A Michigan mother allegedly told police she stabbed her 17-year-old son to death the day before his birthday because he didn’t want to turn 18.
Katie Austin Lee, 39, was charged with open murder and resisting and obstructing an officer after authorities found her with her son’s body in the apartment they shared in Holland, the local police department said.
The death of Austin Dean Pikaart was ruled a homicide.
Lee herself had called in the emergency around 4:15 a.m. Friday, telling police that “she couldn’t get her son to stop breathing and had been trying for a while,” according to court records obtained by WOOD-TV.
Officers arrived at what they’d been told was a domestic violence call to find Lee with bloodied clothes and brandishing a large kitchen knife, police said in a statement. Officers grappled with her when she refused to drop the knife, eventually subduing her with two shots from a taser.
She later told police that she’d been trying to get officers to kill her “so she could be with her son,” reported WOOD, citing court records.
Officers found Pikaart in his bed, his head in a pool of blood, and first responders pronounced him dead at the scene, according to WZZM-TV.
In a probable cause hearing on Monday, a detective testified that Lee told police “her son asked her to help him stop breathing because he did not want to turn 18.” Saturday would have been Pikaart’s 18th birthday.
The two had attempted to commit suicide together by overdosing at around 1 p.m. the day before, Lee told dispatchers. After Pikaart eventually passed out, Lee cut his arm and slit his throat around 6 p.m., she said.
Pikaart was remembered in an obituary as an “exceedingly interesting character,” cat lover and science aficionado who loved fishing with his father, playing video games and riding rollercoasters.
“Austin had a patient, gentle, kind-hearted soul as well as a great love for helping others,” his obituary reads. “He was an adventurous spirit, with such little fear and an all-around one of a kind.”
His family will hold a celebration of life for the boy next Monday, the day before his mother is due back in court. Lee is being held without bail.