Arraignment Rescheduled For Horsham Mom Accused Of Strangling Son

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —A little more than two months after appearing in a township court, the Horsham mother accused in the strangulation death of her 11-year-old son is facing her formal arraignment.

Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead is expected in Montgomery County Court in Norristown Thursday morning according to her court docket. She is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m.

Her arraignment was rescheduled after it was supposed to take place Wednesday.

Dirienzo-Whitehead faces first-degree murder, third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime in the death of her son in April.

Dirienzo-Whitehead said that she strangled her son with her husband's belt at the family's Privet Road home after he had been "upset and crying off and on all day" over the family's financial difficulties, according to an affidavit.

Authorities said after DiRienzo-Whitehead left her home, she drove the family’s SUV to Cape May, N.J. There, she proceeded to drive the vehicle into the ocean just off Beach Avenue, where it was found by Cape May Police. She then walked to Wildwood Crest, where she was taken into custody by Wildwood Crest Police.

In late August, she agreed to waive her preliminary hearing before District Judge Charles Baum in Horsham Township District Court during an appearance attended by a dozen family members.

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