11-year-old found dead among Disneyland souvenirs, California cops say. Mom charged

A mom has been charged after being accused of killing her 11-year-old son during a custody visitation, California officials said.

On March 19, a woman called Santa Ana officers and said she had killed her son, McClatchy News reported.

The boy, who went to Disneyland with his mom, Saritha Ramaraju, 48, was scheduled to return back to his dad on the day he died, according to a March 21 news release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Ramarju divorced her husband, the boy’s father, in 2018, officials said. During her recent custody visit, she bought three-day passes to Disneyland for her son and herself, officials said.

The boy, who prosecutors said was dead for several hours before his mom called 911, was found in a hotel room bed, among Disneyland souvenirs and a kitchen knife purchased the day before it was found in the room, officials said.

Ramaraju was sent to the hospital after ingesting some type of pill but was released March 20, officials said.

“The life of a child should not hang in the balance between two parents whose anger for each other outweighs their love for their child,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the release. “Anger makes you forget who you love and what you are responsible for doing. The safest place for a child should be in their parents’ arms. Instead of wrapping her arms around their son in love, she slit his throat and in the cruelest twist of fate removed him from the very world she brought him into.”

Ramarahju was charged with murder, officials said.

Santa Ana is about a 30-mile drive southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM with the headline "11-year-old found dead among Disneyland souvenirs, California cops say. Mom charged."