Horsham Mom Accused Of Strangling Son Waives Extradition

Updated: 3:43 p.m.

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —The mother accused of strangling her 11-year-old son returned to Montgomery County Friday afternoon to face first-degree murder charges after she was extradited from the Jersey Shore.

Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead was brought to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Norristown Friday by detectives from the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and Horsham Township from Cape May Prison, authorities said.

Dirienzo-Whitehead is expected to be arraigned at a 7:30 p.m. session before a magisterial district judge, said Kate Delano, director of communications for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Then a preliminary hearing will be scheduled. There is no bail available for First-Degree Murder charges.

Action News 6 reported that Dirienzo-Whitehead appeared in a New Jersey courtroom Friday morning to waive her extradition back to Montgomery County, speaking one-word answers to the judge. Watch the video here.

She is charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, and possessing an instrument of crime, authorities said.

Ruth 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" Monday over the family's financial difficulties, according to an affidavit.

"Strangulation takes time," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said at a press conference Wednesday. "This is a brutal murder of a little boy."

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The boy was discovered around 7 a.m., Tuesday, when the boy’s father found the door to the master bedroom locked and DiRienzo-Whitehead and the family’s Toyota Highlander missing.

A joint investigation into the boy’s death by Montgomery County Detectives and Horsham Police found that DiRienzo-Whitehead had killed her son after he went to sleep at around 9:30 p.m., then 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.

After the vehicle was no longer operable, the defendant walked to Wildwood Crest, where she was taken into custody by the Wildwood Crest Police and interviewed by detectives from Montgomery County Detective Bureau and Horsham Police.