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SANTA ANA, Calif. – A mother has been charged with one felony count of murder for slitting her 11-year-old son’s throat, killing the boy after a three-day vacation to Disneyland during a custody visit, according to the OCDA.
The boy, who was scheduled to be returned to his father on Wednesday, was instead found by police that morning dead on the motel room’s bed among Disneyland souvenirs after his mother called 911 to report she had killed her son.
The boy’s mother, Saritha Ramaraju, 48, was released from the hospital on Thursday after ingesting an unknown substance and arrested on suspicion of stabbing the 11-year-old to death.
Ramaraju has been charged with one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personal use of a weapon, a knife. She faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life if convicted on all charges. She is scheduled to be arraigned today.
Ramaraju, who moved out of state after divorcing the boy’s father in 2018, was staying with her son at the La Quinta Inn, in the 2700 block of Hotel Terrace, in Santa Ana for a custody visit. During the visit, she bought three-day passes to Disneyland for herself and her son.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, the day Ramaraju was scheduled to check out of the motel and return the boy to his father, Ramaraju called 911 at 9:12 a.m. to report that she had killed her 11-year-old son and had taken pills trying to kill herself. Santa Ana police arrived at the motel and arrested Ramaraju on suspicion of murder. A large kitchen knife was found inside the motel room which was purchased the day before.
It appeared the boy had been dead for several hours before his mother called 911.
“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. “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.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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