A Russian mom living in Wisconsin killed her 8-year-old son and threatened to slaughter the rest of her family after being consumed by paranoia over Russia's war on Ukraine, authorities said.
The Sheboygan County District Attorney's Office charged Natalia Hitchcock, 41, on Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of her son Oliver. She also faces a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
In a statement to police, she admitted to suffocating her 8-year-old and trying to drown her other son, prosecutors say.
On March 30, police responded to a home in Sheboygan Falls where they found Oliver unresponsive. Prosecutors said they found Natalia Hitchcock trying to "cut out her heart" with a knife.
The surviving boy’s screams woke their dad from a nap, and he raced to make futile attempts to save Oliver, who was pronounced dead two days later.
The woman's husband told police the war between Russia and Ukraine was affecting Hitchcock's mental health.
He said that he "was worried about Hitchcock’s mental state of mind as she watched TV with the war between Russia and Ukraine," according to the NY Post.
A criminal complaint against Hitchcock states that during an initial interview with police at the hospital, Hitchcock told police: "She had not been sleeping for the past five days, explaining that within the prior five days she gotten approximately eight hours of sleep. She went on to say that at approximately 4 p.m., she began to have a ‘brain fog.’" Hitchcock also stated "she did not have control of her thoughts and heard voices in her head."
An emergency room nurse advised officials that Hitchcock "had a critical amount of Tylenol in her system, the complaint indicates.
Hitchcock told police she was worried that "she was being sold by people on the dark web" and the "Russian government was going to take her children and abuse them." She also said "people looked at her as a Russian spy." She confessed to suffocating Oliver.
She also told (the detective) that she felt like she had no other choice but to take her life," the complaint states. Hitchcock went on to say "if she killed herself she did not want her kids to be abused and that she thought to herself that she was going to ‘End his suffering with my hands.’"
Her defense attorney said Hitchcock had no previous criminal history. Prosecutors asked the court for bond conditions, including no contact with children, and an amount of $1 million – which the court agreed to.
Hitchcock's family had no comment after the hearing, FOX 6 reported. She is due back in court Thursday, April 7 for a status conference.