[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A young mother is being accused of murdering her infant son in order to pledge her loyalty to her boyfriend.
Twenty year old Esperanza Moreno Harding (above, left) got into hot water last week after her son was reported missing. Police in Minneapolis were sent to a local children’s hospital because the young mother said her son had died while being treated in the facility. However, they were shocked to find that the hospital had no record of her son — nor did they have any death record for him. This led police down a rabbit hole to uncover something way more disturbing…
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, cops interviewed Harding. She admitted that her son didn’t die in the hospital, “but in fact, died at a hotel in Bloomington on February 28, 2024.” She said her son had drowned in the bathtub, and she placed his body in a backpack and threw it in the trash.
Awful…
Related: Harmony Montgomery’s Stepmom Carried Her Dead Body Around In A Stroller
It wasn’t until local law enforcement in Bloomington did a second interview with Harding did she give more details — allegedly admitting she murdered her infant son. Per legal docs, police said she “had been dating a man named Edwin Trudeau who did not like her child and that he wanted her to give [the boy] up for adoption.” Because she supposedly didn’t want to give the baby up for adoption, but also wanted to keep her man around, she allegedly killed him:
“[She] wanted her to prove that [Trudeau] was her top priority.”
If that wasn’t horrifying enough, the criminal complaint went into more detail. It revealed that the baby allegedly became upset while Harding was taking a bath, which set her off. She admitted to texting her boyfriend during the incident, writing this at around 5 p.m.:
“he doing to much rn, I cant f**king sleep, Im trying tho, Im about to do something bad, Please answer me, He going to no be here much longer … I cant he going die, Im done, If u took the time to fill a bath that I cant use he can use it, Im sorry.”
WTF?? Sickening!!
She eventually sent Trudeau a text, according to the complaint, declaring the infant was dead. To that, he allegedly replied that it was “ok” and “don’t be” sorry. She allegedly also took a photo of her son floating face down in the water. When Harding texted that she was attempting CPR on the boy, her boyfriend said:
“just stop trying … its ok ima help. your making things harder stop we are a team we do this.”
The mother admitted to feeling like a “monster” and asked her lover for advice on how to get away with the murder, per the uncovered texts. He then reportedly came over to the hotel. There, Trudeau allegedly tried CPR, but eventually gave up, and they “had sex in the other room while [the child] lay dead on the bathroom floor”. Another text from him read:
“If you go down, I go down no matter what. It is always going to be us, Bonnie and Clyde.”
It’s unbelievable to say this after allegedly murdering a baby! So, so devastating and disgusting.
Harding has been charged with second-degree murder in relation to the death of the infant, while her boyfriend has been charged with aiding an offender. They’re both currently still in police custody and are awaiting trial.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office/Esperanza Moreno Harding/Facebook]
