On March 15, 2024, a Piedmont, Oklahoma police officer responded to a routine runaway report that would uncover one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in recent Oklahoma history.

The officer found a 14-year-old girl hiding under a blanket, weighing approximately 60 pounds—the size of a first grader. Her skin hung from her bones, and her eyes carried a fear that went far beyond a typical runaway. She had fled from her foster mother, 43-year-old Tina Marie Ramirez, and she was terrified to go back.

What the officer discovered inside the Ramirez home shocked even veteran investigators. Every cabinet was padlocked. The refrigerator was locked. The pantry was locked. Surveillance cameras covered every room in the house. The children couldn't access food without permission—and permission was rarely granted.

The officer found a taser that Tina had used as "discipline" on the malnourished children. He also discovered a handwritten letter from one of the children, addressed to God, its desperate words scrawled by a child who had lost hope that any human would help.

This was the girl's seventh runaway attempt. For reasons that remain unclear, this time someone finally listened.

Five foster children were immediately removed from the home and evaluated at OU Children's Hospital, where medical professionals described it as one of the worst malnutrition cases they had ever seen. The children were placed with their biological grandmother, Shelly Yates, who described them as "fragile and very thin" upon arrival.

On March 28, 2024, Tina Marie Ramirez was charged in Canadian County District Court with four counts of child abuse by injury, two counts of child neglect, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Her husband, 26-year-old Anthony Ibeziako, was charged with two counts of child neglect and child abuse for failing to intervene. Both remain free while court proceedings continue.

As of early 2026, the children are reportedly recovering with their grandmother—gaining weight, attending school, and slowly rebuilding their lives away from the locks, cameras, and fear.

This episode features body camera footage, police interrogation recordings, and 911 dispatch audio. Listener discretion is advised.

For more episodes, visit mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/

Join Black Label at patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/

Part 2 of 2: In our conclusion to the Baby Lollipops case, we examine the final months of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa's life, the investigation that followed his discovery, and the decades-long pursuit of justice that saw his mother convicted three separate times.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Lazaro Figueroa never had a chance at a normal childhood. Born in September 1987, just weeks after his father, drug dealer Fidel Figueroa, was murdered in Miami, Lazaro became the target of his mother's resentment as her lavish lifestyle collapsed. At three years old, he weighed only eighteen pounds, half what a healthy child his age should weigh. His left arm had been broken so many times that muscle tissue calcified into bone, freezing the limb at a permanent ninety-degree angle. Despite the relentless abuse, witnesses recalled him running across streets alone, a tiny figure navigating a hostile world without protection.

THE CRIME:

On the morning of November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light employees discovered Lazaro's body hidden beneath bushes outside a Miami Beach mansion. His emaciated frame bore forty-three documented injuries: cigarette burns, defensive wounds on his small hands, a fractured skull, and two front teeth knocked out months apart. Brown packing tape secured a soiled diaper to his wasted body. Medical examiner Dr. Bruce Hyma determined Lazaro had endured eighteen months of systematic torture, including being bound, gagged, locked in closets, and left in bathtubs with scalding or freezing water. The cause of death was blunt force trauma from a baseball bat, compounded by starvation and extensive bodily trauma. Most devastating: Lazaro may have survived up to three days after being abandoned, lying alone and helpless before death finally came.

THE INVESTIGATION:

Police initially could not identify the child and dubbed him Baby Lollipops after the cartoon candy pattern on his T-shirt. The nickname stuck as investigators canvassed Miami Beach with flyers. On November 6, Martha Fleitas recognized the photograph on television and identified Lazaro. The investigation led to his mother, Ana Maria Cardona, and her partner Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza, who had fled to St. Cloud, Florida, stopping at Disney World after disposing of the body. Neighbor Mercedes Estrada reported hearing screams on Halloween night followed by a heavy thump against her wall, then silence. Her report to social services went unanswered.

CURRENT STATUS:

Ana Maria Cardona's path through the courts spanned nearly three decades. She was sentenced to death in 1992, but the conviction was overturned in 2002 due to a Brady violation. Convicted and sentenced to death again in 2011, that conviction was overturned in 2016 for prosecutorial misconduct. In 2017, prosecutors waived the death penalty, and Cardona was found guilty a third time, receiving life without parole. Judge Miguel de la O told her that wild beasts show more empathy for their offspring. Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza served fourteen years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Cardona's eldest son, Juan Puente, died in prison in 2018 at age thirty-seven. The only publicly available photograph of Lazaro Figueroa shows him in death.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about this case at mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura

Support Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/

On November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light workers discovered the emaciated body of a small child hidden in the bushes of a wealthy Miami Beach home. The boy, dressed only in a lollipop-decorated T-shirt and a soiled diaper wrapped in brown packing tape, had been beaten, starved, and systematically tortured. He weighed just eighteen pounds. This is part one of the story of how a mother's resentment turned deadly.

VICTIM PROFILE:

Lazaro Figueroa was born September 18, 1987, into what should have been a life of comfort. His father, Fidel Figueroa, was a well-connected drug dealer who kept his family in a lavish penthouse overlooking Biscayne Bay. But fate intervened before Lazaro ever drew breath. Just two days after his birth, his father was executed in a gangland-style shooting outside a Miami riverfront bar. The murder was never solved. From that moment forward, Lazaro became the target of his mother's displaced rage, blamed for the loss of everything she had.

THE CRIME:

Ana Maria Cardona's abuse of Lazaro began shortly after he was returned to her custody from foster care in late 1988. Over the next eighteen months, she systematically starved, beat, and confined her son in conditions the Dade County Medical Examiner would later call the worst child abuse he had ever witnessed. Lazaro spent weeks locked in closets and tied to beds. His arm was broken and left untreated, eventually becoming fixed at a ninety-degree angle. His two front teeth were knocked out. Cardona wrapped duct tape around his diapers to avoid changing them, leaving his skin raw with bedsores. On October 31, 1990, Cardona beat Lazaro with a baseball bat, fracturing his skull. She then dumped his dying body in the bushes of a Miami Beach mansion and fled the state with her girlfriend, Olivia Gonzalez, stopping at Disney World before their arrest.

THE INVESTIGATION:

Miami Beach police initially could not identify the battered child, dubbing him Baby Lollipops after his T-shirt. Detectives conducted door-to-door interviews in English and Spanish and distributed flyers throughout the community. The break came when a neighbor who had occasionally cared for Lazaro recognized him from police bulletins. The investigation led detectives to Ana Maria Cardona and Olivia Gonzalez, who had fled to central Florida. Both women were arrested within weeks. Gonzalez eventually testified that Cardona had called Lazaro the son of the devil and blamed him for her descent from riches to rags.

CURRENT STATUS:

Ana Maria Cardona has been convicted of first-degree murder three times. Her first two death sentences were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on procedural grounds. In 2017, she was convicted for the third time and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Olivia Gonzalez served fourteen years for her role in Lazaro's abuse and has since been released.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about this case at https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/

Support Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/