Woman brain damaged after murder-suicide left her son dead

ROSWELL, Ga. — A Roswell mother who police say was left for dead by her estranged husband is now home with family recovering.
 
Sandra Rivera Ruiz, 30, was brutally beaten by Carlos Dominguez last December, police said.  Investigators say Dominguez kidnapped the couple's 4-year-old son, Jesus, killed the boy then himself in some woods off Holcomb Bridge Road.
 
"She will need help for a long time," her sister, Esmeralda Rivera, told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik.  "I cannot say for how long."
 
When Petchenik visited the family's apartment, a home health nurse was tending to Rivera, who is confined to a bed, cannot speak or feed herself.  Ruiz River's sister said she suffered brain damage because of the attack.
                                                                                                                                                                                         
"At the beginning they said oxygen didn't get to the brain and they said she was brain dead," said Rivera.  "The medical examination said she won't be recovered, but I see some changes."
 
Rivera told Petchenik she hasn't told her sister about her son's murder or about what happened to her because she wants her to focus on recovery.
 
"I told her I love her," she said.  "We communicate through the eyes."
 
The family has been struggling financially since the attack. The company that owns their apartment complex, Sycamore Properties, allowed the family to move into a large unit without raising their rent, so that several members could live under one roof to help tend to Ruiz Rivera.
 
"I have to be with her 100 percent," said Rivera.
 
A small memorial to Jesus is set up not far from Rivera Ruiz's room.  It includes a picture of the boy surrounded by the Virgin Mary, a tradition of the family's Catholic faith.
 
"He was very good student," she said of Jesus. "He was a very nice kid, he was very intelligent."
 
Rivera said a bank account set up for donations only collected $300, but she's hesitant to ask for donations because some in the Latino community don't believe the money is going to her family.
 
"It has been very hard times because we don't have the money, but some people have given us support," she said.

WSBTV