On August 24, 2021, at Mercy Hospital in Rogers, Arkansas, an emergency call was placed to 911 reporting the suspicious death of 2-year-old Ryland Macdonald. Medical staff described Ryland as being brought in unresponsive, without a pulse, and showing multiple signs of injury. The young boy, not even three years old, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

The presence of his mother, Briana Sawyer, and her boyfriend, Gustavo Enrique Pereza (Gus), at the scene, displaying a disconcerting calm (even reportedly smoking outside), immediately raised suspicion among the authorities. Investigators quickly began a complex inquiry, peeling back the dark layers of the boy’s final days.

Clumsy Lies and a Disastrous Adult Dose

Initially, Briana Sawyer told police Ryland had been suffering from stomach issues for nearly a month. She explained she took him to a local clinic after he vomited repeatedly. She recounted that on August 23, she left Ryland with Gus to go to work at Casey’s Pizza. Hours later, a concerned Gus arrived at her workplace, explaining Ryland had fallen at a park and then began to vomit. Gus then stayed to cover Briana’s shift, allowing her to rush her son to the hospital.

However, medical records and the autopsy revealed a far more sinister story. Upon examination, authorities observed bruises on Ryland’s arms, indicative of someone grabbing him firmly. There were also bruises on the back of his leg and two more in the middle of his spine.

Crucially, Briana admitted to giving her son an adult dose of Dramamine—a strong, drowsiness-inducing anti-nausea medication. This action, combined with her claim that Ryland didn’t want to walk because his legs hurt, showed a disturbing lack of urgency or attention to the true nature of his distress.

The Boyfriend and the “Five Missing Hours”

When police spoke to Gus, he claimed Ryland appeared weak and fell at a local park. He then put the boy in the car and drove to a Chick-fil-A parking lot, where Ryland threw up and grew even weaker. Gus stated he then drove to Briana’s work to inform her and take over her shift.

The subsequent investigation demolished these details. The medical examiner concluded Ryland’s cause of death was due to blunt force trauma to the stomach, causing a serious injury to his intestine. This was most consistent with an intentional kick or punch to the torso, inflicted within a week of the victim’s death.

Even more horrifying was the timeline. Gus was picked up around 3:30 p.m. He claimed to visit a friend, who wasn’t home. Police found approximately five hours unaccounted for in Gus’s schedule while he was alone with Ryland. Significantly, Gus lied about taking Ryland to a park; phone data later confirmed he did not take the boy to any park that day, only driving aimlessly around town.

A Silent Cry for Help: Evidence from Google and Lingering Injuries

The full truth only emerged when detectives seized both Gus’s and Briana’s phones. In Briana’s final interview, a detective laid out a chilling timeline of prolonged abuse. Though Gus deleted all his text messages, they were recovered from Briana’s phone, along with Gus’s undeleted Google search history.

Gus’s Google searches were a cold, self-incriminating record. On August 5, just weeks before Ryland’s death, Gus searched: “Someone punched my stomach and I’m bleeding.” On August 11, he searched: “Should I be concerned if I vomited poop and I got punched in the gut and I pooped through my mouth.” And on the day Ryland died, after speaking to police, Gus searched: “Can they get fingerprints off an autopsy in a person’s stomach.”

Photos found in both Gus and Briana’s camera rolls, examined by forensics, showed extensive bruising all over Ryland’s body, completely inconsistent with self-inflicted injuries. These included ruptured blood vessels in his eyelids (consistent with being struck) and whipping marks on the back of his legs, as well as a burn injury on his hand that Gus later admitted was caused by a curling iron or hair straightener. Briana, in her interview, had tried to claim the burn was from Ryland falling in a hot parking lot.

The Mother’s Stunning Blindness

Throughout her interrogations, Briana consistently deflected any suspicion from Gus, even trying to shift the blame to her own father, Fred Kite, by saying he was a large man who liked to play rough with Ryland. Her lack of emotion and cooperation was chilling. She even avoided returning detectives’ calls prior to her final arrest.

Meanwhile, Ryland’s maternal grandparents, Fred and Brenda Kite, had been the ones to sound the alarm. They told police they had expressed concerns about their grandson’s safety with Gus and routinely saw suspicious bruises on Ryland after he was alone with him. Fred Kite was even subjected to a baseless Computer Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) test, with detectives using the unreliable results to pressure and wrongfully accuse him. Fred tearfully admitted feeling guilty for failing to protect his grandson, not for hurting him.

An Outrageous Sentence and Systemic Injustice

The investigation culminated with Gus Pereza’s arrest. Nine days later, Briana Sawyer was also arrested for permitting abuse and hindering the investigation.

On December 17, 2024, Gustavo Pereza was sentenced to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder, with the possibility of parole after just 20 years for good behavior.

The sentence for the mother was arguably the most egregious injustice. Briana Sawyer was convicted of permitting abuse and sentenced to a mere 6 years of probation.

This shockingly light sentence stands in stark contrast to the suffering of Ryland’s grandparents and the brutality the boy endured. Briana’s blindness and cover-up, rooted in her desire to “keep the man” rather than protect her child, directly contributed to Ryland’s death. She knew something was wrong—Gus repeatedly texted expressing concern—but she chose to reassure him and herself that Ryland was just “tired” or “sick.”

The case became even more controversial due to the presiding judge in Benton County Circuit Court, Judge Brad Karen, known for highly contentious decisions and perceived leniency toward child murderers, who even granted Gus permission to leave jail to attend the funeral of his own daughter (not Ryland).

Conclusion: The Smile of Indifference and a Chilling Warning

After her release, Briana Sawyer posted a disturbing message on Facebook: “Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine and not obsess. Just breathe and have faith that everything will work out for the best.”

This philosophy, many argue, is precisely what led to Ryland’s death. She chose not to “think” or “wonder” about her son’s injuries, ultimately paying the price with his life. Ryland Macdonald didn’t die from an accident; he was tortured to death over an extended period, and his mother chose to look the other way, ignoring every plea for help.

The story of Ryland Macdonald is a chilling warning about the dangers of indifference and misplaced priorities in life, where blind affection and selfishness overshadowed the sacred instinct of motherhood. Justice may have been served, but the final verdict leaves lingering questions about accountability and true fairness.