NAMBE, N.M. (KRQE) – Investigators filed new court documents Thursday as they continue to learn more about the torture and abuse of 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia endured.
The boy was found in a shallow grave off a rural highway north of Nambe on Sunday. However, investigators believe he had been dead for at least two months, and the abuse he endured was horrendous. Abuse they believe was carried out by Thomas Ferguson, his mother’s boyfriend.
Ferguson’s own son Jordan says he saw Ferguson beat Jeremiah with brass knuckles, a cane, a homemade spear and a five-pound hammer. He also says he saw Ferguson urinate on Jeremiah and saw him put a spear to Jeremiah’s neck until he passed out.
He says Jeremiah was also forced to wear a diaper while locked up in a dog kennel, all for no apparent reason.
Ferguson’s son and Jeremiah’s mother Tracy Pena are also charged in Jeremiah’s death for letting it happen, helping dispose of the body and covering it up.
The new court documents also reveal that after her arrest, Pena asked to meet with her 13-year-old daughter, Jeremiah’s sister. She used that meeting to encourage her daughter to be truthful with investigators about what she had seen Ferguson do, saying “They’re going to help us to make sure he never gets out of jail.”
Related Coverage »
- Family friends of murdered 13-year-old riddled with guilt
- Family remembers 13-year-old boy found buried near Nambe
- 3 arrested for torture, death of 13-year-old boy
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