Police are investigating after a 4-year-old boy was found dead and a woman was found stabbed in a St. Petersburg home Tuesday afternoon.
The incident unfolded in the 1700 block of Tanglewood Drive Northeast, which is just north of the Shore Acres neighborhood, the police department said in a news release.
According to police Chief Anthony Holloway, a teenage girl came home from school around 3:30 p.m. and found her 4-year-old brother dead in his bedroom. The girl also found her mother suffering from stab wounds, and a knife on the floor in the house.
The 4-year-old boy was identified as Finley Cullom. Police said no one else was home at the time.
Records show Diana Cullom, 43, was booked at the Pinellas County Jail on a first-degree murder charge just after 2 a.m. Wednesday. Records list her address as the home on Tanglewood Drive.
Property records show Diana Collum and Damian Cullom own the home. A Zillow listing shows it was recently put up for sale.
Damian Cullom is a dentist and he and his wife own a practice in St. Petersburg, according to the practice’s website.
“Diana assisted her husband opening Crescent Lake Family Dentistry,” a profile of her on the website states. “She oversaw the construction/renovation of the 1920 building from start to finish. Her goal for his practice is to provide a warm and inviting atmosphere making patients feel at ease while receiving top-notch, personalized, quality care. She and Dr. Cullom have four wonderful children.”
One of the children’s names listed in the profile is Finley.
Holloway said the teen daughter found a note in the home that appeared to be written by her mother, but he did not elaborate on its contents.Holloway said they have reason to believe the mother stabbed the child.
“Preliminary investigation leads toward the mom, but again, we’re going to make sure that we investigate everything,” Holloway said. “But with the note and the way the scene is right now, the mom appears to be the suspect.”
The mother was taken to a hospital after the incident, according to police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez. The teen and her father were interviewed by police, Holloway said.
“We’re not just going to assume anything, but by what the daughter told us about the note, about what the scene was, right now we can say we believe everything was contained inside the house,” Holloway said.
The investigation remains ongoing as police obtained a search warrant for the home.
Times staff writers Chris Tisch and Emily Wunderlich contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Stay with tampabay.com for updates.