A Camden, N.J. woman decapitated her two-year-old son and then stabbed herself to death as police attempted to enter her home, according to a report from The Courier-Post.
Camden County Prosecutor Jason Laughlin told the paper that Chevonne Thomas, 33, called 911 shortly after midnight, told the dispatcher that something bad had happened to her child, two-year-old Zahree Thomas. She reportedly first told the dispatcher that her boyfriend stabbed the child, then repeatedly admitted, “I did it.”
Officers responded to the woman’s residence on the 1400 block of Kaighns Avenue around 12:30 a.m. and broke down the door. There, investigators said, they found the Zahree’s decapitated body on the floor. His head was in the freezer.
Laughlin said Thomas was still upstairs and responders, who were unsure if she was armed, backed out of the home and set up a perimeter around the property as the woman stayed on the line with the 911 dispatcher. He said that by the time officers were able to securely enter the
house, Thomas had stabbed herself to death in the neck with a kitchen knife.
Thomas, who reportedly had a history of mental illness, was arrested in 2010 for endangering the welfare of a child, according to court documents. The charge was dismissed about a year later.
The Courier-Post reports that Thomas lost custody of Zahree in 2010 after allegedly leaving him in a car unattended and admitting to authorities that she blacked out in a park nearby after smoking marijuana laced with PCP. She regained custody this past April.
Neighbors told the paper that they saw Thomas sitting on her front steps a short time before the tragedy “topless and upset” and that she was also seen sitting outside with her boyfriend around 10:30 p.m. that evening, again, “clearly upset.”
He soon led her inside, but was reportedly not home at the time of the killing.
