Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead murdered her son, Matthew Whitehead, a judge determined. (Mug shot: Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office)
A Pennsylvania judge did not buy a mother’s mental health defense, instead convicting her on Thursday of murdering her 11-year-old son.
Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 51, strangled young Matthew Whitehead by using his father’s belt at their home in Horsham Township on April 10, 2023. She then took her Toyota Highlander SUV some 120 miles south to the shoreline of Cape May, New Jersey, leaving it partially submerged. She was arrested in nearby Wildwood Crest, also on the Jersey Shore.
Her ostensible motive at the time: She did not want Matthew to grow up with money problems.
Her defense maintained she had experienced a psychotic break born of financial problems, experiencing menopause, and taking care of an elderly mother who had dementia, according to Philadelphia NBC affiliate WCAU. The state, however, pointed out Google searches in the days and even weeks leading up to the incident — for example, she searched how to strangle someone and looked up mental illnesses that caused mothers to kill their children.
Her motive, the prosecution maintained, was to spite her husband. She complained he was not giving her the life she “signed up for,” authorities said, according to WCAU.
It was the father, Daniel Whitehead, who found Matthew dead.
“I saw him laying on the bed face down,” he said testified at trial, according to The Delco Daily Times. “I screamed.”
He never called Dirienzo-Whitehead by name, only referring to her as “the defendant.”
Daniel Whitehead reportedly testified to sleeping in his son’s room while Matthew and Dirienzo-Whitehead were in the master bedroom, which he said was not unusual.
He woke up April 11 to find the master bedroom locked and his wife’s SUV missing. Opening the door with a screwdriver, he found his son dead, and he called 911.
“Today, we got justice for a beautiful little boy who should have never been in a position to need justice,” prosecutor Lauren Marvel told MediaNews Group reporter Carl Hessler Jr.
WATCH: #MontcoPa Prosecutor Lauren Marvel reacts to verdict against Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead who was convicted of first-degree murder for using a belt to fatally strangle her 11 yo son in Horsham, Pa. Marvel sought the conviction with co-prosecutor Gwendolyn Kull, on right pic.twitter.com/XLwEie8TAe
— Carl Hessler Jr. (@MontcoCourtNews) February 15, 2024
“He was a great boy,” Daniel Whitehead reportedly testified. “He was always happy.”
Sentencing is set for Friday. DiRienzo-Whitehead faces a mandatory life sentence.
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