Palmetto woman tells deputies stolen car was lent to her. Her alibi was found dead the next day

Less than 48 hours before Christopher Boston was found dead along an empty stretch of Bishop Harbor road in Rubonia, a Palmetto woman told deputies he had lent her his mother’s SUV that was reported stolen.

At about 10 p.m. on Aug. 8, Boston’s body was found when a driver spotted his legs sticking out of the grass in the 7400 block of Bishop Harbor Road. Detectives believe he was shot and killed elsewhere, and then his body was dumped there.

No one has been arrested in connection Boston’s death.

Deputies spoke with Boston the prior Sunday when he called 911 during an argument with his mother, Karen Boston, which ended with her arrest for domestic battery.

When she was released from the Manatee County jail on Aug. 6 and returned home, she discovered her SUV was missing, according to an incident report. Karen Boston called the sheriff’s office and reported the vehicle stolen as well as her iPhone, two credit cards and $80.

There were no signs that anyone had broken into the home, deputies reported, and a neighbor told Boston that her son and a woman had been seen coming and going from the home while she was in jail. Boston told deputies that she believed one of her son’s guests had to be responsible for the theft.

Deputies attempted to reach Christopher Boston on his cell phone over multiple days, according to the report.

Boston’s SUV was found hours later, just after midnight on Aug. 7 — the day before Christopher Boston was found dead.

When deputies pulled over the SUV, the driver, Carlene Torres, was arrested. Torres claimed that she had gotten the vehicle from “Christopher” and that “he let her drive the car until she got on her feet,” according to an arrest report.

When deputies searched Torres and the car, they found a glass pipe with residue in a Newport cigarette box in the driver’s side floor board, a bag with pills and a rock of MDMA, also known as Molly or ecstasy, in her bra and a bag of marijuana underneath her.

Torres was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of possession of a new legend drug. Torres remains in custody and is being held without bond because of an unrelated violation of a probation charge she is also facing.

Sobbing, Boston told the Bradenton Herald that her vehicle has been returned to her but is still waiting for answers in her son’s death.

“He did have problems with drugs but he did try so hard to get off the drugs. The drugs were very empowering but still that wasn’t what killed him,” Boston said. “I just want to find out who murdered him.”

She has been overcome with grief knowing that the last time they saw each other was as she was getting arrested after they had gotten into a fight because he had someone in her house that she didn’t know.

Reports confirm that her son didn’t want to press charges. Boston said as she was being put into a patrol car, he begged the deputies, “Please, officers, let me give my mother a hug.”

But instead she remembers looking at him and thinking, “You have got to be kidding me.”

Boston claims she never grabbed her son’s face as an arrest report states, and regrets that she was upset with her son the last time she saw him.

“I know Chris loved me. He always told me I was such a good mommy,” Karen Boston said. “I love my son. I love all my children. Right now, my heart is broken.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 5:04 PM.