A mother from Alaska has been charged with the first-degree murder of her 5-year-old son. Cedar Mae Sarten, 43, allegedly beat the child, Robert “Bodhi” Gagner-Sarten, with a 20-pound kettlebell weight that crushed his skull.
According to Independent, an autopsy revealed that Sarten also attacked the child’s lifeless body with a knife. The mother reportedly then made a shocking call to her son’s father after the alleged murder.
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A criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime revealed that Sarten left the child’s father, Robert Gagner, three voicemails.
“Robert this is really bad you seriously need to come over here right now,” she said in one. “Please don’t freak out. We don’t have a son no more.”
The mother had also attempted to take her own life by slashing her forearms, neck, and head.
According to the news outlet, Sarten murdered her son on October 13, 2024, in Fairbanks, Alaska, but didn’t contact police until the next day.
“[Sarten] called 911 reporting someone had ‘crashed’ her son’s brain with a 20-pound weight,” the complaint stated. “The Defendant indicated her son was definitely dead. In response to the dispatcher’s questions about what had happened, the Defendant stated she did not know. She stated the last time she had seen her son alive was when he was falling asleep in her arms at approximately 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.”
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“It was a pretty horrific scene,” Public Information Officer Teal Soden recalled. “The initial responding officer found the child dead on the bed and observed injuries that were consistent with him being cut or stabbed.” Independent reported the officer found a bloodied knife next to the child, along with a second knife and the weight on the floor by the bed.
The Fairbanks Police Department shared that Sarten was previously convicted of child endangerment in July 2020. She had lashed out in a violent attack at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where she reportedly “grabbed onto” her son’s head when he was about 16 months old and “twisted it.”
First responders took Sarten to a medical facility in Seattle, Washington. There, she was charged with first-degree murder. Jail records say that she is now being held in the King County Correctional Facility in Washington on a $2 million bail bond.
The mother also reportedly made calls to the child’s father while in the hospital. “I know you’re mad as hell at me cause he died on my watch. I called you, okay. I called you,” she said. “I knew something was wrong. I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying.”
The mother had reportedly been suffering from a mental illness.
