CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A pediatrician stabbed her 10-year-old son to death and wounded his younger brother, then called police to tell them what she had done, police said Friday.
Dr. Ellen Feinberg, 43, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. She appeared in court via video camera from a mental health facility, and a judge ordered her held without bail.
Feinberg called authorities Thursday afternoon and said "she had killed her children and wanted to be killed by the police," according to prosecutor Elizabeth Dobson.
Adam Feinberg, 10, was pronounced dead at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana shortly after the attack, which police said took place Thursday afternoon. Matthew Feinberg, 6, was in critical condition Friday at the same hospital, said Gretchen Robbins, a hospital spokeswoman.
Dobson said Ellen Feinberg told police they would find her sons in the basement and a bedroom, and a knife in the kitchen sink. Dobson said Feinberg had blood on her hands, arms and clothing when police arrived.
Defense attorney Carol Dison presented a report from a psychiatrist who said Feinberg was unfit to stand trial.
Police spokeswoman Joan Walls said the mother and children were the only ones in the home at the time of the attack.
The coroner's office planned to release preliminary results of an autopsy late Friday afternoon, Bill Fabian, the chief deputy coroner, said.
Neighbors described the Feinbergs as friendly and quiet members of the well-to-do neighborhood in Champaign, about 130 miles south of Chicago. They said the father, Samuel Feinberg, is a surgeon and the mother is a pediatrician.
"They were normal, very nice, the last people you would ever think would have a tragedy like this," neighbor Alan Parker said. "The kids do all the normal things kids do."
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