The woman who allegedly killed her son in an Orange County hotel room after three days at Disneyland was charged with murder on Friday.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer confirmed the charge in a news release, calling the alleged act the “cruelest twist of fate.”
Saritha Ramaraju, 48, of Irvine, will also face a felony enhancement of personal use of a weapon, a knife.
“The safest place for a child should be in their parents’ arms,” Spitzer said. “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.”
According to Spitzer, Ramaraju took her 11-year-old son on a three-day trip to Disneyland during a custody visit earlier in the week. On Wednesday, she was scheduled to return her son to his father, whom she divorced from in 2018.
She and the boy were staying at the La Quinta Inn in the 2700 block of Hotel Terrace in Santa Ana at the time of the incident.
At about 9:12 a.m. Wednesday, Ramaraju called 911 and told the operator that she killed her son and took pills in an attempt to take her own life, according to Spitzer.
When officers with the Santa Ana Police Department arrived, they found the body of the young boy on the motel bed, surrounded with Disneyland souvenirs. Prosecutors said it appeared that the boy had been dead for several hours before Ramaraju called 911.
A large kitchen knife was found in the room. It was purchased on Tuesday, Spitzer said.
Ramaraju was set to be formally arraigned on Friday. If convicted of her felony murder charge and the felony enhancement, she could face 26 years to life in prison.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.