A pair of frantic 911 calls about a suicidal woman armed with a knife sent three deputies racing towards a Town of Sweden home in western New York Thursday night. Before they arrived, another caller urged them to hurry because someone had been injured.
When deputies arrived moments later, they were confronted by 36-year old Hanane Mouhib, brandishing a large kitchen knife and refusing to drop it. Pepper spray and a Taser were used to disarm her and prevent her from harming other occupants in the house.
5499 S. Lake Road in Sweden, the house where deputies say Abraham Cardenas was murdered.
Once Mouhib was in custody, the deputies made a grisly discovery. They found the decapitated body of a young boy, later identified as her 7-year-old son Abraham E. Cardenas, in an adjacent room.
Authorities say they aren't certain what events precipitated the gruesome attack.
"There’s absolutely no explanation for us," Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said at a midday news conference on Friday. "The word ‘evil’ comes to mind … this is a mother who took her son’s life."
But Baxter also said that deputies had been called to the location twice last month when Mouhib had called 911 seeking assistance, Baxter said.
On March 5, Baxter said it appeared that she recognized she was having mental health issues and called for help. Deputies took her to an area hospital.
Three days later, she again called 911 telling dispatchers that she did not feel right. Because of the record of the March 5 encounter, Mouhib was taken to Rochester General Hospital, where she received treatment from March 8 to 26.
Public records indicate that Mouhib lives in the Lake Road house where the crime occurred with her husband, John Cardenas.
There were no warning signs or indicators that preceded the fatal stabbing, Baxter said. What happened Thursday appeared to be "an isolated incident" inside the house and there was no sign of a fight or altercation. Deputies continued their investigation overnight in what was a difficult scene to process.
Baxter said it appeared that the fatal stabbing occurred in one room on the first floor of the house while the others in the home were in another room.
The family, he said, were equally surprised by what transpired, he said.
Five people, including another child, were inside the home when Abraham was killed, deputies said. In addition to Mouhib and her 7-year-old son, were the boy's father, who is also Mouhib's husband, the boy's grandmother and his 10-year-old brother, Baxter said.
Those relatives, who were not injured, were interviewed at the scene. They were also the ones who called 911.
Mouhib charged with murder
Police received three 911 calls in quick succession around 8:20 p.m. Thursday. Baxter said deputies arrived to find "an extreme, horrific crime scene," inside the home at 5499 S. Lake Road (Route 19) in Sweden.
According to court papers, Mouhib used a large-bladed kitchen knife to stab the victim in the upper-left area of the back and in his neck, causing the victim's head to become severed from his body.
Mouhib was arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder in Sweden Town Court Friday morning. She pleaded not guilty and is being held in the Monroe County Jail without bail.
She is scheduled to return to Sweden Town Court on April 11, but the case will be presented to a Monroe County grand jury before that occurs, according to Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley. Sara VanStrydonck, the chief of the office's Child Abuse Bureau, will prosecute the case.
