San Antonio baby found stabbed, decapitated
Police say mother, whose bail is set at $1 million, told them devil made her kill newborn
Update: San Antonio police say a woman accused of beheading her 3½-week-old infant son used a knife and two swords in the attack and ate some of the child’s body parts, the Associated Press reports.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters Monday that Otty Sanchez’s attack on her son, Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez, was “too heinous” to fully discuss.
But he says Sanchez ate part of the newborn’s brain and bit off three of his toes before stabbing herself twice.
Police say the 33-year-old Sanchez told officers who were called to her house early Sunday that she killed her son at the devil’s request.
Sanchez is charged with capital murder and is being held on $1 million bail. She is recovering from her wounds at a hospital.
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In what police described as one of the most gruesome crimes against a child in recent memory, a newborn boy in San Antonio was stabbed, decapitated and mutilated early Sunday.
His 33-year-old mother claimed responsibility, police said.
Otty Sanchez told police that she was "hearing voices" and that the devil made her kill Scott Wesley Buchholtz Sanchez, whom she gave birth to on June 30, San Antonio police spokesman Joe Rios said.
Sanchez used a steak knife to repeatedly stab the 3½ -week-old baby, then decapitate and mutilate him, Rios said. A police source said the baby was skinned and gutted.
Sanchez then used the knife to stab herself in the chest and abdomen, police said.
Sanchez was detained and taken to University Hospital, where she remained in stable condition Sunday night. She was charged by proxy of capital murder, which is punishable by the death penalty. Bail was set at $1 million.
The brutal crime unfolded in a single-story home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive, where police were called just before 5 a.m. Police said Sanchez lives in the home with her sister and the sister's two children, and Sanchez's mother stays in a small, separate structure behind the house.
Neighbor Elaine Colchin said just months ago, she was cleaning out her garage when Sanchez's mother stopped by and asked for a discarded baby bed.
“I gave it to her and she was so happy, she was going to paint it for her new grandson,” Colchin said. “It was a family bed — my daughter, son and husband all used it; now it turned out to be a nightmare.”
It was Sanchez's mother who called police. She told police Sanchez woke her up around 4:30 a.m. Sanchez's mother said she saw her daughter sitting with the boy. He had been decapitated, the police report said. Sanchez's mother took the baby, put him on a bed and called police, according to the police report.
When police arrived, Sanchez was sitting on a couch, yelling, “I killed my baby. I want to die,” the report said.
An officer found the child lying in a pool of blood on a bed next to the knife, believed to be the murder weapon, and two swords, which Rios said were not involved in the crime. Authorities were seen carrying two bags out of the home and officials on the scene confirmed they contained the baby’s remains.
The baby was also missing body parts, and police are looking into claims the mother made to them about ingesting those parts, sources said.
Colchin was surprised to hear that Sanchez, who brought baby Scott across the street for a visit just last week, is a suspect in the infant's death, though she admits Sanchez sometimes appeared a bit odd.
“She was never aggressive; always sweet,” Colchin said. “She did seem to be living in a world of her own, but she must have been deranged. I feel so sorry for that baby, the little angel.”
Rios said Sanchez did not have a criminal history related to mental illness, but police will investigate that further, and the district attorney's office will handle the issue of how Sanchez's mental state could have affected her actions.
There was one report on file, from May 2008, when Sanchez's mother called police to report that Sanchez went to Austin and didn't return. In the report, the mother told police she believed that Sanchez went to Austin to use drugs. Also in that report, the mother said Sanchez, at that time, was not suffering from any mental issues.
The two children of Sanchez's sister were home at the time of the incident and were not injured.
Rios said initial information showed the baby boy was Sanchez's only child. The father of the baby, who did not live with the mother, was notified. A relative of the father said the family did not want to comment.
