Cops in Southern California have released the chilling moment they arrested the mother of an 11-year-old found stabbed to death inside a Los Angeles-area hotel on Wednesday.
Around 9:10 a.m. on Wednesday, Saritha Ramaraju, 48, called 911 and admitted to stabbing her son inside of their room, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found her son dead on the bed of their room in a La Quinta Inn close to John Wayne Airport.
Bodycam footage shows the officers encountering a calm Ramaraju close to the doorway of her room. She walks towards them with her phone in her hand. The woman is then handcuffed while appearing to be motionless.
She is facing charges of charges of murder, child endangerment, torture, and aggravated mayhem.
As she is cuffed, a female police officer is heard saying: “She has blood on her hands.” The officer then demands to know who else is in their room.
A male officer walks into the room where he makes the horrific discovery.
One guest told KTLA what she heard just before the police arrived. “We heard the banging, and something hit the wall. It sounded like something hit the floor really hard, and we heard like a short yell, but that was it,” Alyssah Witherell said.
Ramaraju told the police she had ingested an unknown substance.
The suspect was rushed to a local hospital, with the latest reports indicating that she is in stable condition.
Ramaraju is reported to have consumed over 20 pills of Advil or Tylenol pills, police told The Orange County Register.
A murder weapon was also found inside the hotel room, according to police reports. A motive has not been established.
The suspect had reportedly been embroiled in an ongoing custody battle with her son’s father, Prakash Raju, who works as a senior data architect at Irvine-based Panasonic Avionics Corporation, according to The Orange County Register.
According to court records seen by The Register, the pair divorced in January 2018, and Ramaraju was given some visitation rights.
His father was granted full custody. At the time of the tragedy, the child was legally allowed to be with his mother.
The child, who was a student at the Irvine Unified School District, was due to be reunited with his father that evening.
The custody agreement alleges that Ramaraju wanted the couple’s son to live with her in Fairfax, Virginia, while his father wanted him to remain in California.
During their dispute, Ramaraju accuses her former husband of reneging on a promise to allow the child to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with her. In 2023, Raju pleaded guilty to a DUI, resulting in him being given probation. He maintained in legal documents that since that incident, he has abstained from alcohol.
Homicide detectives are now looking for additional witnesses and have urged anyone with information relating to the incident to come forward.
Anyone with information is urged to contact SAPD Homicide Section Detectives at (714) 245-8390 or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.
