Police: Man Admits He Brutally Killed His Mother Last Week

A Fremont man has admitted that he brutally killed his mother last week but said he did so because she had become addicted to a pain management drug and had become crazy and had been treating him badly, according to court documents. Omar Pettigen, 31, who worked as a delivery will call coordinator, was charged on Monday with murder and desecration of human remains for the death of his mother, 64-year-old retired teacher Nailah Pettigen, at the apartment they shared in the 3900 block of Monroe Avenue in Fremont.

Police found Nailah Pettigen’s bloodied body at about 11 a.m. on Sept. 29 after her ex-husband, Saladen Pettigen, who lives in New Mexico, asked them to conduct a welfare check because he couldn’t reach her or Omar, who is his son.

Authorities believe Nailah Pettigen was killed the previous night, on Sept. 28. Omar Pettigen, who’s being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail, was arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court in Fremont on Tuesday and returned to court this morning to finalize his legal representation and possibly enter a plea. Fremont police Detective Craig Gaches wrote in a probable cause statement that officers who went to the apartment that Nailah Pettigen shared with her son they found her in a supine position on the floor with blood splatter on the walls as well as blood pooling.

Pettigen was dead, appeared to have been disemboweled, had an incision from her neck to her stomach, her intestines were spilled out onto the ground and her bed was completely soaked through with blood, Gaches wrote. Evidence in the case connected Omar Pettigen to his mother’s death and he was arrested in Kensington in unincorporated Contra Costa County at about 6 a.m. Sunday after police received a call of a suspicious person with a duffel bag on the porch of a home on Lake Drive, Gaches wrote.

Officers found him walking along the road and detained him, police said. Gaches wrote that Pettigen initially told police that he was in San Francisco at the time his mother was killed but eventually admitted that he killed her.

According to Gaches, “He said he did it because she was killing herself with the oxycodone she had become addicted to from her hip and knee problems and surgeries.” Gaches wrote that when he asked Pettigen to explain, “He said she had become crazy and had been treating him badly.” Pettigen told police that on the night of Sept. 28, his mother was yelling at him and pointed a gun at him while she was seated on her bed, according to Gaches.

Pettigen said he was able to grab a hammer that was hanging from her bedroom wall and knocked the gun out of her hand, Gaches wrote. Pettigen said he then assaulted his mother with a tomahawk ax and shot her several times, according to Gaches. He said he next sliced her chest open, grabbed her heart with his hand, picked it up and then put it back on her, Gaches wrote. Pettigen told police that he cut his mother open because he was mad at himself. Pettigen said he then masturbated because “he needed to be with himself and needed a release after the event,” according to Gaches.

Next, Pettigen showered and rested before going to San Francisco to rent a hotel room and have a few beers with his friend, Gaches wrote. Pettigen told police that he felt “good” about his actions and during his interview he didn’t show any signs of remorse, according to Gaches.

Pettigen said he had recently spent three months in Morocco and when he returned to the U.S. he worked at a marijuana farm somewhere between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, according to Gaches. Saladen Pettigen told police that Nailah Pettigen had said to him that she had not been getting along with Omar and the family had seen a change in him since he returned from Morocco, Gaches wrote.

See Also:

• Man Suspected of Killing His Mother Arrested in Contra Costa County
• Fremont Woman Allegedly Killed by Her Son was a Retired Teacher

By Bay City News