West Michigan Mom Who Killed Son “Out of Love” Learns Her Fate

A West Michigan mother who took her son's life "out of love" has been sentenced.

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On February 21, 2025, Katie Austin called 911 at 4:15 a.m.

She requested that an officer be sent out because her son wouldn't stop breathing.

Apparently, the night before her son tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills, but it didn’t work.

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She then used a large kitchen knife to stab her son, who later died from his injuries

Later in October of 2025, Austin pleased guilty to torture and second-degree murder for the killing of her son.

Today in an Ottawa County courtroom, before Judge Jon Hulsing handed down her sentence, she addressed the court, saying:

I never intended for him to suffer in any way. In my broken thinking, I was saving him from it, Every day, every thought, every nightmare, every flashback, every moment without him, I’ll forever be punished. But I know that’s not enough. I will spend the rest of my life in prison trying to process what I could have done differently and how I could have reached out and continuing to speak out about the warning signs that I so clearly see now.

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When the judge finally read her sentence, Lee learned she would spend the next 60 to 90 years in prison.