A 33-year-old woman has been accused of stabbing her 10-year-old son in the chest before fatally beating him with a rock because she believed he "would be better off in heaven," Kansas police authorities said.
Lindsay Nicole Blansett, from Wellington, was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday after county attorney Kerwin Spencer filed a formal complaint stating that the mother had "intentionally and with premeditation" killed her son, Caleb Blansett, the Wellington Daily News reported.
"That is what we intend to prove," Spencer said.
On Sunday, police officers responded to a scene in Wellington around 11:45 p.m. and found Caleb dead. He had allegedly been stabbed with a knife and beaten with a rock while he was in bed.
The 33-year-old mother attacked her son because she thought his life would be full of suffering and "decided the boy would be better off in heaven than to face the world's problems," according to a criminal complaint in Sumner County.
Although Lindsay's 9-year-old daughter was also in the home at the time of the murder, she remained unharmed.
Neighbors expressed their shock, saying they never saw any signs of abuse in the home, UK MailOnline reported.
"Me and her talked, she was a nice lady," neighbor Shae Hutton told KWCH. "She didn't seem like she was capable of killing her own son."
"He is only 10 years old, he was just a kid. As parents we are supposed to be their protectors," friend Kayle Black, whose children played with Blansett's at Lincoln Elementary School, added.
On Tuesday, Blansett was booked into the Sumner County Jail and remains in jail on $500,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in Sumner County District Court on Thursday, KAKE reported.
If convicted of first-degree murder, she faces life in prison.
Meanwhile, an autopsy to determine the victim's exact cause of death is underway, Wellington Police Chief Tracy Heath said, adding that he was not aware of drugs being involved in the incident.
