The 29-year-old woman had a first appearance hearing Friday, when a judge determined there was probable cause for her arrest and set her bail at $3 million.
The 29-year-old woman had a first appearance hearing Friday, when a judge determined there was probable cause for her arrest and set her bail at $3 million.
A Seattle woman arrested Thursday in connection with her 14-year-old son’s death told officers she beat the boy with an extension cord until he lost consciousness, according to a police report filed in King County Superior Court.
The 29-year-old woman had a first appearance hearing Friday, when a judge determined there was probable cause for her arrest and set her bail at $3 million. The Seattle Times typically does not name defendants until they have been charged with a crime.
Seattle police responded to a home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood Thursday afternoon to find the 14-year-old unresponsive. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition and died there from his injuries.
According to the police report, the woman called 911 and told the dispatcher she had been spanking her son with an extension cord and it went too far.
After being read her Miranda rights, the woman told officers her son did not finish his chores, so she struck him repeatedly with the cord. She then shoved him against a wall and he hit his head before going limpand falling to the floor, according to the report.
The report said she attacked him for an hour until he became unresponsive. She waited five minutes before calling 911, the police detective wrote.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office had not yet released the boy’s cause of death on Friday.
A spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said the woman will likely be charged next week.
According to court records, the woman had another case that was eventually dismissed in Pierce County in 2021, when her sister accused the 29-year-old of threatening her. In a statement to the court, the sister wrote: “She is a very unfit mother and needs anger management. She is always yelling and screaming at her kids. They eat only (2 or 3) times per day.”
In South Carolina, the woman was found guilty of third-degree assault in 2018.
The state Department of Children, Youth and Families declined to respond to a question about whether the mother or boy had ever been reported to Child Protective Services.
Seattle Times staff reporter Catalina Gaitán contributed to this story.