Woman acquitted for murder of son, 6, while in ‘active psychotic state’ is sent to psychiatric facility for 25 years

The Tel Aviv District Court acquitted Sigal Yana Itzkovich of criminal responsibility for murdering her 6-year old son Liam, ruling that she was not responsible for her actions at the time of the incident, Hebrew media reports.

The court says that a psychiatric opinion paper submitted in February determined that Itzkovich was in an “active psychotic state” at the time she killed her son, on July 16 last year.

The woman will be committed to a psychiatric facility for 25 years.

Itzkovich was indicted in August 2024 with the aggravated murder of her son, as well as charges relating to aggravated assault, killing an animal, and obstruction of justice.

At the time, reports said she told the court that her family had been “abducted by aliens and we suffered atrocities in a spaceship.”

During police questioning, Itzkovich reportedly claimed that she took drugs and drank nail polish before killing her son, an act that she was said to have confessed to.

According to prosecutors, Itzkovich was alone with her son on July 16 when she took a kitchen knife, stabbed her dog, and then stabbed her son dozens of times in the bathtub, killing him.

The intensity of the attack broke the knife, and left a tip of the blade in her son’s skull, prosecutors said. Itzkovich then returned to kill the dog with a knife and axe, after hearing its wailing, the statement said.