Mom Hits 10-Year-Old Son On The Head With Hammer, Then Stabbed Herself Believing She’s Saving Them Both From Sex Slavery

August 28, 2024 Gloria Shaw

A mother from Indiana may spend time in prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a brutal hammer attack on her 10-year-old son, which nearly claimed his life.

33-year-old Bethany Joy Fleming, was arrested in October 2023 on charges of attempted murder and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. After striking her son in the head with a hammer, Fleming attempted to take her own life by stabbing herself with a knife.

The horrifying incident was revealed during a 911 call, where Fleming confessed, “So I tried to kill him, I think I killed him and I stabbed myself. Please, my name is Bethany.”

Police officers with the Fort Wayne Police Department were dispatched to the Tyler Terrace Apartments on Ralph Avenue in Fort Wayne, approximately 120 miles northeast of Indianapolis, on October 3, 2023.

When they arrived, they found both Fleming and her son suffering from “life-threatening injuries.” The scene was so severe that it was quickly handed over to the police department’s homicide unit. Fleming was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment before being taken into custody.

The young boy was found in his bed, writhing in pain and screaming, having sustained a fractured skull and a brain bleed from the hammer attack. His condition was initially critical and life-threatening, leaving doctors uncertain if he would survive. Miraculously, the child is still alive as of now.

According to court records, Fleming had earlier expressed delusional beliefs to emergency dispatchers, claiming that someone was coming to abduct her and her son and sell them into a sex trafficking ring.

In her distress, she told dispatchers that she had tried to stop this imaginary threat by hitting her son in the head with a hammer. Even as she bled profusely from stab wounds to her neck, she reiterated these fears to the responding officers.

When investigators asked if she had hurt herself or her son, Fleming confessed, “I hit my baby,” explaining that she believed it was the only way to protect them.

In a plea deal reached with the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, Fleming agreed to plead guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent, a Level 3 felony, by reason of mental illness. In return, prosecutors dropped the more serious charge of attempted murder.

The plea agreement outlines a total sentence of 12 years, with seven years suspended. Fleming would serve three years in Allen County Corrections Residential Services and two years under home detention.