At 4:45 p. m. on February 28, 2024, Espironza Harding texted her 18-year-old boyfriend, Edwin Trudeau, to complain about her seven-month-old son. The baby was crying, and she wanted to take a bath in peace.
“He’s doing too much right now. I’m about to do something bad. Please answer me. He’s going to not be here much longer.
”
Edwin’s response was chilling: “Okay, that’s okay. ”
Espironza and Jesus Kazarez had separated shortly after Matteo’s birth. The little boy with dark hair and big brown eyes lived with his mother in a Bloomington, Minnesota hotel. Edwin hated the baby.
He wanted Espironza to give Matteo up for adoption, and he demanded proof that she prioritized him above her own son. She was desperate to keep him. Later that evening, Espironza texted Edwin again. “He’s dead.
I’m sorry. ”
Edwin replied, “Don’t be. ”
According to reports, Edwin arrived at the hotel to find Matteo dead on the bathroom floor. He allegedly attempted CPR but never called emergency services.
In the twisted aftermath, the couple had sex in the hotel room while the dead baby lay in the next room. Edwin then gave his instructions. “It is always going to be us, Bonnie and Clyde. If you go down, I go down, no matter what.
”
He told her to act like she was taking out the trash. She wrapped Matteo’s body, stuffed it into a backpack, and threw it into the dumpster outside the hotel. For a week, it seemed she might get away with it. On March 6, 2024, Espironza showed up at Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis—empty-handed.
She told officers her son had died of natural causes a week earlier. She claimed it all happened at the hospital, but the hospital had no record of Matteo ever being admitted. The medical examiner had no record of a seven-month-old being transferred for autopsy. The officers sat her down for an interview.
Her story kept changing. Eventually, she admitted the truth: she drowned Matteo in the bathtub because his crying spoiled her bath. She took a photo of his body floating face down in the water and sent it to Edwin. She only removed him from the tub after, in her words, he was “done moving, done twitching.
”
She didn’t cry. Not once. Espironza was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, held on $1. 5 million bail.
Edwin was charged with aiding an offender. Both were held in Hennepin County Jail. Matteo’s father, Jesus, held a vigil outside the Bloomington hotel. “He was really happy.
He enjoyed life,” he said. “He was always laughing, just joking. ”
His family created a GoFundMe, hoping to give Matteo a proper burial once his remains were found. But even after Espironza pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in December 2024 and was sentenced to 384 months in prison, and Edwin pleaded guilty to aiding an offender in February 2025 and received 74 months, Matteo’s body was never recovered.
“They should be getting ready to celebrate his second birthday,” the county attorney said, “and instead they’re left with a lifetime of grief. ”
It’s very unlikely that sweet baby will ever receive the burial his family desperately wants for him. Over 1,700 miles away in Boca Raton, Florida, a different story was unfolding. On May 9, 2019, two maintenance workers heard a faint cry coming from a dumpster at the Boca Andrada apartment complex.
They assumed it was a trapped kitten. Instead, they found a newborn baby girl, her umbilical cord still attached, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag with trash and coffee grounds. One of the men called 911, shaking. “There’s a baby in the garbage.
”
The six-pound, eight-ounce girl was rushed to West Boca Medical Center. Amazingly, she made a full recovery and was placed into the care of Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Police searched the dumpsters and found a similar trash bag containing a bundle of napkins soaked in blood and a receipt to a local beauty supply store. That receipt led them to 35-year-old Raphael Allesandre Carballo Sousa, a Brazilian nail technician who lived in the same apartment complex.
Raphael was arrested and charged with attempted felony murder. Through a Portuguese translator, she told the court she gave birth in her bathroom. She claimed the baby was unresponsive and not breathing. Instead of calling 911, she waited three hours, then disposed of the child.
She said she returned to the dumpster twice to make sure the baby was dead but never approached the bag because others were nearby. That story didn’t hold up. The baby girl was found crying the following morning. Raphael’s boyfriend, Carlos Jimenez Martinez, had no idea she was pregnant, let alone that she had given birth inside their apartment.
He worked full-time for a landscaping company, took online courses at night, and performed with a local samba band on weekends. When Raphael gave birth, Carlos was supposedly asleep in their shared bed. Their roommate, staying in the guest bedroom, was also clueless. The next morning, Raphael went about her usual routine—cooking breakfast, taking care of chores.
Carlos only found out what happened when he came home from work on the 9th. “She was sitting right there and she turns to me and says, ‘I did it. She confessed to me. She said, ‘This is my problem, not yours.
’ I tell her, ‘What did you do? ’ Then I went to tell the police. ”
Carlos struggled to understand. “I feel two ways about her right now.
I feel terribly sorry for her, and I feel furious at her. Why? Why didn’t she tell me? I never would have let this happen.
That little baby is my daughter. I never would have allowed her to be thrown away or even given away. ”
He fought for custody of both of his children—the newborn and his three-year-old son, who had been taken by social services. When asked what he’d named his little girl, he said, “I want to name her Sarah.
It’s a beautiful name. It’s gentle and normal. ”
Raphael pleaded guilty in July 2022 and was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail, plus five years of probation. Her immigration status remained unclear.
But unlike Matteo’s story, this one has a happier ending. Carlos regained custody of both of his children. And he got his wish.
He named his baby girl Sarah.
