Why do mothers kill? Death of child, 7, forces Indonesia to ask an uncomfortable question
- Kanti Utami, accused of slitting her children’s throats with a box cutter, told police her husband was out of work and she didn’t want them to ‘struggle in life’
- Experts say maternal filicide is driven by factors from mental illness and a history of domestic violence to economic pressures and even a misplaced sense of altruism
Kanti Utami, 35, is suspected of murdering her 7-year-old child in the village of Dukuh Sokawera in the Brebes regency of Central Java on Sunday and injuring her two other children, aged four and 10.
Neighbours ran to the scene when they heard the children’s screams in the early hours of the morning. They told police they had found Utami covered in blood and brandishing a box cutter that she had allegedly used to slit her children’s throats.
Utami reportedly told police that she was “not crazy” but that her husband was often out of work and she did not want her children to suffer.
“I wanted to save my children so they didn’t struggle in life. They didn’t need to feel sad. They had to die so they wouldn’t become sad like me,” she said.
As a result of Utami’s comments, there has been speculation as to why she may have committed such a heinous crime, particularly as maternal filicide is relatively uncommon globally.