{"id":134956,"date":"2026-01-28T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134956\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:09:10","slug":"mother-charged-with-murder-accused-of-suffocating-4-year-old-son-st-pete-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134956\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother charged with murder, accused of suffocating 4-year-old son: St. Pete Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/pinellas\/st-petersburg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">St. Pete<\/a> mother was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday morning after police say she suffocated her 4-year-old son.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Officers arrived at the scene after the boy&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/child-found-dead-adult-injured-inside-st-pete-home-police\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">16-year-old sister came home from school and found her brother, Finley Cullom, dead<\/a>. She also found her mom, 43-year-old Diana Cullom, with stab wounds, according to detectives. She was taken to the hospital before she was officially charged on Wednesday with her son&#8217;s murder.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769609350_38_mom-arrested.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Courtesy: St. Pete Police Department. <\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Police originally said that the boy was stabbed to death, but they now say he had been suffocated.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said the knife and a note were found at the scene.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;It is our belief that the note was left by mom,&#8221; Holloway stated during a press briefing on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What we don&#8217;t know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">They didn&#8217;t say what exactly was in the note, and police still don&#8217;t know about the mom&#8217;s mental health history.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">According to Holloway, the children\u2019s father, who was not home at the time, was notified, and after going to the scene, he went to the police station to talk with investigators.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/missing-kayakers-body-found-clearwater-beach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Missing kayaker\u2019s body found on Clearwater Beach<\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">The chief said police have not been dispatched to the home in the past.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;A lot of these officers, they have kids, and then you have the 16-year-old who&#8217;s coming home from school and finding her brother and her mother. And then you&#8217;re just having a father come here. So right now in the neighborhood, everybody&#8217;s heart is heavy,&#8221;\u00a0said Holloway.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Police say they are providing victim services and resources to the 16-year-old and responding officers and firefighters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information for this story was provided by the St. Pete Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/pinellas\/st-petersburg\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. &#8211; A St. Pete mother was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday morning after police&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-134956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pinellas","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}