Mom Slits Throats of Husband and Disabled Son as Everyone Survives Murder-Suicide Attempt | Crime Alert 2PM 11.11.25

A Florida mother accused of slitting the throats of her husband and disabled son in an alleged suicide pact is ordered held as prosecutors seek to keep her jailed until trial. Two Montgomery County, Maryland firefighters are cleared of criminal charges after being accused of flooding a high school baseball field with a fire truck hose in what prosecutors said was an act of frustration. Drew Nelson reports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Nelson.
A Florida mother is accused of slitting the throats of
her husband and disabled son in an alleged suicide pact,
now ordered held as prosecutors seek to keep her jailed
until trial. The case unfolded inside a Lehigh Acres home
on Almelia Street East, where investigators say fifty nine year

(00:21):
old Barbara Bates carried out a quote group's suicide after
the family learned they were about to be evicted. Deputies
found Barbara, her husband, Neil Bates, sixty four, and their
adult son alive but bleeding from deep cuts to their
necks and arms. Each had also taken sleeping pills and
drank alcohol. In a first appearance before a judge, prosecutors

(00:42):
asked for a day to determine if Neil should remain
in custody. So, Sir, the state has requested that I
roll the case twenty four hours so they can evaluate
the matter and determine whether or not they wish to
hold you without bond. The family son, who police say
has developmental disabilities, told investigators the plan began as a
suicide pact that he panicked and changed his mind after

(01:02):
his mother allegedly cut his throat. According to a probable
cause report obtained by People magazine, Barbara told detectives that
she had chosen a horror movie and a steak dinner
as the family's last meal before the attack. She allegedly
slit Neil's throat after he wounded himself with a box cutter,
then turned the blade on their son and finally on
herself before calling nine one one. About forty minutes later.

(01:24):
When deputies arrived, Barbara allegedly expressed disappointment that help came
too quickly. Detectives wrote that she showed no remorse and
told them that she still wished the plant had succeeded.
She now faces two counts of attempted premeditated murder and
one count of aggravated abuse of a disabled adult. Neil
was arrested two days later and charged with criminal attempt

(01:45):
of a life felony and aggravated abuse of a disabled adult.
He allegedly told deputies the plan was their son's idea,
but detectives say he changed his story several times. Neighbors
and friends say the Bates family had struggled with mounting
bills and declining health. Autumn Oxner, a longtime acquaintance, spoke
to w I and k.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I think they just had no hope. She couldn't hold
a job down, and she was feeling desperate. And we
had hoped that they were going to go stay in
a shelter or something. We didn't think that it would
come down to this Innus crime.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Court record show the family had been ordered to vacate
their home just weeks before the incident. Oxner said relatives
in the United Kingdom are now trying to arrange care
for their surviving son. Lee County's Sheriff Carmine Marseno called
the case quote tragic and deeply disturbing, saying his office's
Major Crimes Unit continues to investigate the couple's roles in

(02:39):
the failed suicide pact. More crime and justice news after this.
Two Montgomery County, Maryland firefighters are cleared of criminal charges
after being accused of flooding a high school baseball field
with a fire hose in what prosecutors said was an

(02:59):
act to frustration. Captain Christopher Riley was acquitted of malicious
destruction of property and disorderly conduct in Montgomery County District
court charges against firefighter Alan Barnes were dismissed by the
state's attorney's office. Both men had been charged in connection
with the July seventeenth incident at Montgomery Blair High School
in Silver Spring. Videos showed water pouring onto the field

(03:22):
for several minutes from a fire engine parks behind the
outfield wall. According to court documents, Riley told players in
park police that he flooded the field out of frustration
after repeated incidents of baseballs hitting fire vehicles and equipment.
He reportedly told two team members, quote, I wanted to
get your attention. Barnes had moved the truck into position
and helped set up the hose before Riley climbed on

(03:45):
top of the engine to spray the field. The incident
forced the cancelation of a cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League game.
Judge Rand Gelber ruled there was insufficient evidence that the
flooding caused damage to the field, noting testimony that heavy
rains earlier that week had already left the field in
poor condition. He told Barnes, quote, You're an innocent man,
before dropping his charges and granting Riley's motion for acquittal.

(04:09):
The US government is offering a five million dollar reward
for information leading to the recovery of two American children,
Yusuf and Zara Schichter. They were taken to Syria a
decade ago and may still be alive under the control
of ISIS affiliated militants. According to the Rewards for Justice program,
the children's mother, Rashidah Schichter, left Miami, Florida with them

(04:30):
on March fourteenth of twenty fifteen, without their father's consent.
She joined ISIS at the time. Yusuf was four, Zara
was nine months. Their father, bas Cherul Schichter, who is
a US citizen originally from Bangladesh, told CNN that he
was in Mecca on a pilgrimage when his wife fled.
He later learned that she had been radicalized online and

(04:50):
had remarried an ISIS fighter who was soon killed in combat.
Rashida reportedly died in an airstrike in twenty nineteen, and
the children were believed to have suffered burns in the blast.
After her death, the children were allegedly taken by Kadra Essa,
a Somali born Dutch national and ISIS commander known as
Umkaka al Somali Essa was notorious for enforcing extremist law

(05:13):
and threatening to kill anyone who tried to escape ices.
She is believed to have relocated the children to an
undisclosed location in Syria. Their father has spent years searching
for them, traveling to refugee camps, and pleading for the
United States to intervene. If you have any information, contact
eight hundred recall FBI, or go to tips dot FBI
dot gov. For the latest crime and justice news, follow

(05:36):
crime alerts hourly update on your favorite podcast app with
this crime alert. I'm Drew Nelson.