Mom Took Son to Disneyland, Then Slit His Throat During 3-Day Custody Visit: DA

On Friday, the Orange County District Attorney announced 48-year-old Saritha Ramaraju was charged with one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personal use of a weapon, a knife. When she was arrested, Ramaraju was also charged with child endangerment, torture and aggravated mayhem.

Per the DA, Ramaraju was staying with her son at a La Quinta Inn in Santa Ana, California for a custody visit, during which she purchased three-day passes to Disneyland for the pair. On Wednesday, the day she was to return to child to his father and check out of the hotel, she instead spent the morning “slitting her 11-year-old son’s throat, killing the boy.”

It was Ramaraju who called 911, according to the Santa Ana Police Department, who reported she told them she “had stabbed and killed her son” at the hotel. She also allegedly told authorities she had “taken pills trying to kill herself.”

Bodycam footage from FOX 11 shows the moment officers arrived at the scene, with Ramaraju walking out of her hotel room on the phone. As police put cuffs around her, one of the officers is heard saying, “She has blood on her hand.”

Per the DA, the boy was found “dead on the motel room’s bed among Disneyland souvenirs.”

The DA also said a “large kitchen knife,” which had been purchased the day before, was found inside the room. “It appeared the boy had been dead for several hours before his mother called 911,” they added.

Ramaraju was taken to the hospital for evaluation, before she was released on Thursday and arrested. Per the DA, she faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life if convicted on all charges.

“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,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a statement. “Anger makes you forget who you love and what you are responsible for doing.”

“The safest place for a child should be in their parents’ arms. Instead of wrapping her arms around their son in love, she slit his throat and in the cruelest twist of fate removed him from the very world she brought him into,” added Spitzer.

Ramaraju and the boy’s father divorced in 2018. The pair have been in a messy custody battle since last year, reports the OC Register; Ramaraju was granted visitation for spring break from last Friday until Wednesday.