
The 28-year-old mother of a baby that drowned in a hotel hot tub during Passover earlier this month is suspected of intentionally causing the child’s death, investigators said Sunday.
The incident occurred while the woman, a resident of Beit Shemesh, and her child were bathing in a Jacuzzi in their room at the Miami Hotel in the coastal city of Ashdod.
The child was later found with no vital signs after he drowned. The boy was rushed to Assuta Medical Center, but doctors were unable to resuscitate him. The woman initially claimed he had slipped from her arms and drowned as the result of an accident.
Police detained both the woman and her husband, but freed the father Sunday afternoon.
According to investigators, the mother, who was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial last week, admitted to police that she had intentionally held her baby under water, recanting her prior claim that the baby had slipped from her arms and drowned.
Police said the mother claimed that she had been commanded “by a revelation of the Divine Presence” to hold her son underwater in the hot tub.
The woman told investigators that she had submerged the one-month-old child three times, then placed him back underwater, hoping that he would emerge again on his own, saying that the boy was the "son of the Messiah".
In addition to the one-month-old son who died earlier this month, the suspect and her husband also have a seven-year-old daughter.