STAMFORD, Conn. — After two-year-old Liam Rivera was found buried in a plastic bag in a shallow grave in Cummings Park on Jan. 2, 2023, the Stamford Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit Squad “A” launched a significant investigation.
The department had already been investigating a report of a possible kidnapping and a child who was potentially injured that day before discovering the young boy’s body. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said that the boy’s death was homicide. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
On Wednesday, Stamford police announced on Facebook that they secured an arrest warrant for the young boy’s father, 28-year-old Edgar Ismalej-Gomez, of Stamford, who was a possible person of interest from the onset of the investigation.
Ismalej-Gomez had been previously arrested for violating a probation warrant and held on charges unrelated to his son’s death; his bond was set at $3 million. He was on probation for a conviction in connection to his then eight-month-old son obtaining a broken arm while in his care in 2021.
According to Stamford police, as their investigation unfolded, “discrepancies” arose pertaining to Ismalej-Gomez’s involvement in the events leading to his son’s death.
The Facebook post notes that subsequent evidence uncovered Ismalej-Gomez’s “complicity” in actions that endangered the child’s welfare in the days leading up to his death.
The social media post stated that charges against Ismalej-Gomez have been elevated to include cruelty to persons, hindering prosecution, two counts of tampering with evidence, risk of injury to a minor, criminal violation of a protective order and conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence.
Stamford police said that the arrest warrant entails a court-set bond of $1 million for the most recent charges, and the case remains under active investigation at this time.
The boy’s mother, Iris Rivera-Santos, was arrested in February 2023 and charged with risk of injury to a minor, third-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and intentional cruelty to persons.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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