Woman Accused of Drowning Baby, Taking Photo to Prove to Boyfriend He Was 'Top Priority'

Esperanza Rae Harding, 20, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of her son, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime.

Minneapolis police were dispatched last week to Children’s Hospital to respond to a report of a missing child. Harding claimed to police her son died of natural causes at a hospital five days earlier on March 1. But authorities found no record of the child being at the hospital, neither did the medical examiner.

Police then grew suspicious and interviewed Harding. She eventually admitted her son did not die at the hospital, "but in fact, died at a hotel in Bloomington on February 28, 2024," per the complaint.

Harding said the boy had drowned in a bathtub before she wrapped his body and placed it in a backpack; police say she told them she had thrown his body in a dumpster.

When local Bloomington Police took over they interviewed Harding again. It was then authorities say she confessed to drowning her son.

Per law enforcement, she said "she had been dating a man named Edwin Trudeau who did not like her child and that he wanted her to give [the boy] up for adoption."

Harding told police she "wanted her to prove that [Trudeau] was her top priority."

Per the statement she gave Bloomington police, Harding said she was alone in her hotel room and was taking a bath on the day of her son's death. She said the boy was in the other room and started crying, which she admitted made her upset as she "could not enjoy her bath."

According to the criminal complaint, she put her son "in the full bathtub and drowned him," and then "took a photo of [her son] floating face down in the full tub."

Law enforcement note, they recovered the photo on her phone.

Harding, said she only took her son out of the water after he was "done moving, done twitching," per the complaint.

She admitted to texting Trudeau during the incident, with cops recovering those messages.

Per, authorities at 4:45 p.m. on February 28, Harding sent a text to her boyfriend, reading, "he doing to much rn, I cant f--king sleep, Im trying tho, Im about to do something bad, Please answer me, He going to no be here much longer."

That was followed by another text from Harding: "I cant he going die, Im done, If u took the time to fill a bath that I cant use he can use it, Im sorry".

Two minutes passed before she sent a message declaring her son was dead, per cops.

Trudeau, cops say, texted Harding "Ok that’s ok." When Harding responded that she was sorry he wrote back, "Don’t be."

Police say, when Harding said she was attempting CPR on her son, Trudeau told her to stop and texted "just stop trying" and followed that up by texting "its ok ima help." Later, law enforcement say, Trudeau wrote, "your making things harder stop we are a team we do this."

Law enforcement say followup messages from Harding to Trudeau referred to herself as a monster, and pleas for advice on how to get away with it.

She later told law enforcement that her boyfriend came to the hotel room after the boy had died and claimed Trudeau attempted CPR. They then "had sex in the other room while [the child] lay dead on the bathroom floor," the complaint states.

Harding told law enforcement she knew she'd be in prison "because she killed her own kid."

The child's body has not yet been found.

Harding and her boyfriend are currently in police custody. Trudeau has been charged with aiding an offender.

Other messages from Trudeau included, per the complaint, "If you go down, I go down no matter what."

"It is always going to be us, Bonnie and Clyde."