Tearless Mother Who Called 911 after killing son found not guilty

SHEBOYGAN, WISCONSIN – On Aug. 4, 2016 Katlyn Kinateder, called 911 saying she had killed her 2-year-old son.

When police arrived, they found Kinateder standing in the main stairway leading to her upper-level apartment. She allegedly came at officers with a large butcher knife, ignoring commands to drop the knife and get down on the ground. Officers yelling at Kinateder to put down her knife can be heard in the call audio.

She eventually dropped the knife and got on the ground, but became aggressive when officers went to arrest her, and a stun gun was deployed to subdue Kinateder.

After Kinateder was taken into custody, officers entered the apartment and found the lifeless child in a cardboard box that had two other boxes stacked on top of it in a hallway closet.

In an interview with police, Kinateder allegedly admitted to killing the boy by placing a plastic grocery bag over his head and suffocating him. 

During the two-day trial, two doctors testified that Kinateder suffered from bi-polar disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and cannabis use disorder when she killed her son on Aug. 4, 2016.

Kinateder, who sobbed throughout the two-day hearing, said she had been suffering from severe depression to the point where she had been hallucinating and hearing voices in the week leading up to the murder.

She had been prescribed an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications in the past, but had stopped taking them approximately nine months before the crime.

“The overarching takeaway is mental health is a big issue and we have to look at ourselves and say ‘What are we doing, what do we have available, and how are we treating people’s mental health,’” Urmanski said. “You have to see somebody. If she had been seeing someone and – in my opinion – if she hadn’t been using marijuana, Dexter might be 3.5-years-old instead of deceased.”

She was found not guilty by mental defect and committed to a mental institution.

Listen to the 911 call below: