Horsham Mom Accused Of Strangling Son Won't Face Jury

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —The Horsham mother accused in the strangulation death of her 11-year-old son will not face a jury in her murder case.

Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead, 51, will have her first-degree murder and third-degree murder charges heard before Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter, said Kate Delano, director of communications for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The bench trial is set for Feb. 12.

In mid-November, the Philadelphia lawyer who is representing Dirienzo-Whitehead, filed a motion for an insanity defense.

"As we said from the start, there's just no explanation for it," Eugene Tinari told Patch then. Tinari said he would present "multiple witnesses at the trial to support that argument."

Following the incident, Tineri called his client "delusional."

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.

DiRienzo-Whitehead continues to be held in the Montgomery County jail.

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