Orange County Indian Mom Slashes Son’s Throat After Amusement Park Spree
By Najla Zaidi | 01 Apr, 2025

A Telugu divorcee named Saritha Ramaraju may have killed her son as her way of protecting him from her ex-husband.

On the morning of March 19th, at 9:12 am, Saritha Ramaraju, 48, called 911 to report that she had killed her 11-year-old son Yatin Ramaraju. 

Ramaraju had only recently managed to restore visitation rights in time for Yatin’s spring break.  She bought a three-day pass to Disneyland.  After their romp in the happiest place on Earth, Ramaraju was required to return Yatin to his father, Prakash Raju on March 19th, a Wednesday.  Instead she found a kitchen knife in their room at the La Quinta Inn in Santa Ana and used it to slit Yatin’s throat.  Ramaraju then took 20 pills of either Tylenol or Advil.  After the failed suicide attempt she called the authorities. 

When the police arrived, they found Yatin lying in bed surrounded by the Disneyland souvenirs collected over the last three days.  Sgt. Natalie Garcia of the Santa Ana police department was one of the officers who found the boy’s bloody body.  She spoke with hotel guests who had heard screams and loud noises.  

Ramaraju was taken to the hospital.  Upon her release she was arrested and charged with one count of murder with a felony enhancement for personal use of a weapon.  She faces up to 26 years to life in prison. Ramaraju is being held without bail in Santa Ana and is due in court on April 17th. 

What could possibly have led a mother to take such drastic measures to keep her son from his father.

The father, Prakash Raju, filed for divorce in 2017.  The divorce has been nothing but contentious. Raju is a senior data architect at Irvine-based Panasonic Avions Corp.  He was granted full custody of his son while Ramaraju was given visitation rights.  

She then moved to Fairfax, Virginia and last year filed a motion to gain custody and move her son to Virginia. This led to an order to mediation where Raju was granted physical custody and Ramaraju was able to have their son during winter break. The arrangement failed. 

Raju spoke about a summer break where the two of them went to Virginia to visit Ramaraju. “[She] suddenly refused to return him to California as we had agreed,” he stated in a court filing.  “She kept him for over a week after our agreed upon return date and even attempted to unilaterally register him for school in Virginia without any type of notice, agreement or court order.

 “It was only after I was forced to involve law enforcement that she finally returned Yatin to California,” he concluded.

For her part Ramaraju has accused her ex-husband of “a history of substance abuse issues,” adding, “He gets very aggressive under the influence of alcohol, drugs and smoke.”  She claims that her ex-husband has “severe control issues” and was making medical and school decisions for Yatin without consulting her.  

Perhaps her most disturbing and revealing accusation was that Yatin, “is very scared to behave normally,” and “always feels like he is walking on eggshells.” Ramaraju goes on to say that their son, “is very scared to talk to mother as he’ll get into trouble with dad.” 

Raju denies his ex-wife’s claims.  However, he was arrested in September 2022 on a DUI charge and again in June 2023, resulting in a three-year informal probation.  His recent motion for probation release and dismissal of his conviction was denied. 

Ramaraju hasn’t yet entered a plea to her murder charge.  Her psychological state and the motivations that drove her to commit the ultimate betrayal of her son won’t start coming to light until she begins her court appearances.

No matter how ugly, expensive and soul-crushing divorces can be, rarely does it lead to the brutal murder of an innocent.  In Ramaraju’s Telugu culture a mother is regarded as almost a divine being who epitomizes love, protection and strength.  Telugu literature depicts a mother as a patient, nurturing emotional and spiritual guide for her family.  That culture’s folk songs and lullabies celebrate the challenges and sacrifices a mother must endure for the love of her children. 

“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,” said Todd Spitzer, Orange County District Attorney.

So, what could possibly drive this Telugu mother to slay her own child in the most brutal way imaginable?  What could drive her to violate her most basic motherly instinct to protect her offspring?  The only conclusion one can reach is that Ramaraju decided that her beloved child would be better off being killed by her hand than return to his father.