After she reportedly told her son that his sister “just fainted” and “Mom didn’t kill her,” the 7-year-old finally opened up and revealed what he allegedly saw — adding of his baby sister that he “hopes she will come alive.”
A 40-year-old woman in New Mexico is behind bars after the death of her young daughter — and after she allegedly told the girl’s older brother not to reveal what he’d witnessed.
Prosecutors intend to charge Vanessa Chavez with intentional child abuse resulting in death, according to jail records reviewed by Law&Crime. She is currently being held in the Bernadillo County Metropolitan Detention Center and faces possible life in prison.
“This is the most violent and egregious act a parent can commit against a child,” wrote prosecutors in their motion for pretrial detention, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
“CYFD extends its deepest condolences to all those affected by this loss,” added Jessica Preston, a spokesperson for New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. The New Mexican notes that the victim had just been “returned home on a trial run” after she’d been born with drugs in her system.
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She’d spent most of her life to that point with another relative, with CYFD telling detectives the girl, who’d been born premature, was also removed from their custody due to their inability to bring her to follow-up medical appointments.
According to Law&Crime, CYFD had custody of two of Chavez’s children for about a year until they were reunited with their parents in late July after they’d completed their court-ordered reunification plan.
Less than a month later, on August 2, emergency responders attended the family’s home on a call of an unresponsive baby and arrived to find a man performing CPR on a young girl. Unfortunately, despite medical personnel taking over, the 18-month-old was not able to be revived and was pronounced dead, per the complaint seen by the New Mexican.
Crime scene investigators examining the scene noted bruising on the left side of the deceased’s head and “reddish-purple discoloration” on her left arm and right cheek, ankle, and foot, according to the court documents.
An autopsy of the child revealed scattered bruising to the head and neck area, as well as a “large subdural hemorrhage that was likely caused by trauma,” per ABC affiliate KOAT and NBC affiliate KOB.
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The Family’s Shifting Stories
Her father, Greg Montoya, at the time told investigators that the girl had fallen off her bed onto her face a few days prior, per the complaint, but as she hadn’t been throwing up or excessively tired, they didn’t think it was that serious. He said he only noticed a bump on the side of her head after that fall.
Chavez added that as the toddler was just learning to walk, she often fell on her face, suggesting that maybe the bruises were the result of her tripping during a camping trip they’d taken a week prior. She further suggested that maybe her daughter choked on food and died in her sleep.
Montoya said their daughter had been fussy since she’d been returned to their home, adding that it seemed the girl preferred his attention over Chavez’s, which didn’t sit well with Chavez. “It was hurting Vanessa’s feelings, and she had cried because she did not understand why [the girl] was so fussy with her,” police wrote in their complaint.
Police would ultimately receive a completely different story after they began to talk with the couple’s 7-year-old son, who had been returned to the family at the same time as his baby sister and was allegedly a witness to exactly what happened.
According to detectives, the boy was initially reluctant to speak up for fear his family would get in trouble. “He can’t tell what happened to his sister. Nothing will happen if he tells. He can’t say it. She isn’t coming back anymore,” wrote police of their interview with him. “[She] just fainted. Mom didn’t kill her.”
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When asked to expand on what he was trying to tell them, the boy allegedly told them that Chavez was “bad to his sister” and that he’d watched his mom “beating her up.” Detectives noted in the complaint that the boy finally shared what he witnessed.
“She slammed her on the wall. Then she died,” police wrote, adding that the boy said of his sister that he “hopes she will come alive.”
In a statement released to multiple outlets, CYFD says:
“Two of the three children of Greg Montoya and Vanessa Chavez were previously in CYFD custody. On June 18, 2025, during a court hearing, the parents’ attorneys moved to dismiss the abuse and neglect case citing the parents’ compliance with their court-ordered reunification plan.”
“All parties at the hearing—including the Guardian ad litem, CYFD representatives, parents’ attorneys, OFRA social workers, and the presiding judge—raised no objections to the dismissal motion,” the statement continues. “The Dismissal Order was subsequently signed by the judge on July 21, 2025.”
“The death of this child is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions. This outcome could not have been predicted by any of the parties involved in this case. CYFD extends its deepest condolences to all those affected by this loss.”
If you are experiencing or witness 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. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
