'Happy 11th Birthday To My Baby': New Details On Montco Mom Accused Of Strangling Son

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —New details are emerging about the life and career of a 50-year-old Montgomery County woman accused of killing her 11-year-old son before fleeing to the Jersey Shore.

Ruth Dirienzo-Whitehead, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Real Estate in Horsham, loved to get away to the beach and the ocean with her family, according to her Facebook posts.

"Happiest with my toes in the sand and yummy food," the Horsham Township resident posted last August while at the Star Beach Bar in Wildwood Crest, NJ.

On her Facebook page, Dirienzo-Whitehead had numerous posts about two Jersey Shore places: Wildwood Crest and Cape May, NJ.

When her husband Daniel Whitehead called the police Tuesday morning to say that his son was unresponsive, he also discovered that his wife's black Toyota Highlander was missing from the garage in their home on the 500 block of Privet Road, authorities said.

The vehicle was found by police partially submerged in the ocean just off Beach Avenue in Cape May.

And Dirienzo-Whitehead was found and taken into custody in Wildwood Crest shortly thereafter, authorities said.

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

Dirienzo-Whitehead told detectives that her son had been "upset and crying off and on all day" over the family's financial difficulties and that she strangled him with her husband's belt because she did not want her son to grow up with "these struggles," according to an affidavit.

Action News 6 reported that Wildwood Crest police officers were on the lookout for Dirienzo-Whitehead Tuesday morning after her SUV was discovered. A criminal complaint there said police were watching the family's beach home on Seaview Avenue when they saw a woman matching her description.

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On her Facebook page, Dirienzo-Whitehead posted numerous photos of sunsets, her son playing in the sand, and attending a Memorial Day concert in Cape May. In a June 23 post, Dirienzo-Whitehead shared a photo of her son, wishing him a happy 11th birthday. "Happy 11th birthday to my baby. Birthday festivities start with tacos," she wrote, sharing a picture of the child at a Jersey Shore eatery.

Dirienzo-Whitehead attended Hatboro-Horsham High School and received a bachelor's degree in marketing from Drexel University.

She has worked as a real estate agent since August 2008.

"Ruth is the best. She is an experienced professional and goes the extra mile," said one review of her work at the agency on 400 Horsham Rd.

A call to the Keller Williams office in Horsham for comment went unanswered Thursday.