A Pennsylvania mother admitted to strangling her 11-year-old son to death before traveling to New Jersey where she attempted suicide by driving her SUV into the ocean, authorities said.
50-year-old Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead told detectives that she strangled her son on Monday night because he had been upset and “crying off and on all day” upon learning about his parents' financial struggles.
DiRienzo-Whitehead said that she killed the boy so he won't have “to grow up with these struggles.”
The mother then traveled about 120 miles south to Cape May where she drove her SUV “into the ocean just off Beach Avenue.”
She then left the car there and walked to the borough of Wildwood Crest where she was arrested.
Neighbors of the Pennsylvania woman described the incident as “very tragic and surprising.”
“Very nice people. Good neighbors,” one said of the family.
