EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — An El Paso man has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the 2023 death of his mother, authorities said.
El Paso police responded at about 4:26 a.m. June 20, 2023, to the 4500 block of Sky Hawk after Richard Praytor told officers he had found his mother underneath a vehicle, police officials said.
Police said the woman, identified as 79-year-old Maria Praytor, was initially believed to have been accidentally run over.
The investigation continued, however, and detectives later determined that her death was intentional.
Authorities identified 49-year-old Richard Praytor as the suspect in Maria Praytor’s death.
Praytor told police he woke up at 4 a.m. to head to Colorado Springs for a child custody court hearing when he walked into the garage and allegedly saw his mother dead.
He told officers he found her head under the front driver-side tire and pushed the vehicle off her after noticing she showed no signs of life, according to the affidavit.
He told investigators he walked closer and saw her head underneath the front driver’s tire “squished”, according to the arrest affidavit.
The affidavit states the woman’s death was initially ruled accidental, with an autopsy finding multiple blunt-force injuries.
The investigation was reopened in August after a woman contacted Suffolk County police in New York and said Praytor had confessed to killing his mother, the document stated.
The woman told police she met Praytor on Facebook.
Investigators wrote that she provided details that had not been publicly released and later gave El Paso detectives a sworn statement.
According to the affidavit, the woman also recorded a September conversation on a separate occasion in which Praytor allegedly described staging the scene to make the death appear accidental and disposing of bloodied clothing. Praytor also told the woman he wrote his own novel on how he killed his mother and had it saved on his personal computer, the affidavit stated.
The conversation also included Praytor saying that he had messed up with blood at the scene and put blood on his hands on purpose to mess up the crime scene, the document stated. He also stated he made it seem like the car had run over his mother’s head so police could not tell that he had previously choked her until she was no longer alive, the affidavit stated.
He also said that he told one other person about the murder and attempted to tell a priest, the court document states.
He said he wrote the book on his computer in a way to help him confess, the document stated.
Detectives located Praytor at a Colorado Springs hotel on Sept. 14.
During a recorded interview, he allegedly told investigators he killed his mother because she was ill and he wanted to return to his children in Colorado Springs, the document stated.
The affidavit alleges Praytor said he strangled and suffocated his mother before placing her head beneath a vehicle tire and allowing the vehicle to roll onto her head, according to the affidavit.
Praytor was charged with murder and extradited to El Paso, where he was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility.
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