A 17-year-old British teenager stabbed their mother 118 times before calling police and instructing them to “bring a body bag” when they came to arrest him. Rowan Thompson, who identified as non-binary, was visiting his mother, Joanna Thompson, 50, when the murder occurred. The pair had just gone for a jog around Joanna’s village of Hampshire village of Hambledon when the teen attacked out of nowhere.
- Rowan strangled Joanna first to subdue her. The Guardian reports that Rowan strangled their mother in the living room until she lost consciousness, at which point they stabbed her in the neck, forehead, and arm. In total, they slashed Joanna more than 100 times before calling police.
- The call to the police was chilling. At around 12:45 p.m. on July 1, 2019, Rowan dialed emergency services, telling the dispatcher: “I’ve just killed my mum … I strangled her and I’ve been stabbing her with various knives and whatnot.” They added that police should “bring a body bag” when responding to the scene. “I need someone to arrest me, as that’s what you do, and an ambulance would be nice,” Rowan continued. “Bring a body bag or whatever you do.”
- Rowan was due to stand trial in October 2020. Their trial at Winchester Crown Court never went ahead, unfortunately, as three days prior to its start, Rowan was found dead at the mental health facility where they had been staying in Greater Manchester. Police say the death was not suspicious but plan to hold an inquest in 2021.
- The teen’s father, Marc, said more should have been done to help his child. He explained that since Rowan identified as non-binary, they never should have been placed in a unit that segregated people based on gender, for one thing. Marc added that Rowan was “troubled” and that they loved their mother “to bits” and knew what they’d done was wrong.
- A psychiatrist believed Rowan was fully aware of what they’d done. Psychiatrist Dr. John Sandford said that while Rowan had minor autism, there was no proof that the teen was suffering from “abnormal mental functioning.” However, Rowan’s father Marc claims other psychiatrists disagree and believed Rowan was “mentally incapacitated.”
