A Texas mother accused of decapitating her 3-week-old son screams “I didn’t mean to do it. He told me to!” while her sister pleads for an ambulance to bring help in a desperate four-minute 911 call released Wednesday.
Otty Sanchez, who police say told them the devil made her kill and mutilate her only child, cries “I love him” and says she’s stabbed herself in the heart and stomach while her sister tries calming down the 33-year-old mother.
At one point during the frantic call, Priscilla Garcia tries reassuring her sister that she is alive. “Otty, this time I told you to come to me,” Garcia says.
“I tried, but you told me that you died,” Sanchez responds.
“I’m not dead, Otty,” Garcia says. “I’m standing right here talking to you.”
Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez, who authorities found decapitated and grossly mutilated in a bedroom of her sister’s house early Sunday. Police say Sanchez chewed off three of her infant’s toes and ate parts of the brain. She used a knife and two swords in the attack, according to police.
Garcia tells the dispatcher that her sister has stabbed her child and that blood is all over the bed.
“She’s gone crazy last night. She was hearing voices,” Garcia says. “She kept bringing me the baby. And finally she calmed down and I took her back the baby. And now I just woke up to hear screaming.”
She continues, “The baby is dead. The baby’s dead. Please, somebody come.”
During the call, the dispatcher instructs Garcia not to touch the baby or anything in the area. The call ends with the dispatcher saying help is on the way.
Sanchez, who had been hospitalized after the killing, was being held on $1 million bond at the Bexar County jail. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether she had an attorney.
Scott W. Buchholz, the infant’s father, said Sanchez suffered from postpartum depression and that she told him she was schizophrenic a week before the slaying. Buchholz, who said he also is schizophrenic, said he wants her to receive the death penalty.
A family member has said Sanchez had been undergoing psychiatric treatment and that a hospital called looking for her several months ago. Gloria Sanchez, the mother’s aunt, said her niece had been “in and out of a psychiatric ward.”
In May 2008, Otty Sanchez’s mother, Manuela Sanchez, called police after her daughter didn’t return from a trip to Austin, saying she was concerned about her daughter’s safety. Manuela Sanchez told police she suspected her daughter was into drugs and specifically told police she wasn’t suffering from any mental issues.
Buchholz last saw Sanchez and his son the day before the killing. He said Sanchez had moved in with her parents a week earlier, leaving him July 20 after being briefly hospitalized for depression but released that same day.
Sanchez brought “Baby Scotty” over to see his father the day before the slaying, and Buchholz said she became irate when he asked for copies of the birth certificate and other documents, then left in a huff with the baby.
Priscilla Garcia called 911 before 5 a.m. the next morning. Police say the killing took place in a bedroom and that no one else was injured.
[Updated July 28, 2009, 3:46 p.m.]
The father of a newborn baby who authorities say was mutilated, killed and cannibalized by his mother said Tuesday he wants to see her executed. Scott W. Buchholz told The Associated Press that Otty Sanchez, the mother of 3 1/2-week-old Scotty Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez, seemed fine in the days before the killing, even though they argued.
However, he said she told him she had been diagnosed with postpartum depression and was going to be admitted to a hospital for treatment.
Sanchez’s relatives told The San Antonio Express News that she had been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, which can cause delusional thoughts and hallucinations.
Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the baby’s death and could face the death penalty. When authorities found the infant’s body Sunday, Sanchez told officers the devil made her do it, police said.
“She killed my son. She should burn in hell,” Buchholz said.
Otty Sanchez’s aunt, Gloria Sanchez, told The Associated Press that her niece had been “in and out” of a psychiatric ward, and that the hospital called several months ago to check up on her.
Sanchez was hospitalized Tuesday with self-inflicted stab wounds and was being held on $1 million bail. Police have said she does not have an attorney. Authorities found the baby with three of his toes chewed off, his face torn away and his head was severed.
Otty Sanchez’s sister and her sister’s two children, ages 5 and 7, were in the house at the time, but none were harmed.
Sanchez and Buchholz lived together during the pregnancy and the first two weeks after their son was born, he said. An infection complicated Sanchez’s recovery from giving birth, and she was required to use a catheter for about a week. That setback darkened her mood, and she was soon diagnosed with postpartum depression.
She moved out of the couple’s shared home July 20. On Saturday, she showed up to see Buchholz at his parents’ house. She became agitated when he told her he needed a copy of the baby’s birth certificate and Social Security card, Buchholz said.
Sanchez ran out of the home with her son in a car seat, threw the car seat into the front passenger seat of her car and sped away without buckling him in, the San Antonio Express-News reported. She left behind a diaper bag, her purse and her medication.
Buchholz’s mother called 911, and a sheriff’s deputy investigated the incident as a disturbance, according to court records. The next day, authorities said, she killed her son.
Officers called to Sanchez’s house at about 5 a.m. Sunday found her sitting on the couch screaming “I killed my baby! I killed my baby!” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.
McManus described the crime scene as so grisly that police officers barely spoke to each other while looking through the house.
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Updated on July 27, 2009 at 5:09 p.m.
A woman charged with murdering her 3 1/2-week-old son used a knife and two swords to dismember the child and ate parts of his body, including his brain, before stabbing herself in the torso and slicing her own throat, police said Monday.
Otty Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the death of her infant son, Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez. She was recovering from her wounds at a hospital, and was being held on $1 million bail.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the early Sunday morning attack occurred a week after the child’s father moved out. Otty Sanchez’s sister and her sister’s two children, ages 5 and 7, were in the house, but none were harmed.
Otty Sanchez’s aunt, Gloria Sanchez, said her niece had been “in and out” of a psychiatric ward, and that the hospital called several months ago looking to check up on her. She did not elaborate on the nature of her niece’s health problems.
“Otty didn’t mean to do that. She was not in her right mind,” a sobbing Gloria Sanchez told The Associated Press on Monday by phone. She said her family was devastated.
McManus, who appeared uncomfortable as he addressed reporters, said Sanchez apparently ate the child’s brain and some other body parts. She also decapitated the infant, tore off his face and chewed off three of his toes before stabbing herself.
“It’s too heinous for me to describe it any further,” McManus said.
McManus described the crime scene as so grisly that police officers barely spoke to each other while looking through the house. Parts of the child were missing, including pieces that Sanchez allegedly ate.
“At this particular scene you could have heard a pin drop,” McManus said. “No one was speaking. It was about as somber as it could have been.”
Officers called to Sanchez’s house at about 5 a.m. Sunday found her sitting on the couch screaming “I killed my baby! I killed my baby!” McManus said. They found the boy’s body in a bedroom.
Police said Sanchez said the devil told her to kill her son and that she was hearing voices.
“It was a spontaneous utterance,” McManus said.
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Police said Sanchez did not have an attorney, and they declined to identify family members who might speak on her behalf.
No one answered the door Monday at Sanchez’s one-story home, where the blinds were shut. A hopscotch pattern and red hearts were drawn on the walk leading up to the house.
Neighbor Luis Yanez, 23, said his kids went to school with one of the small children who lived at the house. He said he often saw a woman playing outside with the children but didn’t know whether it was Otty.
“Why would you do that to your baby?” said Yanez, a tire technician. “It brings chills to you. They can’t defend themselves.”
Authorities said Sanchez and her sister took turns watching the baby Sunday morning, and that the boy was placed in Sanchez’s care at about 1:30 a.m. Her sister discovered what happened about three hours later and called police.
Investigators are looking into Sanchez’s mental health history to see if there was anything “significant,” and whether postpartum difficulties could have played a role in the attack, McManus said.
The killing called to mind the drowning of five children by their mother in the bathtub of their Houston-area home in 2001. Attorneys for the woman, Andrea Yates, said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell. A jury found Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006.
Other Incidents of Children Involved in Violence
Atlanta Woman Arrested For Hit & Run That Killed 5
Sunday School Teacher May Face Rape Charges in Killing of 8 Year Old
VIDEO: Woman Kills Son At Gun Range
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