A Wisconsin mother with Russian heritage “amped up” over Russia’s war in Ukraine strangled her 8-year-old son to death one day after trying to drown her 11-year-old son, prosecutors said this week.
Natalia Hitchcock, 41, of Sheboygan Falls, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the heinous crimes, WTMJ-TV reported.
In a media release last week, the Sheboygan Falls Police Department confirmed that the victim, 8-year-old Oliver Hitchcock, had passed away from his injuries after being choked unconscious a few days before.
Police responded to Hitchcock’s apartment home on March 30 after the suspect’s husband and the victims’ father called 911 to report the possible stabbing of an 8-year-old and a woman who wanted to kill herself.
When officers arrived, the father, who was noticeably upset and emotional, directed them to the living room, where the boy was lying on the ground unconscious with bruising around his neck. The child reportedly later gained a pulse and was taken to a hospital for treatment, but ultimately did not survive his injuries.
According to a complaint, the father said he was awakened from a nap by his eldest son, who then told him that his brother was lying lifeless in his bedroom. The father claims he carried his son’s body to the living room, where he began performing CPR while his wife walked around the house in a daze, knife in hand.
The father said his wife had become “amped up” and delirious while watching coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threatened violence against the entire family. He added that his wife of 15 years began taking Tylenol and drinking vodka, both uncharacteristic of her, but told police that she had never exhibited signs of mental illness prior to the incident.
NBC News reported that Hitchcock waived her Miranda rights and admitted to violently attacking her children and stabbing herself repeatedly with a knife.
According to charging documents, Hitchcock told police that she had been unable to concentrate for the past five days and was in fear that her children would be taken away from her. At the time of her arrest, a “critical” amount of Tylenol was detected in her system.
“She also said that people had been looking at her strange and felt that people looked at her as a Russian spy,” the complaint read, adding that she was worried “people from the dark web were going to take her kids away and do bad things to them.”
“She advised that she believed it best to take [her youngest son’s] life because he was the youngest and most vulnerable,” the charging document read, according to Law & Crime. “She said that she believed [he] would not have been able to defend himself if he had gotten abused and she thought it better to kill him rather than watch him be abused.”
As for her eldest son, Hitchcock said she dunked his head under water in a bathtub “to scare him so that he would understand his life was in danger.”
Hitchcock is currently in custody on a $1 million bond.
During her first court appearance, she turned to her husband with tears in her eyes and said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
Sheboygan Falls mother charged, accused of strangling son, trying to drown 2nd son
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