Unable to bear this fate, she told them that her 8-year-old child had drowned because she “did not want to be mistreated”, according to court documents. Hitchcock, 41, is now charged with first-degree manslaughter and attempted manslaughter for allegedly strangling eight-year-old Oliver and trying to strangle her other son last week at their home in Sheboygan Falls. Wis. He faces a life sentence if convicted of the first charge and up to 60 years in the second. Hitchcock’s attorneys at the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post on Thursday night. Earlier in the day, one of them told a judge that he was concerned that Hitchcock might not be able to stand trial and asked professionals to assess her mental capacity, a request the judge accepted. Sheboygan Falls police – after interviewing Hitchcock, her husband and their 11-year-old son – described in court documents a mother who unfolded in the weeks following the invasion of Russia, her homeland, into Ukraine. As the war raged, investigators said Hitchcock’s mental state had deteriorated. She believed the Kremlin was going to steal her children and suspected her husband was selling them to strangers online, according to court records – although she urged him to prepare for a possible attack in their Wisconsin town of about 8,200. Hitchcock’s husband of 15 years and father of two told police his wife was well before Russia invaded Ukraine. He did not take drugs, drank infrequently and was not diagnosed with a mental condition. But he began to worry about his wife’s mental state after the Russian invasion in late February, and the ensuing war “strengthened” Hitchcock, according to court documents. He started drinking a lot of vodka, listening to voices and experiencing an “outburst of anger”, with which he became violent, he told the police. Around March 25 – a month after the war – the situation changed further, the husband told police. Hitchcock believed social workers would take her children and that people suspected she was a Russian spy, court records say. He told police he had difficulty sleeping and concentrating. Hitchcock reportedly became angry when she could not book a flight to visit her parents in Russia at the time. She wanted her husband to stay home from work and stock up on weapons, knives and survival equipment, including a camping stove and fuel, according to court records. He bought the stove and fuel, along with extra food “to feel safe,” he told police, but said no to guns. Hitchcock gave her own account to police, telling them she feared she had been poisoned and that someone was controlling her mind. She said she was facing a “brain fog”, according to police, and was worried that the Russian government would abduct and abuse her children. Hitchcock said she thought about committing suicide until she realized she would leave her sons unprotected, according to court documents. “Then she thought to herself that he was going to end his suffering with my hands,” the police wrote in the complaint. On March 29, Hitchcock reportedly told her 11-year-old son to put his head under water in the family bathtub to see how long he could hold his breath. When he did, he told police he felt his mother’s hands on the back of his head “push him down”. But the boy managed to escape from her hand and leave the bathroom. When he grabbed a knife near the kitchen, he started screaming until she left it and hugged him, the complaint states. Hitchcock told police she did not want her 11-year-old to drown. But fearing that the Russians would torture the children, Hitchcock said her youngest son could not defend himself, according to court records. So, a day later, “he put both hands around [Oliver’s] neck and tightened as hard as he could until [he] “he stopped breathing,” police said in court documents. She then grabbed a knife and began stabbing herself in the chest to “cut off her heart,” police said. The 11-year-old told police he entered the room he shared with his younger brother to find his mother lying in bed, armed with “a large knife”. As he looked around, he spotted Oliver on the floor under a sheet and “started screaming very loudly,” police said. His father, who had taken a nap on the couch, heard the screams and came running, court records say. He tried to save Oliver and called 911. The boy was taken to a nearby hospital and later transferred to one in Milwaukee, where he died April 1. Hitchcock, who suffered only “a small puncture wound in the chest,” was also taken to hospital, where an emergency room nurse told police “a critical amount” of Tylenol in her system, according to the complaint. After the doctors took her out the next day, she was taken to the county jail, where she remains in custody on $ 1 million bail. The husband was at a hearing on Tuesday, WITI reported. As police escorted Hitchcock out of the courtroom, he tried to talk to family members in the gallery. “I love you, okay. “I am very sorry,” he said, according to the station. “I do not know what happened.”
