{"id":332308,"date":"2026-08-29T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332308\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T00:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:00:48","slug":"doctors-say-mother-who-confessed-to-killing-sons-at-bronx-shelter-was-in-state-of-psychosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332308\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors say mother who confessed to killing sons at Bronx shelter was in state of psychosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors say the mother who confessed to killing her two children at a family shelter<\/a> in the Bronx in 2022 suffered from postpartum psychosis.<\/p>\n

A judge has found Dimone Fleming not guilty by reason of insanity for the deaths of her children at a Bronx family shelter in 2022.<\/p>\n

The boys, 3-year-old Daishawn and 11-month-old Octavius, were found with multiple stab wounds in a bathtub.<\/p>\n

Police described her behavior at the time as erratic and the then-22-year-old mother was charged with first degree murder.<\/p>\n

But mental evaluations conducted by both the prosecution and defense have since determined Fleming was in a state of psychosis and Bronx judge ruled Monday she is “not responsible due to mental disease or defect.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Veerle Bergink is the director of Mount Sinai Women’s Health Center.<\/p>\n

“The risk for harming the children, as in doing harm or even, you know, ending their lives is is very small,” Bergink said. “But because it’s such a dramatic outcome every time that happens, there is a lot of media attention for this horrific outcome. But if we look at the numbers, then that outcome is actually very rare.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Bergink is an internationally renowned expert in postpartum, mania and psychosis.<\/p>\n

“A lot of things are happening in the body and brain, right after delivery, including there is a major change in hormones,” Bergink said. “There’s a free fall in hormones after delivery, and we think that is partly the trigger.”<\/p>\n

The young mother – suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time – is not being released from custody.<\/p>\n

A new evaluation has been ordered to determine how she might still be a threat to others.<\/p>\n

She is expected back in court on Sept. 18.<\/p>\n

———-
* More Bronx news<\/a>
* Send us a news tip<\/a>
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts<\/a>
* Download our connected TV app<\/a><\/p>\n

Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News<\/p>\n

Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors say the mother who confessed to killing her two children at a family shelter in the Bronx…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[125042,128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-332308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bergink","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}