Toronto, Canada mother who suffocated her 2 young sons to death 9 days after her husband dying of cancer sentenced to life. Mom had sought to end her own life.
Was there no one or somewhere she could have turned to ….? A Toronto, Canada mother was on Monday sentenced to life after admitting to suffocating her two young sons to death days after her husband dying of cancer.
Vanessa Collias, 27, sobbed in court as she pleaded guilty to killing sons Yiannis, 5, and Dimitri, 4, in December 2023, nine days after her 72-year-old husband, Costa, succumbed to an aggressive form of leukemia, according to the Toronto Star.
At the time of the children’s deaths the ‘overwhelmed’ mom had put her hands over her two young sons’ mouths and nose while singing ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Moments after the boys were dead, Collias then jumped off the balcony of their Toronto apartment in the hopes of killing herself, too.
Vanessa Collias laid out her kids funeral suits then suffocated them
Responding officers found a macabre scene, with the brothers’ bodies lying in front of a TV with a kids’ show playing, their clothes for their funeral laid out beside them, their birth certificates — along with a photograph of their recently deceased dad and a cross.
Collias survived her jump, but was left paralyzed from the waist down, Global News Canada reported.
A post-mortem examination determined that Yiannis and Dimitri Collias were healthy and well-nourished at the time of their deaths. There were also no signs of physical abuse and no consequential external injuries.
She was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charges were downgraded to second-degree murder because of the grief she was suffering from her husband’s death after a painful spiral.
Where was the support, guidance, mental health counseling when she needed it?
She had told a court appointed psychiatrist she was ‘broken, absolutely alone, and unable to conceive of continuing a life without (her husband) and wanted all of them to be reunited in Heaven.’
‘A part of me will always question why I never said I need help,’ Collias said during a virtual court appearance from jail. ‘I stand before you, still that broken person who needs help putting herself back together,’ she said.
‘To my babies, I love you more than anything,’ she sobbed. ‘Thank you for showing me what true love is. You guys will forever be my favorite part of me. I am so grateful I got to be your mom. The hardest thing I will ever have to do is to learn to be OK being here without you.’
Collias according to a psychiatrist assessment said she attempted to end her own life: first by suffocation, then by cutting her wrist and finally by attempting to hang herself in the shower. When these methods failed, Collias’ told the psychiatrist she jumped from the balcony, sustaining catastrophic injuries that left her a paraplegic.
Toronto mom accepts that society would not see her actions as morally and legally wrong
Collias had told the psychiatrist that she understood ‘the world would view her actions as both morally and legally wrong.’
Ingrid Grant, Collias’ lawyer, told court that Collias was in no way motivated by malice or a lack of love for her children.
Grant told court of a mental disorder, known as ‘adjustment disorder,’ which she was diagnosed with after the death of her husband. Grant said adjustment disorder was at play, which left Collias reacting to her background of being abused and losing her place of safety and stability with her husband.
Despite pleading guilty to the lesser charge, Collias was nevertheless sentenced to life in prison without parole for at least 18 years.
Collias said she knew what she did was wrong, but hoped ‘others would understand that her intent was to save her sons and to be with her husband so that they could all be together,’ according to court documents.
Collias’ husband died on Dec. 1, 2023, only for the widow and mother to then take the life of her two young sons on Dec. 10. Collias told the court she was already exhausted from being her husband’s 24/7 caretaker and ‘watching him slowly deteriorate before my eyes.’
When she became a single mother after he died, she said: ‘I broke. I couldn’t push no more.’
