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By Robert Crowe and Eva Ruth Moravec - SAEN
While the San Antonio Police Department works to understand why a 33-year-old woman would decapitate and mutilate her 4-week-old baby Sunday, police officers are struggling to cope with horrific images they witnessed at the crime scene.
"I would say that it's a very, very sad day in San Antonio given the atrocity of this incident," Chief William McManus said Monday morning. "I would say it's a very, very sad day in the Police Department among those officers who had to investigate this."
The chief said the Police Department has provided counseling services for some of the officers who witnessed the crime scene.
"It just goes to the atrocity and the unspeakable tragedy of this event," he said.
McManus said Otty Sanchez remained hospitalized Monday under 24-hour watch at University Hospital with multiple self-inflicted stab wounds, including a cut to her throat. The wounds aren't believed to be life threatening, he said.
Sanchez was charged by proxy late Sunday with capital murder. Bond was set at $1 million.
“When police arrived at the scene she was hysterical screaming, 'I killed my baby. I killed my baby,'” McManus said.
Police said Sanchez also told them that she was “hearing voices” and that the devil made her kill Scott Wesley Buchholtz Sanchez, to whom she gave birth on June 30.
McManus confirmed that Sanchez confessed to ingesting parts of the child's body. Police said the baby's brain, nose and toes were among the parts eaten.
“The mother mutilated the body,” the chief said. “She ate portions of it in addition to mutilation. Apparently, she spent a fair amount of time doing it. There were body parts missing that she had ingested. She had opened up the child's head and, you know, it's too heinous for even me to describe it any further than I just have.”
Police are looking at Sanchez's past to try to piece together the events leading up to the slaying. Detectives also have confirmed that she had a history of mental health problems, but police have not yet elaborated.
“We're really just trying to understand what would motivate someone to do something like this,” said Lt. Al Trevino.
The brutal crime unfolded in a single-story home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive, where police were called just before 5 a.m. According to police, Sanchez lives in the North Side home with her sister and the sister's two children, and Sanchez's mother stays in a small, separate structure behind the house.
Police spokesman Joe Rios said Sanchez used a steak knife to repeatedly stab the baby, then decapitate and mutilate him, Rios said. A police source said the baby also was skinned and gutted.
Neighbor Elaine Colchin said that just months ago, she was cleaning out her garage when Sanchez's mother stopped by and asked for a discarded baby bed.
“I gave it to her, and she was so happy, she was going to paint it for her new grandson,” Colchin said. “It was a family bed — my daughter, son and husband all used it; now it turned out to be a nightmare.”
It was Sanchez's mother who called police Sunday. She told them her daughter woke her up around 4:30 a.m. She said she saw her daughter sitting with the boy. He had been decapitated, a police report said. Sanchez's mother took the baby, put him on a bed and called police, according to the report.
When police arrived, Sanchez was sitting on a couch, yelling, “I killed my baby. I want to die,” the report said.
An officer found the child's body lying in blood on a bed next to the knife, believed to be the weapon used in the killing, and two swords, which Rios said were not involved in the death. Authorities were seen carrying two bags out of the home, and officials on the scene confirmed that they contained the baby's remains.
Colchin was surprised to hear that Sanchez, who brought her baby across the street for a visit last week, is a suspect in the infant's death, though she admits Sanchez sometimes appeared a bit odd.
“She was never aggressive; always sweet,” Colchin said. “She did seem to be living in a world of her own, but she must have been deranged. I feel so sorry for that baby, the little angel.”
Rios said Sanchez did not have a criminal history related to mental illness, but police will investigate that further, and the district attorney's office will handle how Sanchez's mental state affected her actions.
There was one police report on file, from May 2008, when Sanchez's mother called police to report that Sanchez went to Austin and didn't return. In the report, the mother told police she believed that Sanchez went to Austin to use drugs and that Sanchez was not suffering from mental issues.
The two children of Sanchez's sister were home at the time of the baby's death and were not injured.
Rios said initial information showed that the baby was Sanchez's only child. The baby's father, who did not live with Sanchez, was notified.
The baby's paternal grandmother, Kathleen Buchholz, said was unaware that Sanchez suffered from any mental illness. She said she's conflicted now about what should happen with Sanchez.
“I haven't worked that out yet,” she said. "I have mixed emotions... I love her. She was like a daughter. I don't want her out at this point but that may change.”
Staff Writer Michelle Mondo contributed to this report.
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