{"id":14923,"date":"2025-10-22T01:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14923\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T01:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:21:10","slug":"police-florida-woman-snapped-before-strangling-death-of-6-year-old-autistic-son-wsb-tv-channel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14923\/","title":{"rendered":"Police: Florida woman \u2018snapped\u2019 before strangling death of 6-year-old autistic son \u2013 WSB-TV Channel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

A west-central Florida woman allegedly told detectives that she \u201csnapped\u201d before strangling her 6-year-old autistic son to death, according to an affidavit.<\/p>\n

Justine Eve Mroz, 40, of Land O\u2019 Lakes, called law enforcement<\/a> on Sunday at 9:50 a.m. ET to report the child\u2019s death, according to a news release<\/a> from the Pasco County Sheriff\u2019s Office. She was arrested on a second-degree murder charge<\/a> in connection with the death of Elliot Perez. <\/p>\n

Officers arrived<\/a> at the residence and discovered Mroz with cuts and blood on her arms. The boy was on the ground and was unresponsive, authorities said. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

According to detectives, Mroz said<\/a> that her son was watching television when he began banging his head on the floor and struck himself several times.<\/p>\n

When Mroz attempted to restrain the child, she said that he began hitting and biting her before striking her in the face.<\/p>\n

Mroz allegedly admitted to investigators<\/a> that she \u201csnapped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mroz appeared in court<\/a> on Monday. A judge ordered her held without bond.<\/p>\n

Media reports originally stated that Mroz was a teacher in Pasco County, but school officials said she worked as an itinerant — in a roving position — and not as an instructor for a particular classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cPasco County Schools can confirm that Justine Mroz is employed by Pasco County Schools. She has been arrested by (the) Pasco Sheriff\u2019s Office and will not be on any school campus,\u201d school officials said in a statement. \u201cIn accordance with Pasco County Schools policy and employee privacy laws, no additional information will be provided at this time. On behalf of the entire Pasco County Schools family, we extend our deepest condolences to all who are grieving. We are deploying crisis teams to provide care and support to those affected by this heartbreaking event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mroz will return to court<\/a> on Oct. 27 for a pretrial detention hearing.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A west-central Florida woman allegedly told detectives that she \u201csnapped\u201d before strangling her 6-year-old autistic son to death,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3017,12921,692,693,8844,696,1890,220,4181,12922,265,12923,12924,12925,3977,6121,702,5507,704,12926,28,30,29,1109,12927,667,3985,12928,713,715,1736,12785,1933,12929,12930,12931,132,720,722,727,6146,729,8848,1798,12932,1617,732,4103],"class_list":["post-14923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-america","tag-apprehended","tag-arrest","tag-auto","tag-automobile","tag-blue","tag-boat","tag-car","tag-cars","tag-classic","tag-crime","tag-crime-scene","tag-crime-scene-background","tag-crime-scene-investigation","tag-criminal","tag-criminal-justice","tag-danger","tag-death","tag-emergency","tag-emergency-services-vehicle","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-homicide","tag-illuminated","tag-investigation","tag-justice","tag-killing","tag-light","tag-lights","tag-lot","tag-motor","tag-murder","tag-old","tag-parked","tag-parking","tag-police","tag-police-car","tag-red","tag-siren","tag-speed","tag-traffic","tag-transport","tag-transportation","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-usa","tag-vehicle","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14923","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=14923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}