Tristan Allegra

Eryn Allegra

PORT ST. LUCIE — Eryn Allegra said she was sorry in all the letters she wrote to her son.

That’s what police say they found when they searched the Holiday Inn where 8-year-old Tristan Allegra was suffocated to death on Christmas morning.

“You’ll always be my sweet boy,” one letter read.

“You deserved a better mother,” said another.

People who know Allegra, 31, say she is someone who keeps to herself. Doesn’t like to share what she’s thinking. Polite but prefers to keep quiet.

With pen and paper, though, the words just seemed to flow out of her, according to court documents recently released.

Audio

Listen to her talk about her son’s death:

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By JENNIFER SORENTRUE

Administrators at the elementary school that 8-year-old Tristan Allegra had attended since kindergarten said Saturday that there were no warning signs that the boy was in any danger.

Mariposa Elementary School Principal Craig Logue said Tristan was a “wonderful little boy” and a “very bright” student who had many friends and was adored by the school’s staff.

Despite his small stature, Tristan had a deep voice that set him apart from other students, Logue said.

“This is a child that meant a lot to all of us,” Logue said. “I can’t believe that I am going to walk in on (Jan.) 5th and Tristan is not going to be there. He was one of the boys I said good-bye to” before the winter break.

The third-grader was smothered to death by his mother, Eryn Allegra, as he slept in a hotel room on Christmas morning, according to Port St. Lucie police. She has been charged with first-degree murder.

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Eryn Allegra

By ANA X. CERON and ANDREW MARRA

PORT ST. LUCIE — On Christmas morning, Eryn Allegra pushed her son’s little face into a hotel pillow and let go when he stopped kicking.

That’s what Allegra, 31, told police hours after she said she had given 8-year-old Tristan pills to swallow and then smothered him as he slept.

Tristan Allegra

Now Allegra sits in the St. Lucie County jail, where she faces a first-degree murder charge.

“She was the kind of girl who never talked things out,” Allegra’s grandmother, Catherine Whiting, said Friday at her Stuart home. “Never.”

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