Ashley Jasmin Rivera, a 26-year-old mother from the Alamo/Weslaco area in Hidalgo County, Texas, faces serious charges after her 1-year-old child died from strangulation by a car seat strap on Halloween night, October 31, 2025.
Incident Details
Rivera arrived at a rural location on the 8100 block of North FM 88 in a Ford Fusion with her four children. She left the sleeping 1-year-old in a car seat behind the driver’s seat while taking the other three inside a nearby structure. About 20-30 minutes later, a witness checked on the child, found them unresponsive with the car seat tipped forward and a strap around the neck, and alerted authorities around 9 p.m.
Paramedics rushed the infant to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead. An autopsy on November 3 confirmed strangulation as the cause.​
Charges and Status
Initially charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury or death, Rivera now also faces criminally negligent homicide and abandoning a child with imminent danger of bodily injury, per jail records and local reports. She was booked into Hidalgo County Jail on a Wednesday in early 2026 (exact date varies slightly by source) and remained there as of early February 2026 on a $60,000 bond, down from an initial $750,000.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office investigation continues, with no further details released on her destination or other circumstances.​
