Mother says she had to kill her son ‘for righteousness, to save everybody’

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Photo: Rebecca Lynn Henley

The Mountain Home woman charged with murdering her son says she had to kill him “for righteousness, to save everybody,” according to the probable cause affidavit in the case.

The brief, one-page document was released Monday afternoon with few additional details regarding the stabbing death Sunday night in Mountain Home.

Earlier information from the Mountain Home Police Department indicated 44-year-old Rebecca Lynn Henley is being held on a $500,000 bond in connection with the death of her 16-year-old son. The victim’s name is not being released at this time. Henley is charged with first-degree murder, a Class Y felony, the most serious classification of crime in Arkansas not punishable by death.

Mountain Home Police Chief Edward Griffin said Monday morning police were called to a residence on Walker Street around 10:30 Sunday night for a reported stabbing. Responding officers discovered the teen with a stab wound to his chest. He was taken to Baxter Regional Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Griffin says there was another juvenile family member in the home when the stabbing occurred, but the individual was not injured.

The affidavit notes the call to 911 came from Henley who told the dispatcher she “had just woke up and stabbed her son.”

It was during a post-Miranda interview with Henley that she reportedly stated she had to kill her son “for righteousness, to save everybody.”

The Mountain Home Police Department and the Arkansas State Police are handling the investigation.

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