{"id":135299,"date":"2026-01-28T19:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135299\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:10:59","slug":"coroner-says-4-year-old-was-suffocated-in-st-petersburg-home-mother-charged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135299\/","title":{"rendered":"Coroner says 4-year-old was suffocated in St. Petersburg home; mother charged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">UPDATED 11:30 a.m. with medical examiner\u2019s information contradicting earlier police statements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A 4-year-old boy was found dead in his St. Petersburg home Tuesday and the boy\u2019s mother has been charged with murder, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The St. Petersburg Police Department says they were called to a home shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Tanglewood Drive Northeast. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez, when police arrived, they found a 16-year-old girl, who told them that when she got home from school, she found her mother holding her 4-year-old brother in a bed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">There was blood at the scene and throughout the house, she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police then found the 4-year-old in the arms of his mother, Diana Cullom, 41, who was bleeding from self-inflicted stab wounds, an arrest affidavit released Wednesday said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Tuesday, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway told reporters at the scene he was believed the boy had been stabbed to death. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">However, Fernandez said Wednesday that the medical examiner had determined that there were no stab wounds on the child. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The medical examiner also said it appears the child had been suffocated, Fernandez said. The affidavit alleges a plastic bag was used to kill the boy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The mother was transported to Bayfront Hospital due to multiple lacerations. Her injuries were not life-threatening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After being treated at the hospital, Diana Collum was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with first-degree murder, Pinellas County Jail records show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Holloway also said added police found a note on the scene, which they believe was left by the mother. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Previous coverage:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A 4-year-old boy was found stabbed to death in his St. Petersburg home Tuesday and the boy\u2019s mother has been charged with murder, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The St. Petersburg Police Department says the boy\u2019s body was found in the home by his 16-year-old sister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The mother, identified as 43-year-old Diana Cullom, was questioned after being treated for multiple stab wounds, and was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with first-degree murder, Pinellas County Jail records show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to officers, the death was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m. in a home on Tanglewood Drive Northeast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police Chief Anthony Holloway said the girl arrived home from school, saw her brother stabbed to death and called police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cShe found her 4-year-old brother stabbed, dead,\u201d Holloway said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Holloway said at the scene that evidence indicates that the mother stabbed the child. Holloway said the mother also had multiple stab wounds. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if they\u2019re self-inflicted .. We\u2019re waiting to find out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police added that they found a note on the scene, which they believe was left by the mother. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The father was also being interviewed by police, Holloway said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATED 11:30 a.m. with medical examiner\u2019s information contradicting earlier police statements. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A 4-year-old&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7304,14837,66231,1933,3030,202,204,203,199,201,200,66232],"class_list":["post-135299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-7304","tag-boy","tag-cullom","tag-murder","tag-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-stabbed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135299","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=135299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}