Troubling Facebook Post Blames Father For Pennsylvania Mother Killing 12-Month-Old Son And Herself

A 40-year-old mother in Shrewsbury Township, Pennsylvania, fatally suffocated her 12-month-old son before taking her own life. Police said they found the two dead alongside each other Monday afternoon while performing a welfare check.

Sheri Shermeyer’s body was discovered with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on her bed, reports said Tuesday. Shermeyer suffocated her son John, police said.

A seven-paragraph Facebook post, apparently directed toward the boy’s father and containing the words, “You will never see your son again,” reportedly was uploaded onto Shermeyer’s profile page 90 minutes before police discovered the two corpses. The suicide note suggests she had been coping with depression and relationship issues as it called the father a “nasty man” and asked him, “Why should you have your name carried on?”

“I have been slowly dying inside. I'm confused, just torn down, hardly ever go out in public anymore, don't socialize with people, I've become a hermit,” the post reads. “I feel that the only thing I have to live for is this little guy asleep in my arms right now, John. … And even now, all I can think about is leaving this world … putting a gun in my mouth and leaving, which is what is going to happen.”

The disturbing post had been shared 410 times and received 236 comments as of Tuesday afternoon, many of which offered support for the family while condemning the mother.

A coroner was dispatched to the home in York County, Pennsylvania, roughly 110 miles west of Philadelphia, around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

A comment left by Cindy Richard, the director of the York County Suicide Prevention Coalition, offered support for anyone in the community who may be upset by the “horrible news.”

Shermeyer’s death is being investigated as a suicide while the infant's is a homicide. The autopsies on the bodies were scheduled to be performed at a local hospital Wednesday.

Roughly 20 percent of injury-related deaths among babies younger than 1 in the U.S. were attributed to homicides, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Infants were more likely to be killed by their mothers during the first week of their lives but by a male figure, whether it be the stepfather or the biological one, anytime afterward, childtrends.com said.