drugs because she was not facing a drug offense.

The police said that when other family members arrived, including the baby’s parents, they looked for him for hours.

It was only when a neighbor told them that Mariano had thrown something into a nearby canal that they found his body.