Mother of Murdered 12-Year-Old Recalls the Day of His Death: 'I Was in Complete Shock'

Tandy Cyrus, the mother of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips who was murdered in 2011, sat down with 20/20's Elizabeth Vargas to share her heartbreaking story.

Cyrus' final moments with her son were in his hospital room in Potsdam, New York, as he lay unresponsive.

"I was in complete shock," she said, after finding him in cardiac arrest at the hospital.

"He had bruises on his face, marks on his neck" she added, as a medical team was performing CPR.



Cyrus later learned that her son had been strangled to death. Police officers focused on her ex-boyfriend Nick Hillary as the main suspect, but it took several years before they arrested him for murder.

Hillary's trial lasted two weeks before he was found not guilty on Wednesday by a judge.

"Everybody liked Garrett, nobody had a problem with Garrett," Cyrus told Vargas. "And then, it was like 'Oh. There was one person that had an issue with Garrett.'"

Cyrus and Hillary separated shortly before her son's death, and she said she believes Hillary blamed Garrett for the breakup.

While she admitted that she never saw Hillary hit or threaten a child, she said she had no doubt he killed her son, before he was found not guilty.

"I don't know that there is a severe enough punishment," she said, days before his verdict. "I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison. But he still gets to live." Hillary has always maintained his innocence.

Hillary told ABC News that he felt he was "robbed" of being able to grieve Garrett's death because he said he had to immediately take on a survival mindset when police seemed to focus on him as the main suspect.

The New York Times reported that the judge found no credible evidence to convict Hillary, including no DNA, no fingerprints, no hair or fiber samples.