Oliver Hitchcock.Photo: GoFundMe
On Tuesday, Natalia Hitchcock appeared in a Sheboygan courtroom, where prosecutors formally charged her first-degree intentional homicide in the strangulation death of her son, Oliver Hitchcock, as well as attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the alleged attack on her other son.
PEOPLE confirms that the Sheboygan Falls Police Department responded to Hitchcock’s apartment the evening of March 30, finding Oliver unresponsive.
According to police, Oliver’s father, who is not facing criminal charges, called 911 to report the violence.
Oliver, a student at Sheboygan Falls Elementary School, was rushed to Children’s Hospital in Wauwatosa, where he remained in critical condition until his death Friday afternoon.
His mother, police said in a statement to PEOPLE, was also taken to a local hospital with self-inflicted wounds.
Natalia Hitchcock.Sheboygan Falls Police
FOX6 was in court for Tuesday’s proceedings, where prosecutors said Hitchcock was allegedly trying to “cut out her heart” with a knife when police first arrived at the scene.
The accused mother tried talking to relatives as she was led out of court,the station reports. She said to them, “I love you, OK? I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what’s happened.”
Prosecutors told the judge witnesses who’d spoken to investigators said Hitchcock’s mental health had deteriorated since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
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She’s also allegedly told police that “people looked at her as a Russian spy,” according to the station’s coverage.
Prosecutors allege Hitchcock confessed to killing her son.
She has not entered pleas to the charges, and is being held on $1 million bail.
Information on her attorney wasn’t available Friday morning.
source: people.com
