A mom who presented herself as the ideal parent has been arrested for the murder of her 11-year-old son. Police in Brazil say Alexandra Dougokenski confessed to strangling son Rafael to death with a clothesline on July 9 because she was sick of him playing on his phone, 7 News reports. Now, she’ll face a lengthy prison sentence for ending his life.
- She originally claimed Rafael had run away from home. Desperate to throw investigators off the trail, 33-year-old Dougokenski, a divorced single mom, claimed that Rafael ran away after they had an argument about his behavior. However, police believed her story seemed suspect and launched an extensive search and investigation.
- Sniffer dogs were sent out to look for Rafael. The police K9s were used in the forest area around the family’s home in Planato, Rio Grande do Sul state, but they came up with nothing. For some reason, this was enough to make Dougokenski break down and admit everything.
- She told cops she “couldn’t live with the lie anymore.” Desperate to relieve herself of the “burden” of Rafael’s murder, Dougokenski told police exactly what happened… well, sort of. While she originally tried to mislead the police and claim it was an accident, the truth came out. “
- It wasn’t an accident at all. As Chief Constable Eibert Moreira said during a press conference, “She said that after scolding (Rafael) for spending several sleepless nights fiddling with his cell phone, something that had been bothering her for a while, she decided to give him two Diazepam tablets around midnight to make him sleep.” She said she hoped the medication would calm him down but that when she woke up at 2 a.m., he was still on his phone. She then claimed that he’d died of an overdose despite previously admitting that he was awake even after taking the tablets.
- She finally admitted she’d been “in a rage” and had lost control. Dougokenski finally admitted she fashioned a clothesline into a noose and put it around her son’s neck before dragging him off the bed, making the rope tighten and strangling him to death. “(Rafael) struggled, fell and hurt his ribs. Forensics showed evidence of the injury to his body,” the Chief Constable said. “(Alexandra) told us she couldn’t bear to see what had happened and left him asphyxiating in the room. When she returned and saw that he wasn’t moving, she covered his head with a plastic bag so as not to see his face.”
- Rafael’s decomposing body was found in a neighbor’s garage. Ten days after he was reported missing, police found Rafael’s body in a cardboard box in a neighbor’s garage only five minutes away. Police say the body was wrapped in a sheet with a plastic bag over the head.
