Alex Spourdalakis’ mother and godmother were charged with murder. Spourdalakis, a teen with severe autism, was found stabbed to death in a Chicago suburb.
Mother Dorothy Spourdalakis and godmother Jolanta Agatha Skrodzka were charged on Wednesday in a Cook County courthouse, reported ABC-7 television.
The two women are accused of planning to kill the 14-year-old boy a week in advance. Prosecutors suspect that his constant care was too emotionally taxing.
“Their initial plan was to give him an overdose of drugs so he would die. The defendants took turns in the evening to check the victim’s breathing and pulse. After several hours, Dorothy Spourdalakis took a knife from the kitchen, went to the victim’s bedroom and stabbed him four times in the chest,” Brittney Burns, an assistant Cook County state’s attorney, told the station.
The boy was found dead in a River Grove, Ill., apartment that he shared with his mother, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“There was quite a bit of blood and it was pretty messy, like there had been some kind of a struggle,” police chief Rodger Loni told NBC Chicago.
Authorities said Dorothy Spourdalakis and Skrodzka were found at the residence semi-conscious after the incident. They were later taken to a local hospital.
“It’s terrible,” Loni told NBC. “It’s a young 14-year-old boy who didn’t need to die. I have young boys of my own. It’s pretty traumatic.”
A spokesman with the Department of Children and Family Services told the paper that there was a report of an abuse allegation in January. However, the agency later determined that the allegation was not credible.
