Police probe cannibalism link after Wyong woman charged with murder of boy, 4
Updated ,first published
Police are investigating whether cannibalism was a factor in the “deeply confronting” murder of a four-year-old boy whose mother has been charged with murder on the Central Coast on Saturday.
The arrival of a 32-year-old woman voluntarily at Wyong Police Station on Saturday afternoon quickly led officers to raise serious concerns about the safety of a child.
After the woman arrived at the station, police carried out a welfare check at a unit in Byron Street, Wyong. They found the body of his son with a serious injury to his arm.
reporter Under laws protecting the identities of child victims of crime, it is prohibited to identify the child or the mother.
“I’m prepared to say to the public now, it was an extremely confronting scene,” Inspector Chad Gillies of Tuggerah Lakes police said at a press conference on Sunday morning.
Police sources who were not authorized to speak publicly said Sunday that officers were investigating whether cannibalism played a role in the preschooler’s death.
The medical examiner will perform an autopsy in the coming days to determine the cause of death.
The woman, previously known to the police, was arrested at the police station and charged with murder (domestic violence) on Sunday morning.
Police have established a crime scene and Tuggerah Lakes detectives are investigating the incident along with the homicide unit.
Investigators seized the woman’s vehicle for forensic examination and removed items from the scene for analysis.
“Every time a child is the victim of a violent crime and every time a child is murdered, it strikes at the core of society,” Gillies said.
“So it’s absolutely important to address this in a methodical way. We’re trying to understand what happened, why it happened, and from my perspective, we owe it to that little boy to make sure we get the full circumstances and present them to the court in due course.”
The woman approached the bail division court on Sunday, where she did not apply for bail and her application was officially rejected. He will appear in court next September.
