Mother Ritualistically Cannibalizes Her Son

Mother Ritualistically Cannibalizes Her Son

What’s the emergency? What’s going on?

My sister, she’s… she’s hurt her child seriously.

You hurt your child? How did she do that? What’s going on with the child?

The baby is dead.

What are you doing? Your baby is dead.

On July 26, 2009, 911 dispatchers received a frantic call from family members of 33-year-old Audi Sanchez, who had just given birth to a baby boy, Scott Wesley Buckholtz Sanchez, three and a half weeks prior. Sanchez had been living in the family’s suburban San Antonio home after splitting with the baby’s father, 33-year-old Scott W. Buckholtz, whom she had met six years prior when they were both studying to be pharmacist assistants.

When police responded to the Sanchez family home just before dawn, they discovered a scene so gruesome that they were left shaken. Sanchez was found screaming that the devil made her kill, mutilate, and eat parts of her only child, including his brain. She had butchered her baby boy using a steak knife and two samurai swords while her sister and two nieces, ages five and seven, slept in another room. Audi Sanchez was brought to the hospital to recover from self-inflicted cuts to her torso and an attempt to slice her own throat. The former home healthcare worker was charged with capital murder and was held on a one-million-dollar bond.

According to the baby’s father, Sanchez seemed fine in the days leading up to the horrific incident. “She seemed like a very caring, loving mother. She held him, she breastfed him, she did everything for him that was nice,” he said. Shortly before their split, Sanchez told him that she was schizophrenic and was going to live with her parents and sister. Five days later, Sanchez brought the couple’s son for a visit, but left in a rage after Buckholtz asked for a copy of the birth certificate and other documents. Buckholtz called 911 to report that Sanchez stormed out and drove away with the infant without properly restraining him in the car, and deputies investigated it as a disturbance.

The deputy took a report but could do little else. According to Bexar County Sheriff Chief Deputy Dale Bennett, “If this guy had given us any indication that she had postpartum depression or mental defects, that she was suffering from, we may have addressed it differently.” Buckholtz stated that he may have told the deputy that Sanchez was depressed, but he wasn’t sure.

Mental evaluations of Audi Sanchez painted a picture of a woman who had been diagnosed with various forms of psychosis. She was in and out of hospitals for half a decade before she killed her infant son. Court documents were completed by three separate doctors who each evaluated Sanchez individually to determine her competency. Doctors Randall Sellers and Lucy Puryear conducted interviews with Audi Sanchez in the weeks that followed the death of her three-week-old son.

Audi was a normal child by all accounts. The voices started young, however. While most of them were benign, one voice in particular, whom she dubbed Lucy, was more sinister, often telling Sanchez to cannibalize herself. Sanchez graduated from high school and went on to college, where she studied to be a pharmacy technician, where unfortunately her mental health caught up with her and she was forced to leave. She went on to work odd jobs, mostly in the fast-food and home healthcare industries.

In the interviews, Sanchez details using drugs for the first time in 2006. She says it was at that time she first began to hear the voices. Drug use led her to Austin, where she attempted to track down a former boyfriend named Victor, although some accounts claim that she was on a trip with a friend and created a scene in a local drugstore. While in Austin, she was admitted to the Austin State Hospital. Doctors at this hospital diagnosed her with schizophrenia; however, she was issued a prescription and subsequently released.

In May of 2008, Audi Sanchez’s mother, Manuela Sanchez, called police after Sanchez didn’t return home from her trip to Austin, stating that she was concerned about her daughter’s safety. Manuela Sanchez told police that she suspected Audi was into drugs and specifically told police that she wasn’t suffering from any mental issues. On June 20, 2008, Sanchez was seen at the Center for Health Care Services in San Antonio, where she was described as paranoid, mildly delusional, depressed, and psychotic with hallucinations. Doctors changed her medications, and the voices in Sanchez’s head went away. However, Sanchez was unable to afford the cost of her new prescription and, like many Americans in a similar situation, stopped taking them.

Shortly after going off the meds, Sanchez became pregnant. During her pregnancy, Sanchez was sent to a counselor for her depression; however, she did not want to go on any medication. The counselor still prescribed the antidepressant citalopram, also known by the brand name Celexa. Sanchez took the prescription after giving birth, but had only taken it the day before killing her son. This particular antidepressant does not take effect for a few weeks—too late to save the mother and the son. Sanchez’s recovery from giving birth was also complicated by an infection, and she was required to use a catheter for about a week. That setback darkened her mood, and she was soon diagnosed with postpartum depression. Her voices began to return.

On July 20, 2009, Sanchez was taken by emergency services to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. According to Dr. Seller’s report, Sanchez had auditory and visual hallucinations as well as delusions. Sanchez indicated that she needed to be hospitalized; however, she was discharged to her sister. In the days leading up to the death of her baby, Scott, Sanchez says she was feeling paranoid, fearing that people were spying on her and plotting to take her baby from her. Her paranoia became worse when the voices began to get worse. For days, Sanchez says the voices told her that the devil was in her son. She said that she would avoid looking into his eyes for fear of seeing the devil.

Through the course of her evaluation by Dr. Sellers, Sanchez elaborated on the circumstances surrounding the death of baby Scott and what the voices were saying. According to Sanchez, the voices told her that her mother had killed President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, and that this had upset the KKK. In Sanchez’s interview with Dr. Puryear, she stated, “The voices told me to hurt Scotty. He was going to be the apocalypse.” Sanchez further explained the decision to kill her son, stating, “The voices told me to eat his insides. I was a harlot because I had committed adultery. There was a demon in my stomach.” She went on to explain that the demons would come out of her stomach if she ate Scott. This had to be done by five o’clock in the morning, or Scott would evolve and he would no longer be possessed. Sanchez says the act of eating her child made her gag and throw up, but the voices told her to eat again.

After her arrest for the death of her infant son, Sanchez was taken to University Hospital, where she continued to hear the voices, this time telling her that she was going to get a heart transplant and that she was going to be hurt. Both Dr. Sellers and Dr. Puryear concluded after their evaluations that Sanchez was suffering from mental illness. In her report, Dr. Puryear wrote, “It is my medical opinion that Ms. Audi Sanchez was incapable of telling the difference between reality and her delusions.” Dr. Sellers echoed similar comments, writing, “It is my opinion based on reasonable medical evidence that Ms. Sanchez had a severe mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, at the time of the alleged crime.”

Audi Sanchez was found not guilty for the mutilation, cannibalism, and murder of her baby boy by reason of insanity on June 30, 2010, less than a year after the death of her baby, Scott. She was sent to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, where she will receive a yearly evaluation of her mental capacity by the court and hopefully receive the treatment that she so desperately needs to overcome the disease and the demons that plague her mind. Her former partner, Scott Buckholtz, doesn’t feel the same way, however, and wanted to see her punished to the fullest extent of the law:

“The devil doesn’t tell you to do anything. Where’s the devil? Who talks to the devil? I think she should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That’s what I believe should happen to her. She killed my son. She said she should burn in hell.”

Postpartum psychosis is a rare illness compared to the rates of postpartum depression or anxiety. It occurs in approximately one to two out of every 1,000 deliveries, or approximately 0.1 to 0.2 percent of all births. The onset is usually sudden, most often within the first two weeks postpartum. Symptoms of postpartum psychosis can include delusions or strange beliefs, feeling very irritated, hyperactivity, decreased need for or inability to sleep, paranoia or suspiciousness, rapid mood swings, and difficulty communicating.

The most significant risk factors for postpartum psychosis are a personal or family history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or a previous psychotic episode. Of the women who develop postpartum psychosis, research has suggested that there is approximately a 5 percent self-harm rate and a 4 percent infanticide rate associated with this illness. This is because the woman experiencing psychosis is experiencing a break from reality. In her psychotic state, the delusions and beliefs make sense to her, feel very real to her, and are often religious.

Immediate treatment for a woman going through psychosis is imperative. It is also important to know that many survivors of postpartum psychosis never experience delusions containing violent commands. Delusions take many forms, and not all of them are destructive. The majority of women who experience postpartum psychosis do not harm themselves or anyone else. However, there is always the risk of danger because psychosis includes delusional thinking and irrational judgment, and this is why women with this illness must be quickly assessed, treated, and carefully monitored by a trained healthcare perinatal mental health professional.

Postpartum psychosis is temporary and treatable with professional help, but it is an emergency, and it is essential that you receive immediate help if you feel that you or someone you know may be suffering from this illness. Know that it is not your fault and you are not to blame—call your doctor or an emergency crisis hotline right away so that you can get the help you need.

And if you’ve noticed in our past child deaths by state, there was a couple of these that fit the postpartum psychosis framework, though it wasn’t really stated if they were diagnosed with such a thing. I believe the last one we covered is still waiting to go through the courts. Yeah, it was out of California, yeah, that’s the one. Which, by the way, send us suggestions for the next state you want us to do! We are going to be doing more of them soon. YouTube does not like them at all and quite often turns off our comments, hides it from search. Doing these goes completely counter to our growth, and we’re mostly doing this to try to get them out because they’re not covered by the media in any sort of extensive way, at least the ones that we are trying to find.