Mississauga mother charged with first-degree murder in death of 2-year-old son

TORONTO — A 27-year-old Mississauga mother has been charged with first-degree murder after her two-year-old son was found dead in an apartment on Monday.

Peel Regional Police say they responded to an emergency call around 2:45 p.m. at an apartment on Sherobee Drive, near Hurontario Street and Queen Elizabeth Way.

Officers arrived to find the deceased child who, investigators said had “incurred obvious signs of physical trauma to his body.” The child was identified in court documents as Surfeal Okubagzi.

Russom Tesfamar Yordanos was arrested at the scene and has been charged with first-degree murder. She appeared in court for a bail hearing on Tuesday.

“Very serious allegations, very unfortunate circumstances and everybody’s overwhelmed at this point, as you would expect,” said Yordanos’ lawyer Gary Batasar.

“Which is why police I think are correct in looking into any other allegations of postpartum depression or depression or things of that nature in her background or any mental health issues.”

Batasar described Yordanos as “soft spoken” and said further conversations with his client would need to take place before they could determine their approach with the Crown Attorney’s office.

“We’re going to look at the facts, circumstances surrounding the charge — not emotional reaction of the public,” he said, adding that no family members were in attendance at the hearing.

“It’s unfortunate. There is a dead child, and there’s no doubt about that that the public is concerned about that but there’s also a lot of underlying issues that we have to get to the root of before we can make any determination.

“This is the very beginning of the case, she’s presumed innocent until proven guilty and we’ll see where the chips fall when they may.”

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“In the case of postpartum depression I can’t say I have heard of this type of charge being laid but again it’s very early in the proceedings,” he said.

“You all know what the elements of first-degree murder are — certainly postpartum depression does not fit within the confines of laying a first-degree murder charge.”

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to call Peel Regional Police or Crime Stoppers.