NORRISTOWN, Pa. – According to police documents, the Horsham, Pennsylvania, woman whose vehicle was found on the Cove Beach in Cape May April 11 told police she strangled her son to death before getting into her car and driving to that location.
An affidavit of probable cause, which gives reason for filing first and third-degree murder charges against Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 50, says she told law enforcement that her son, Matthew Whitehead, 11, had been upset on and off all day over the family’s financial difficulties.
According to the affidavit, “DiRienzo-Whitehead explained that she did not want Matthew to grow up with these struggles so she strangled him with her husband’s belt as he slept.”
DiRienzo-Whitehead told detectives this happened around 9:30 p.m.
The affidavit goes on to say DiRienzo-Whitehead then drove her black, 2019 Toyota Highlander to Cape May where she drove onto the Cove Beach and into the ocean.
Her vehicle became inoperable, so she got out and walked to Wildwood Crest. A check of the Cape May County clerk’s property records shows that a Daniel and Ruth Whitehead own a home on Seaview Avenue in Wildwood Crest.
Cape May police discovered DiRienzo-Whitehead’s unoccupied vehicle about 7 a.m. April 11. Surveillance camera video showed the vehicle arrived at around 3:30 a.m.
Wildwood Crest police located DiRienzo-Whitehead in Wildwood Crest, where she was held for questioning by Montgomery County and Horsham Township detectives.
About the same time Cape May police discovered DiRienzo-Whitehead, her husband, Daniel Whitehead, went to the master bedroom in the couple’s Pennsylvania home, where he assumed Matthew had spent the night with his mother, and found the door locked. He also noticed the Toyota Highlander missing.
Daniel Whitehead managed to open the door and found his son dead from apparent strangulation. He called 911 and the Horsham Township police arrived about 7:06 a.m.
Detectives on the scene observed that the boy had ligature marks on the front and rear of his neck, as well as swelling of his face and obvious petechia to his eyes, all signs of strangulation.
In Cape May, detectives searched the Toyota Highlander and found a black men’s dress belt on the floor of the driver’s side of the vehicle.
An autopsy on the boy’s body was conducted April 12 by Dr. Valerie Sorokin, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. Sorokin’s opinion was that the cause of death was ligature strangulation and the manner of death was a homicide.
DiRienzo-Whitehead has been charged with first-degree and third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime.
She is being held in the Cape May County Correctional Facility and is expected to be extradited back to Montgomery County for arraignment on the charges following an extradition hearing set for the morning of April 14.
Dennisville – As a parent of a Tech student it would be great if the school would update their staff directory. So many old staff still listed and no new teachers listed. What gives?
