Mother of three missing West Palm Beach boys arrested, ordered to have no contact with her sons

The mother of three boys who disappeared over a week ago in West Palm Beach was arrested on Thursday, court records show.

Maria Trinidad Perez, 36, is now charged with three counts of interfering with the custody of a child. She was ordered to have no contact with her children.

Perez had previously disappeared with her three sons after their uncle, who was their guardian, fell ill and died in the hospital on May 8. Early that morning, the boys, Nicholas, Gabriel, and Juan Pablo Garnica Perez, ages 8, 13, and 16, took a rideshare to a motel in Greenacres where Perez was staying, according to West Palm Beach Police. When Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies and a lawyer for the boys arrived at the motel to try to talk to Perez and see if the boys were okay, she was already gone.

For a week, despite extensive searches throughout the county, police did not find Perez or her sons.

On Monday, West Palm Beach Police detectives, through the boys’ attorney, made a final attempt to negotiate with Perez, threatening her with arrest, spokesperson Mike Jachles said. She did not respond, and that night, a Palm Beach County judge signed a warrant for her arrest.

The three boys had not been to school since they left home, according to police.

Perez pleaded guilty to three counts of child neglect in 2022 after a 2019 case in which PBSO deputies found her three children in a bedroom with no furniture. Her roommate had called for a welfare check because Perez had not returned home in three weeks, according to a probable cause affidavit, and saw her children only for a few minutes to drop off food.

Perez is being held in the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center on $9,000 bond.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.