Horsham mother charged with murder in strangulation of 11-year-old son

A Horsham woman has been charged with strangling her 11-year-old son, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 50, has been charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime in connection to the death of Matthew Whitehead.

Montgomery County detectives and Horsham police said DiRienzo-Whitehead killed her son after he’d fallen asleep, then drove the family’s Toyota Highlander to Cape May.

According to authorities, DiRienzo-Whitehead drove the car into the ocean off Beach Avenue and then walked to Wildwood Crest after the car stopped running. Law enforcement later recovered the vehicle and found a men’s black dress belt on the floor of the driver’s side of the car.

Wildwood Crest police quickly took DiRienzo-Whitehead into custody. The Montgomery County Detective Bureau and Horsham police interviewed DiRienzo-Whitehead in New Jersey.

DiRienzo-Whitehead told law enforcement that her son had been upset and crying “off and on all day over the family’s financial difficulties,” according to court filings. DiRienzo-Whitehead told authorities she strangled her son with her husband’s belt because she didn’t want him to grow up with those struggles.

The boy’s father was sleeping in another room at the time, which he told authorities wasn’t unusual.

Matthew Whitehead’s body was discovered in the main bedroom about 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said the boy’s father found the bedroom door locked and discovered that the family’s Toyota Highlander was missing, prompting him to call police to the 500 block of Privet Road.

Authorities found signs of strangulation, including marks on the boy’s neck.

Valerie Sorokin, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, concluded after an autopsy that the cause of death was ligature strangulation.

DiRienzo-Whitehead remained in Cape May County on Wednesday and is to be extradited to Montgomery County for arraignment.

Matthew Whitehead was a sixth-grade student at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, which he had attended since kindergarten, the school said in a statement.

“Matthew was an extraordinary child with a smile as bright as the sun,” the private school said.

“We loved him, and we will forever mourn his loss, a devastating tragedy for our community, his family, his friends, and our world. We will do everything in our power to carry his memory forward, to honor him as he so truly deserves, and to live our lives well as a tribute to him,” the school said. “Matthew is the embodiment of love, promise, and goodness, and we will never, ever forget him,” the school said.

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.