The foster mother of a 5-year-old boy who died after being left in an SUV has been arrested, according to Omaha police. Pinon Juanita Pinon, 40, of Omaha is suspected of child abuse by neglect resulting in death, according to a press release from the Omaha Police Department. Officers were called to the parking lot of Muse Beauty Salon near 93rd and Binney streets just after 5 p.
m. Wednesday after someone discovered the boy, Dionicio Perez, in a Chevy Suburban. CPR was performed on the boy before he was taken to Children’s Nebraska, where he was declared dead, according to police.
Police believe the boy had been left unattended inside the SUV for multiple hours, according to Lt. Neal Bonacci. The boy’s death may have been heat-related, but police cannot confirm his cause of death until an autopsy is performed, Bonacci said.
By early Thursday afternoon, a small memorial had been created near where the SUV had been parked and underneath a sign for a pregnancy services center housed in the same strip mall as the beauty salon. Court records show the boy's mother signed a power of attorney to place him and two of his siblings in the care of family friends Pinon and Salvador Aguilar after an older sibling was suspected of inappropriate sexual behaviors. The boy and four of his siblings were ordered to be placed outside of the care of their mother in August 2022.
A small memorial is in the parking lot near where 5-year-old Dionicio Perez was left unattended in a vehicle and later.
