Montana Mother Tells Deputies ‘He’s in His Room’ Before Horrifying Discovery of 5-Year-Old

A woman has been arrested following the death of her 5-year-old son after officers responding to a welfare check said she confessed to suffocating the child, because "things could have been so much worse."

A woman from Montana, identified as Kathryn Garaas, has been accused of deliberate homicide following the death of her son. Reign Tyler Blair, 5, was found suffocated at their residence in Whitehall, about 60 miles northwest of Bozeman. According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to a call on April 24 for a medical emergency.

A probable cause affidavit obtained by KRTV, a local CBS affiliate, stated that the father of the victim requested a welfare check after receiving a disturbing text message from Garaas.

After officers arrived, Garaas told deputies that the 5-year-old was in his room and escorted them upstairs. According to the affidavit, deputies found the child in his bedroom with a plastic bag over his head.

Garaas allegedly told authorities that she had to kill him to save him. Grass said, "Things would have only gotten so much worse."

Colleen Much, who created a GoFundMe page on behalf of the child’s family, said Garaas had previously been separated from the family but had been living with the boy and his father for several weeks before the killing, according to an interview with KRTV.

“I cannot and will absolutely not pretend to claim we have even a remote understanding of the reasoning behind this or what occurred,” Much wrote in the GoFundMe description.

“We pray for answers that may never come, and when they do, no healing will come of it,” she added. Much described Tyler as a “precious, innocent, perfect, beautiful little light.”

“Reign is his purpose, his love and his life from the moment he took his first breath,” she wrote. “There are no words for the kind of strength it takes for a man to be a single father, and the life he built for Reign was filled with love, laughter and joy.”

Garaas is currently held at the Jefferson County Jail without bond. Her court date has been scheduled for June 10.