Children slip bus driver secret note to rescue mom from abuse, New Mexico police say
.jpg "A bus driver helped a Las Cruces, New Mexico, mom escape her boyfriend’s abuse after receiving a note from her children, police say.")
After enduring a night of abuse, a New Mexico mother was desperate for help, police say.
She wrote a secret note for her children to slip to their bus driver.
The Las Cruces woman’s 40-year-old boyfriend, Erik Alvarado, was accused of strangling her and using a pillow case and shirt to suffocate her during a “night-long domestic altercation” that began Thursday evening, police say.
Alvarado also threatened to kill her, police say.
“Much of the abuse was done in the presence of the couple’s toddler and their two school-age children,” Las Cruces police said in a news release.
The woman couldn’t seek help because Alvarado took her cell phone, police say.
So, the woman instructed her two older children to give the note to their bus driver on Friday morning. The “attentive” bus driver called 911 after reading the note, police say.
Inside the home, police found the woman with cuts, bruises and abrasions.
Alvarado was charged with three felony counts of aggravated battery and misdemeanor charges of battery and deprivation of property.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Children slip bus driver secret note to rescue mom from abuse, New Mexico police say."