A single mother accused of stabbing her autistic son 35 times told police she had been thinking about the years she had cared for him and wanted the pressure off her shoulders, according to court documents.
Robin Foster’s 16-year-old son is deaf and cannot speak, so he was not able to scream for help as he was stabbed 32 times in the back and three times in the chest, police said.
Now, the state's child advocate plans to look into whether state caseworkers could have done something to prevent the stabbing.
On Tuesday morning, the 40-year-old Mansfield mom said she walked into her son’s bedroom to find a male, who fled.
But, by Tuesday night, police charged her in the stabbing that happened her son’s bed, inside the family’s apartment at 132 Foster Drive around 9:45 a.m.
Authorities suspected her after she claimed she was taking a bath when the stabbing happened because the bathtub and her towels were dry, court records state.
They later found bloody clothes and a pillowcase in garbage bags on the apartment stoop.
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Foster eventually confessed to stabbing her son, indicating she had been thinking about the years she had cared for him and wanted the pressure off her shoulders, according to court records.
Police said she told them she put the blame on someone else because she was afraid.
Foster is being represented by a public defender, who said in court that Foster told her, "I wouldn't hurt my son. I simply wouldn't hurt my son."
The teen was taken by ambulance to Windham Hospital, where he's reported to be in serious, but not life threatening, condition, State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said on Tuesday.
Foster is charged with first-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor.
She is being held on $500,000 bond and is due back in court on Sept. 17
Her son is expected to recover in the hospital.
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