Background: News footage of the home in Fayetteville, N.C., where Katherine Svaldi was found dead on Feb. 10 (WRAL). Inset (left): Isaac Tracy (Fayetteville Police Department). Inset (right): Katherine Svaldi (Facebook).
A North Carolina teenager faces charges as an adult after police said he stabbed his mother to death.
Isaac Tracy, 17, was arrested on Tuesday after police responded to the home he shared with his mother, 49-year-old Katherine Svaldi, following a call for an "urgent" welfare check. According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Tracy called one of his grandparents on Tuesday evening to tell them that "he killed his mother" and her body was in the garage.
Not long after that call, police said Tracy called 911 himself, telling dispatchers that he "wanted to get himself arrested because he killed his mom."
When police arrived at the home just after 7 p.m., they found Svaldi's body sticking out of a recycling bin in the garage. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police immediately placed Tracy into custody after finding him at the home with blood on him and "self-inflicted injuries." According to the affidavit, a note was found on the kitchen table, purportedly written by Tracy and "detailing why he committed the crime." The contents of that note were not made public, and a possible motive for the alleged killing was not provided.
Tracy made his first court appearance on Wednesday after being charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He is being held in custody without bond. His next hearing is scheduled for March 3.
Local NBC affiliate WRAL reported that according to a spokesperson for Cumberland County Schools, Tracy was a high school wrestler. Students who went to school with Tracy and rode the bus with him told WRAL off camera that they were shocked by the allegations.
WRAL reported that Svaldi was a mother of three. It was not known if her other two children were in the home at the time of her death.
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