“Because I Felt Like It”

A dispatcher responds to an emergency call that begins with the suspect exclaiming that he had murdered someone; that someone being his mother.

“Why did you kill somebody?”

“Because I felt like it.”

Oliver Funes Machada, an 18-year-old living in Louisburg, North Carolina, calmly dialed 911 not long after he killed his mother. In the almost 17-minute long minute recording, the dispatcher asked multiple questions, to which the suspect willingly answered in an unperturbed manner.

The suspect revealed that he stabbed his 35-year-old mother, Yesenia Beatriz Funez Machado, eight times and then left the knife in her mouth, with his 4-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother as witnesses. He then proceeded to sever her head. The first deputy to arrive on the scene found the suspect walking down the street with the knife in one hand, along with the severed head in the other.  

Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the suspect was an illegal immigrant from Honduras. His U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrants disclosed that he was on four medications for his psychiatric condition. Just a week before the gruesome murder, he had been released from a mental institution.

The 18-year-old was charged with first degree murder; however, his mental health is being taken into consideration. “It does appear there’s some substantial mental health issues involved in this case,” said the suspect’s public defender C. Boyd Sturges III.