Horrifying second mum arrested with ‘blood on her fingers’ after allegedly killing son on Disney journey

Saritha Ramaraju, 48, has been charged with murder after allegedly cutting her son’s throat in a hotel room in Santa Ana, California, a day after the pair visited Disneyland

Cops in Southern California have released the chilling moment they arrested the mother of an 11-year-old found stabbed to death inside a Los Angeles-area hotel on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have hit Saritha Ramaraju, aged 48, with a murder charge and an additional felony for using a deadly weapon , after she allegedly took a “large kitchen knife” to her son’s neck on Wednesday, March 19, at the La Quinta Inn and Suites in Santa Ana, as per police reports.

Shaken by the case, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said: “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.”

Ramaraju, currently living outside of California, is split from her son’s dad and had taken the boy on holiday to Disneyland as part of a three-day custody visitation. DA Spitzer alluded to potential conflict between the parents that may have contributed to the boy’s death,

Spitzer said: “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.”

He concluded: “Anger makes you forget who you love and what you are responsible for doing.”

Prosecutors and police have revealed that Ramaraju had moved out of California in 2018 following her divorce. During a custody visit, she was staying at the La Quinta Inn located on Hotel Terrace in Santa Ana.

The DA’s office disclosed in a press release on Friday that “During the visit, she bought three-day passes to Disneyland for herself and her son.”

“On Wednesday … 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.”

Although she phoned the police, when they arrived at the motel they found the boy had been dead “for several hours.”

The Santa Ana Police stated: “Officers responded to the scene and detained (Ramaraju) in the hotel hallway.”

They added: “Inside a nearby hotel room, officers found an unresponsive 11-year-old boy with apparent stab wounds. Orange County Fire Authority personnel arrived on scene and pronounced the child deceased.”

Ramaraju was arrested on suspicion of murder and hospitalised due to the ingestion of an unknown substance, according to the police. After being discharged from the hospital on Thursday, she was charged and arraigned in Orange County.

If found guilty on all counts, prosecutors have stated that Ramaraju could potentially face a maximum sentence of 26 years to life behind bars.

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