A vulnerable child met a terrible end – was her mum to blame?
YOU’RE THE JUDGE!
Rita Pangalangan had twice been named teacher of the year.
It was a proud accolade for the single mum from Walterboro, South Carolina, who juggled her career with caring for her youngest child Cristina, 13.
Cristina had been born with cerebral palsy.
She was unable to speak or walk and needed roundthe-clock care, but she was a ‘sweet’ girl who loved cartoons, playing with her toys and being in the swimming pool.
Cristina had a beautiful smile, and she would babble to show excitement or happiness.
Rita and her boyfriend Larry King Jr had a rocky on-off relationship.
By summer 2019, they’d patched things up.
Rita would drive to Larry’s place in Colleton County with Cristina.
But, during one roasting hot afternoon, shortly before 5pm on 5 August 2019, emergency services were called to Larry’s home.
Tragic death
Paramedics found Cristina Pangalangan lying on grass in the baking sun.
There was nothing the first responders could do for her.
The young girl was declared dead, killed by heatstroke, the most serious form of hyperthermia.
It turned out that Cristina had been locked inside her mum’s Volkswagen Jetta in soaring temperatures, for almost six hours.
Cops arrived.
A distraught Rita initially claimed she’d nipped back inside her boyfriend’s house to fetch cigarettes, leaving Cristina in the car.
But when she returned, the doors were locked, with her daughter and keys trapped inside.
By the time she and Larry had found spare keys, it was too late.
Detectives didn’t buy Rita’s story.
She and Larry King Jr were charged with murder.
Four years passed before the pair faced trial.
Rita Pangalangan, then 53, and Larry King, 45, denied murder, criminal conspiracy and unlawful conduct towards a child.
In court, prosecutors ripped apart Rita’s ‘star teacher’ reputation.
Instead, she was painted as a neglectful mother, who’d chosen drugs over her child’s life.
Prosecutor Duffie Stone slammed Rita and Larry for dumping Cristina on the back seat of a roasting car in high summer.
She’d been trapped inside for hours while her mother binged on methamphetamine – crystal meth – with her boyfriend.
Both tested positive for the drug that awful day.
Cristina’s disability prevented her from opening the car door or shouting for help.
‘What happens when you put a child in the back of a car and leave them there for five hours and 41 minutes?’ Stone asked.
‘They are tortured and they are cooked to death.
‘The child’s brain gave up, the organs shut down, she had blisters all over
