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Eduardo Hernández López, a 66-year-old Cuban resident in Miami, who has been accused of illegally using the benefits provided by the government for his mother, who mysteriously disappeared in April 2023, confessed that he did not provide "adequate care or assistance" when they both lived together.
Hernández López —a convict also identified in the official records and by the media as Eduardo López Hernández— admitted during the police interrogation following his arrest last Thursday that he did not provide the necessary care for his mother because he "felt uncomfortable seeing her naked," as he claimed.
As a result, he faces a new charge of aggravated abuse against an elderly person or disabled adult, in addition to several other accusations that were already against him.
His mother, Edis López Collazo, who suffers from Alzheimer's, was reported missing on April 6, 2023, from the home they shared in the Allapattah neighborhood in northwest Miami. She was 84 years old at the time.
The Miami Police is searching for the elderly woman since that date, and she has not yet been found nor has any further information emerged about her.
Two days before Edis's suspicious disappearance, Miami Fire Rescue personnel had responded to the home after the elderly woman fell and sustained minor head injuries, and the son lied about her whereabouts, according to the arrest report.
Hernández López was arrested on May 14, at 11 a.m., at a gas station on Northwest 27th Avenue and 36th Street, in Allapattah, and detained that night at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
He admitted to investigators that he had disconnected his mother's phone to save money and used her Social Security benefits and her Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card to pay the household utility bills.
The detectives estimated the total losses at nearly $18,600 after reviewing the financial records of the missing person and finding active transactions in 2024 at a supermarket, supported by surveillance videos showing Hernández López using his mother's card.
A key element of the investigation was a video taken by a neighbor with a direct view of the porch of the house, which completely contradicted the defendant's account.
Hernández López had told the police that he left his mother on the porch while he went to get food, and that when he returned, 40 minutes later, he could no longer find her in the house; however, the video revealed what actually happened: the man left the home much earlier and did not return for almost 10 hours. The mother never appeared in that video outside the house or in the vicinity.
The accused also provided conflicting accounts regarding the whereabouts of the elderly woman during the detectives' visits: on March 28, 2024, he claimed that a man told him she had traveled to Cuba, although records indicated that the last time she was on the island was in 2004.
During a second police visit on May 8, 2024, Hernández López stated that the same person assured him that the "saints" had revealed to him that his mother was in Cuba, as noted in the sworn statement.
Hernández López did not attend a press conference organized to ask the public for help in the search for his mother, claiming he wasn’t feeling well, and he also did not request updates from the detectives on the case, according to authorities.
The detainee appeared before the court last Friday. In addition to the new charge of aggravated abuse against an elderly person or a disabled adult, Hernández López is also accused of organized fraud, robbery from an elderly person, identity theft, and public assistance fraud. The judge set their bail at $62,500.
The Cuban has an extensive criminal record: in 1993 he was sentenced to 12 years for armed robbery and armed burglary, and in 2001 he received a five-year sentence for breaking and entering an unoccupied dwelling, possession of cocaine, and use of a fraudulent license plate, being released in July 2005.
The spokesperson for the Miami Police, Kiara Delva, confirmed that detectives suspect foul play in the disappearance, although she clarified that they cannot yet directly link the son: "Although a significant amount of time has passed since she went missing, detectives remain very active in this investigation; our homicide detectives continue to work on the case, and we want to remind the community that even the smallest piece of information can help resolve it."
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