Not an Accident

A 64-year-old grandmother is behind bars in Tijuana, accused of killing her 1-year-old granddaughter in a fit of rage by throwing the toddler down a staircase, causing fatal brain damage.

According to a statement issued by the Baja California attorney general’s office, detectives turned over Ofelia Aragón Gutiérrez to state prosecutors following an investigation into the May 18 death of Celina García Sierra, who was one year, six months old.

The child’s death was first reported as an accident, with family members telling paramedics Celina had suffered a convulsion and fell down a stairway at the family home in the Cañadas del Florido neighborhood of Tijuana, the statement from the attorney general said. But suspicious paramedics contacted homicide detectives, who, after investigating the case, concluded the death was not an accident.

During the investigation, detectives learned that the minor did not suffer convulsions and was frequently the subject of abuse from her paternal grandmother, said the attorney general. Celina’s cousins told homicide detectives they witnessed the child’s grandmother push her down the stairwell.

After Aragón’s arrest, she allegedly told officers the dead child “looked a lot like my daughter-in-law,” the child’s mother. The attorney general’s statement said Aragón hated her daughter-in-law because she had abandoned her two children, including Celina, and sent them from Sinaloa to live with their grandmother in Tijuana.