Competency evaluation complete for woman charged with killing son

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY) - A competency evaluation has been completed for a Sheboygan Falls woman charged with killing one of her sons and trying to kill another son.

Natalia Hitchcock, 42, is charged with 1st Degree Intentional Homicide and Attempted 1st Degree Intentional Homicide.

On Feb. 3, Hitchcock appeared in Sheboygan County Court for a status conference. The defense announced a competency evaluation was complete and the defense would release it to the state and the court this week.

Hitchcock has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. She was previously found competent to stand trial, but the “NGI” plea triggers another competency exam.

The court allowed 30 days for all sides to review the competency report. A scheduling conference is scheduled for March 6.

On March 30, 2022, police responded to a 911 call from the boys’ father at the Plank Trail Apartments in Sheboygan Falls. Officers arrived to find an unconscious Oliver Hitchcock on his back. They described him as “pale white and bluish in color.” The responding officers observed bruising on the boy’s neck consistent with having been strangled. The officer started chest compressions. First responders transported the boy to the hospital.

Oliver was later taken to Children’s Wisconsin. A doctor told investigators that the boy had injuries consistent with strangulation. The boy had bruises on his neck “which appeared to have been from fingers or hands,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by Action 2 News.

The husband told a detective that he and Natalia had been married for 15 years and lived with their two children. He said that Natalia “became violent when she was angry and had rage.” He said she had “surges of rage.”

The husband said Natalia’s mother lived in Russia and he was worried about his wife’s mental state of mind as she watched television coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war. He said things became “very serious” a few days before Oliver was killed. Natalia asked her husband to stay home from work, which he did. Natalia talked about buying survival gear and knives and guns, according to her husband.

“He said that the felt the war between Russia and Ukraine amped up Hitchcock more than ever and that she started to drink alcohol,” reads the complaint. “Hitchcock was worried that people were going to be coming from a bigger city to attack them.”

On March 30, the husband was sleeping when his 11-year-old son woke him up to say that his brother was dead. The father said he ran to Oliver’s room and found him on the bedroom floor. He remembered Natalia saying “I killed Oliver,” according to the complaint. He started CPR and called 911.

During this time, Natalia had been walking around the apartment with a knife, “dazed, saying she was going to kill everyone in the house.” She held the knife to her chest, and her husband grabbed it out of her hand. He also got a second knife from her. Natalia suffered a small puncture wound to the chest.

Natalia told police that “someone was controlling her mind and she had been poisoned.” She said she had been trying to save her sons from abuse. She mentioned having “brain fog.”

When asked what happened to Oliver, she replied “I suffocate him,” according to the complaint.

Natalia Hitchcock told a detective that she believed social workers were going to take away her children and people were looking at her as if she was a Russian spy. She worried people from “the dark web” were going to take the kids.

Detectives asked Natalia if she had done anything to her other son. She said she had tried dunking him underneath bathwater to “scare him.” She said she did it so he would understand his life was in danger. The boy told investigators that his mom asked him to go underwater to see how long he could last. At some point, he felt “like her whole body was pushing him down.” He said the water wasn’t very high but believed if there was more water in the tub, he would have drowned. He got out of the bathroom and later saw his mother in the kitchen holding a large knife. He said he started screaming at her and she put the knife away and hugged him. The rest of the day “went on as normal.”

Hitchcock is being held on a $1 million cash bond.