Daily News | Horsham mother charged with murder in strangulation of 11-year-old son
Montgomery County Detectives and Horsham Police said DiRienzo-Whitehead killed her son after he’d fallen asleep, then drove the family’s Toyota Highlander to Cape May, N.J.
According to authorities, DiRienzo-Whitehead drove the car into the ocean off of Beach Avenue and then walked to Wildwood Crest after the car stopped running. Law enforcement would later recover the vehicle and find a black men’s dress belt on the floor of the driver’s side of the car.Wildwood Crest Police quickly took DiRienzo-Whitehead into custody. Montgomery County Detective Bureau and Horsham Police interviewed DiRienzo-Whitehead in New Jersey.
DiRienzo-Whitehead told law enforcement her son had been upset and crying “off and on all day over the family’s financial difficulties,” according to court filings. DiRienzo-Whitehead told authorities she strangled her son with her husband’s belt because she didn’t want him to grow up with those struggles.Matthew Whitehead’s body was discovered in the family’s main bedroom around 7 a.m. Tuesday.
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said the boy’s father had found the bedroom door locked and the family’s Toyota Highlander was missing, prompting him to call police to the 500 block of Privet Road.Valerie Sorokin, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, concluded after an autopsy that the cause of death was ligature strangulation.
DiRienzo-Whitehead remained in Cape May County Wednesday and is slated to be extradited to Montgomery County for arraignment.
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