Indian-origin woman kills son on Disneyland trip, arrested
New Delhi/New York: An Indian-origin woman has been arrested on the charges of killing her 11-year-old son after a three-day vacation at Disney land in California.
The accused identified as Saritha Ramaraju, 48, killed the boy by slitting his throat, the Santa Ana Police Department said in a statement.
“On Wednesday, we received a call from a woman who reported that she had stabbed and killed her son in a room at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Santa Ana and ingested an unknown substance,” Santa Ana Police said in a statement.
Police officers rushed to the spot and found the 11-year-old boy dead in a hotel room surrounded by Disneyland souvenirs.
The boy was pronounced dead at the scene while Ramaraju was treated at a hospital. She was discharged from the medical facility on Thursday and arrested.
She has been booked for murder, child endangerment, torture, and aggravated mayhem. She could face 26 years of prison if found guilty.
However, Ramaraju did not enter a plea during her indictment.
The boy was killed several hours before Ramaraju called and informed the Santa Ana Police, authorities said.
A large kitchen knife used for the crime has been seized.
Ramaraju, who divorced her husband in 2018, killed her son on March 19, the day she had to give him back to his father, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said: “The safest place for a child should be in their parents’ arms. Instead of wrapping her arms around her son in love, she slit his throat and in the cruelest twist of fate removed him from the very world she brought him into.”
“The life of a child should not hang in the balance between two parents whose anger for each other outweighs their love for their child,” Spitzer said.