Headless Body Of 5-Year-Old Found In Trash Can, Mother Charged With Murder

A Texas woman was charged with capital murder Saturday, after she allegedly killed her five-year-old son and stuffed his body in the trash can.

Lihui Liu, 43, was arrested Friday after the police responded to a 911 call for a stabbing at her home, located in the 13000 block of Holly Lynn, Houston, Texas, at 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. EST), and found the headless body of the victim on the floor of the suspect’s garage partially covered with plastic, Houston Chronicle reported.

The body of the five-year-old was initially discovered by his father inside a black plastic bag inside the trash can in the garage. The head of the victim had been severed from body and stuffed along with the torso.

The father told the authorities that he had left for work that morning, leaving his wife with their five-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. When he returned from work, he found Liu in the garage. On not finding their son, the father questioned his wife about his whereabouts.

Not believing Liu when she claimed that she had sent their younger child away, the father started searching the house for the boy and eventually found his body inside the trash can.

The police also found a blood-stained knife in the bathroom of the house. The bathtub in the bathroom was splattered with blood.

On questioning, Liu admitted that she had drowned her son in the bathtub. However, she refused to reveal anything about the decapitation the body of the victim. It is unclear if the suspect’s teen daughter was present at the house at the time of the murder.

Following her confession, the suspect was arrested and taken to the Harris County Jail and held without bail. She appeared before the court Saturday, where she was charged. She will appear before the court again Monday.

Liu does not have any prior criminal history in Harris County. The suspect’s family was contacted by Child Protective Services in 2015, however the children were never placed under the state custody. The extent of interaction between CPS and Liu’s family is not clear. It is also not known why and when their involvement ended.

In March, Kristina Naranch Petrie, 46, a Maryland woman was charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree child abuse and second-degree child abuse after she allegedly tried to saw the head off her 11-year-old son with autism.

“Kristina Petrie stated that she did not want her children to grow up to be a burden to society and that the children needed to die,” the affidavit said, which was obtained by ABC7 Washington.