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Who Is Ruth DiRienzo? Why She killed Her 11-year-old Son Matthew Whitehead?
Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead, 50, is suspected of murdering her son before leaving his body at a Jersey Shore beach and walking to a nearby town, according to investigators.
Around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, according to investigators, Dirienzo-Whitehead was in bed with her 11-year-old son Matthew Whitehead in their Horsham Township residence on the 500 block of Privet Road. The boy’s father, Dirienzo-Whitehead’s husband, was sound asleep in another room.
Mom Accused of Strangling Son With Belt
The death of Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead’s son, Matthew Whitehead, 11, is the subject of first- and third-degree murder charges against the Horsham resident.
The D.A.’s office reported that an autopsy revealed Whitehead had been strangled.
When her son went to sleep at about 9:30 p.m. on Monday, according to investigators, DiRienzo-Whitehead killed him. She then allegedly drove the family’s SUV to Cape May, New Jersey.
According to a criminal complaint, Ruth DiRienzo told detectives that her sixth-grade son was “crying off and on all day” due to the family’s financial difficulties.
Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead acknowledged that she choked the child to prevent him from having “to grow up with these struggles.”
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The boy’s father found the boy’s body in the master bedroom, where he had slept with his mother the previous night, and phoned the police shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
According to the prosecution, the father discovered the bedroom locked and both his wife and their SUV missing. Where DiRienzo-Whitehead’s spouse slept before discovering the terrible discovery was not immediately obvious.
After killing her kid, according to the prosecution, DiRienzo-Whitehead allegedly fled the house and traveled 120 miles to Cape May, New Jersey, where she allegedly crashed her SUV into the water.
Prosecutors claim that the belt that was used in the murder was later found in the car.
Shortly after traveling six miles to the family’s beach house in a neighboring community, DiRienzo-Whitehead was apprehended by police.
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