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A woman who border agents say lied about her son being killed by smugglers now faces charges for being untruthful.
Francisca DeLeon-Lopez, born in 1992, told Border Patrol agents Friday that her 6-year-old son was murdered by smugglers after she crossed the river near Mission.
Border Patrol used its marine, air and K-9 units in addition to all-terrain vehicles to find the child. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and the Mission Police Department also assisted in the effort.
But after almost three hours of searching, they found no evidence of the alleged murder, according to a criminal complaint.
A DPS trooper interviewed Deleon-Lopez and, after searching her phone, determined that she did not cross into the U.S. with a child.
DeLeon-Lopez told authorities she had crossed the river with four other people, two of whom she claimed hurt her. Before she got separated from the group “a smuggler instructed her to lie to officers and to say that her son was killed by the smugglers.”
She made her first appearance Monday in front of Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano and is currently being held without bond.
The judge found that there is a serious risk that she would fail to appear at future hearings because she is a Mexican citizen with no legal status to reside in the United States.
