PARKER, Fla. (AP) -- A man from Puerto Rico has confessed to killing his 2-year-old son and leaving the boy's body in a remote area in Florida's Panhandle, authorities said.
The child's disappearance might have gone unsolved if 27-year-old Gene Anthony Quinones-Rivera had not walked into the police station Wednesday and told officers that he killed Gediaelamir Rivera in June 2015, said Parker Police Chief Dennes Hutto.
"I'm glad he did come forward," Hutto told reporters Thursday. "If he hadn't, no one would have ever known what happened to this infant."
The News Herald reports that investigators have found the partial remains of a child in a remote part of Bay County described by Quinones-Rivera.
Quinones-Rivera of Guanica, Puerto Rico, was charged with second-degree murder. Court records show he was held on a $150,000 bond.
In an interview at the jail, Quinones-Rivera told the newspaper he had been smoking marijuana and was angry when he stuffed a sock into his son's mouth to stop him from crying. He said he had previously gagged his son in the same manner and taped his arms to his sides.
"My son was crying, and I was angry with him for that," he said. "That's the only reason I was angry with my son."
Hours later, he found that the boy had stopped breathing. He tried to revive the child with CPR and cold bath water, but Gediaelamir didn't respond.
Quinones-Rivera said he put the boy's body in a trash bag and left it in a wooded area without notifying authorities.
He said he came forward to confess after a religious conversion.
"Right now I don't have fear, but I know I needed to pay for that. I can't lie no more. I need to be free," Quinones-Rivera said.
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