A Pennsylvania mother was charged with murder Wednesday after telling authorities she strangled her 11-year-old son because she didn’t want him to grow up with the family’s financial difficulties, court records show.
Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 50, allegedly said she killed Matthew Whitehead with her husband’s belt while the boy slept, according to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC Philadelphia.
DiRienzo-Whitehead was also charged with third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of a crime, online court records show.
She is being held in Cape May, New Jersey, and will be extradited to Pennsylvania for arraignment, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Matthew’s father called 911 on Monday morning after he found his SUV missing and the door locked to the master bedroom of the family’s home in Horsham, roughly 24 miles north of Philadelphia, the prosecutor’s office said.
When officers arrived, they found Matthew’s body in the bedroom, where he had gone to sleep with his mother, the statement said. He had ligature marks around his neck and other signs of strangulation, according to the statement.
Authorities learned that DiRienzo-Whitehead allegedly killed her son after he went to bed the night before and then drove the family’s SUV to Cape May, New Jersey, about 125 miles south.
According to the complaint, DiRienzo-Whitehead took the vehicle to a popular beach and drove it into the ocean.
A photo published by NBC Philadelphia shows the vehicle partially submerged in the water.
DiRienzo-Whitehead left the car and walked to the nearby town of Wildwood Crest, the prosecutor’s office said. A police officer spotted her walking down the street wearing “tattered” pajamas and appearing disheveled and confused, according to an affidavit for probable cause obtained by NBC Philadelphia.
“I know what I did,” she said, according to the affidavit.
She told authorities that her son had been upset and crying about the family’s…
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