Sheboygan Falls woman charged, accused in death of 8-year-old son
SHEBOYGAN FALLS, Wis. - The Sheboygan County District Attorney's Office charged Natalia Hitchcock on Tuesday, April 5 with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of her 8-year-old son, Oliver. She also faces a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Cameras rolled as she tried to talk to her family Tuesday. In a statement to police, she admitted to suffocating her 8-year-old and trying to drown her other son.
Before a deputy escorted her away, the 41-year-old tried to speak to her family, saying: "I love you, OK. I'm so, so sorry. I don't know what's happened."
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On March 30, police responded to a home in Sheboygan Falls where they found Oliver unresponsive. Prosecutors said they found Natalia Hitchcock trying to "cut out her heart" with a knife.
A witness told police the war between Russia and Ukraine was affecting Hitchcock's mental health; Hitchcock is from Russia.
A criminal complaint against Hitchcock states that during an initial interview with police at the hospital, Hitchcock told police: "She had not been sleeping for the past five days, explaining that within the prior five days she gotten approximately eight hours of sleep. She went on to say that at approximately 4 p.m., she began to have a ‘brain fog.’" Hitchcock also stated "she did not have control of her thoughts and heard voices in her head."
An emergency room nurse advised officials that Hitchcock "had a critical amount of Tylenol in her system, the complaint indicates.
Hitchcock told police she was worried that "she was being sold by people on the dark web" and the "Russian government was going to take her children and abuse them." She also said "people looked at her as a Russian spy." She confessed to suffocating Oliver.
She also told (the detective) that she felt like she had no other choice but to take her life," the complaint states. Hitchcock went on to say "if she killed herself she did not want her kids to be abused and that she thought to herself that she was going to ‘End his suffering with my hands.’"
Natalia Hitchcock
Her defense attorney said Hitchcock had no previous criminal history. Prosecutors asked the court for bond conditions, including no contact with children, and an amount of $1 million – which the court agreed to.
Hitchcock's family had no comment after the hearing. She is due back in court Thursday, April 7 for a status conference.
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