Motive yet to be established.
By Raif Karerat
A mother murdered her 5-year-old son before shooting herself to death early on Saturday in an apparent murder-suicide within the child’s hospital room in suburban Phoenix, police said.
The bodies of the mother, Lola “Tammy” Griffith, 27, and her son Helious were discovered by hospital staff during a routine check at about 2 a.m. on Nov. 7, reported Reuters.
Detective Steve Berry, a spokesman for the Mesa Police Department, said the boy was admitted to the hospital at least a week ago, but declined to comment on the child’s treatment or the manner of his death.
No one else in the hospital was threatened or harmed, and motive has yet to be established.
Tami Griffith last month apparently started an appeal on the YouCaring website. The author said she had a special-needs son and they needed money for a used car.
“My son’s name is Helious (like the Greek Sun God Helios) and he has cerebral palsy with dystonia, he has sensitivities to audio, odor, and touch,” Griffith purportedly wrote, according to CNN. “He also suffers from separation anxiety when I’m out of his line of sight where he cries and cannot self-calm. He has been traumatized by doctors where now he expresses extreme anxiety and downright terror when he smells rubbing alcohol and/or see someone in scrubs or lab coat.”
The post had only garnered $5 in the woman’s search to afford a new vehicle in the amount of $1,800, according to local ABC affiliate KNXV.