Police: 2-year-old boy stabbed to death in Little Village, person in custody

A person of interest was in custody Wednesday night in connection with the stabbing of a 2-year-old boy who was found dead earlier in the day in the Little Village neighborhood.

Mateo Garcia Aguayo was found unresponsive about 1:55 p.m. in a third-floor apartment in the 2700 block of South Avers Avenue and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. He lived in the apartment.

Police said the boy suffered “severe trauma from lacerations and fatal stab wounds.” The wounds were so severe, the boy was nearly decapitated, police said.

An autopsy Thursday found he died of an incised wound of the neck and his death was ruled a homicide, the medical examiner’s office said.

The suspect fled the home after the boy was discovered, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He added the killing appears domestic related.

Relatives called police after contacting the suspect and finding him evasive when he was asked about the child, Guglielmi said.

The person of interest in the case was taken into custody by the FBI and Illinois State Police after a traffic stop in Kankakee County and was being brought back to the city for questioning, police said.

Gloria Viccarra walked up about 5:15 p.m. to find red police tape attached to the door of her health food business at the corner of 28th Street and Avers Avenue.

“It’s horrible because I got two babies,” she said when she found out a child was killed. “They can’t defend themselves.”

She moved to the area in the last year from Brighton Park.

Nearly three years ago, another infant was brutally killed just a block south in the 2800 block of South Avers.

Manuela Rodriguez, 54, is being held without bail at Cook County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder in that case, according to court records.

At her bail hearing, Cook County prosecutors accused Rodriguez of stuffing a sock down her 7-month-old granddaughter’s throat, bashing the girl’s head with a pipe and then cutting her neck with a circular saw on March 9, 2015.

Rodriguez appeared in court Wednesday for a status hearing in the case. She’s scheduled back in court April 11.

The Associated Press contributed to this report