United States: India after Disneyland vacation – Forlin woman accused of slashing her son’s throat | World News
An Indian woman is accused of murdering her 11-year-old son after three days of vacation at Disneyland.
Saritha Ramaraju, 48, was charged with one felony murder for severing her son’s throat, killing the boy after they went on vacation to Disneyland while they were in custody. She was also charged with one felony that enhanced the personal use of a weapon and knife.
A statement from the District Attorney’s Office of Orange County, California said she faces a 26-year prison term if convicted on all charges.
Ramaraju moved out of California after divorced the boy’s father in 2018, and she and her son stayed in custody visits at a motel in Santa Ana. During her visit, she purchased a three-day pass for herself and her son.
On March 19, the day when Ramaraju planned to check out from the motel and send the boy to her father, she called 911 at 9.12 a.m. to report that she killed her son and took pills to commit suicide.
Santa Ana police arrived at the motel and found the little boy dead in the bed in the Disneyland souvenir room. The statement said the boy had died for several hours before his mother called 911. The boy was originally scheduled to return to his father that day.
A large kitchen was found in the motel room I purchased the day before. Ramaraju was released from the hospital Thursday after ingesting unknown substances and was arrested on suspicion of stabbing the boy.
“Children’s lives should not be trapped in a balance between two parents, whose anger towards each other than love for their children,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
“Anger makes you forget the one you love and what you are responsible for doing. The safest place for a child should be in the arms of his parents. Instead of wrapping her arms around his son’s love, he cuts his throat and the cruelest turning of fate takes him away from the world she brings into.”
Although the statement did not name the boy who was pronounced dead at the scene, he identified him as Yatin Ramaraju in a report from NBC Los Angeles.
The report added that Saritha Ramaraju has been in custody with her husband Prakash Raju since last year when she accused him of making medical and school decisions without her opinion and claimed he had problems with drug abuse.
The NBC report said Prakash Raju had said in court documents that he was born and raised in Bangalore, India, adding that the couple granted custody of their son in January 2018 with their son and received access rights, according to court records.
The report, citing court documents filed in November, said the mother lives in Fairfax, Virginia and wants her son to live with her.
Ramaraju accused her ex-husband of “a history of drug abuse” and added that he “has become very positive under the influence of alcohol, drugs and smoke.” She accused him of having “serious control issues” and said their son was “afraid of talking to his mother because he would be in trouble with his dad.”
The report added that Raju accused his ex-wife of “invoking completely false and untrue issues of abuse and substance abuse.”
