16-year-old girl returned home from school to find her mother holding her 4-year-old brother’s dead body in her bloodied arms after suffocating him with a plastic bag; mother arrested
Florida – In a deeply disturbing incident in Florida, a 43-year-old mother, identified as D. Cullom, has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say she suffocated her 4-year-old son with a plastic bag inside their home, moments before her teenage daughter returned from school and stumbled upon the devastating scene. Cullom was arrested shortly after being treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. She remains held without bond in the county jail and is barred from having any contact with her surviving daughter.
Police say the woman’s 16-year-old daughter walked into the family’s home around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, only to find her mother sitting on a bed, covered in blood, clutching the lifeless body of her younger brother. A knife lay on the floor nearby, and blood covered multiple areas of the home. The girl immediately contacted authorities. “She walked into the house, she sees blood everywhere, she sees her 4-year-old brother… you come to the conclusion,” Police Chief A. Holloway told the media.
When first responders arrived at the house following the 911 call for a “person bleeding,” they discovered the boy already dead and the mother suffering from what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds. Cullom was taken to a hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Once released, she was interviewed by detectives and taken into custody. Though the blood at the scene led investigators to believe the child had been stabbed, the autopsy revealed a far more chilling truth: The 4-year-old boy was suffocated with a plastic bag, not stabbed. He showed no knife wounds, but his death was ruled a homicide by suffocation.
Authorities recovered a note at the scene that appeared to have been written by Cullom, but they have not released its contents. Police confirmed that no one else was present at the time of the killing, and upon their arrival, they notified the victim’s father. Police said they had never received previous calls to the Cullom household. There was no known history of domestic disturbances, and no warning signs reported to law enforcement prior to the murder. As of now, authorities have not disclosed a motive, and the reason for the killing remains under investigation.
Detectives did confirm that Cullom gave a statement to police after being read her Miranda rights, but that portion of the report has been sealed from the public. The chilling discovery by her teenage daughter, however, has deeply unsettled the community. The Culloms’ $1.3 million home was listed for sale just a week before the killing, though it is unclear whether the listing had any connection to the events that followed.
Cullom has made her initial court appearance and will remain jailed without bond as the case proceeds. The court has ordered that she have no contact with her daughter, who is the sole witness to the immediate aftermath of the killing. The tragedy has left a family broken, a young girl traumatized, and a neighborhood reeling with unanswered questions. As the investigation continues, the community remains haunted by the horror of what unfolded in what seemed like a quiet, stable family home — a mother, a son, and a crime that no one saw coming.
