Alexander Harrington faces a first-degree murder charge after deputies say he reported killing his mother and was arrested outside their home.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Alexander Harrington’s first days in Palm Beach County’s criminal court unfolded without a publicly disclosed motive for the killing he is accused of committing and, according to local reporting, without Harrington attending several of his early court proceedings.
Harrington, 50, is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 11 death of his 77-year-old mother, Susan Paige Baratto, at a home west of Delray Beach. Boca Post, citing jail and court records, reported that Harrington was booked late that night and that the state opened a circuit-court case on one first-degree murder count. WPBF reported that he remained jailed without bond and declined to attend multiple early hearings. Those procedural developments followed an unusually direct start to the investigation: The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says Harrington contacted law enforcement himself and reported that he had killed his mother.
The court charge is serious, but it does not amount to a finding of guilt. First-degree murder is the accusation prosecutors have filed based on the investigation developed so far. Public reports have described Harrington’s alleged admissions, the condition in which deputies found Baratto and a knife recovered near her, but they have not disclosed the full prosecution file or all evidence gathered by detectives. The publicly described arrest affidavit also leaves open a central question that may become important as the case advances: what happened immediately before the fatal violence and why.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies went to the 5100 block of Monterey Lane shortly after 2 p.m. Sept. 11. Harrington was outside when they arrived and was taken into custody without incident. Deputies entered the residence and found his mother dead with apparent stab wounds. Violent Crimes Division detectives were called to the scene and assumed responsibility for the homicide investigation. The agency’s first public announcement did not release Baratto’s name, referring to the victim as Harrington’s 77-year-old mother. Local reporting and her family memorial later identified her.
An arrest affidavit subsequently added details about the encounter with Harrington and the scene inside. Law&Crime reported that Baratto was found in the living room with multiple stab wounds and that a knife was on the floor nearby. Harrington had an injury to his arm and was examined by paramedics. During that interaction, he allegedly said, “I killed my mom.” Detectives later interviewed him after advising him of his constitutional rights, and the affidavit says he again acknowledged stabbing his mother and contacting authorities. Harrington will have the opportunity to challenge the admissibility, meaning and accuracy of evidence presented against him.
Public reporting about Harrington’s later interview suggests that investigators may also have encountered statements that were not entirely straightforward. Subsequent accounts citing the affidavit said Harrington at points questioned whether a voice from calls to police was his own and had difficulty identifying himself in video that investigators showed him. He nevertheless allegedly repeated that he had killed his mother. Those reported inconsistencies could become relevant in later litigation, but no publicly reviewed court ruling has determined what significance they carry. It would therefore be premature to interpret them as proof of a particular mental state, defense or legal conclusion.
The affidavit also records Harrington’s statements about his health and personal history. According to published reports, he said he had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder and had remained sober since 2007. A psychiatric diagnosis is not itself evidence that a person committed a violent act, nor does it automatically determine legal competency, sanity or criminal responsibility. Authorities have not said publicly that Harrington’s reported diagnoses caused the alleged killing. Any attempt to connect his medical history to the case would require clinical evidence and legal findings that have not been reported.
Another part of the case became prominent because of what Harrington had been publishing online before his arrest. Local 10 reported that he described himself on Facebook as an “intuitive healer” and life coach. His page contained posts about spirituality, love, peace and personal transformation. A video posted before Baratto’s death discussed forgiveness and the importance of addressing past hurt. The apparent contradiction between that public message and the murder charge became a headline detail, but the affidavit as reported does not identify the video as a confession, threat or statement of intent directed at Baratto.
The distinction is important because investigators have not announced a motive. The public record described in news reports does not say whether mother and son had argued, whether any longstanding dispute preceded the killing or whether detectives believe the violence was planned well in advance. The first-degree charge indicates the legal theory prosecutors chose at the outset, but the evidence they intend to use to establish the elements of that charge has not been fully aired in court. Social-media material may ultimately be introduced, ignored or interpreted in a different context depending on what investigators collected and what a judge permits.
Baratto’s family memorial supplies information largely absent from the arrest documents. It says she was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1949 and trained as a registered nurse in Oxford, England. Family members remembered her as a frequent tennis player, a reader, a theatergoer and a traveler who loved Europe. She had recently returned from a trip abroad and was especially close to her daughter and grandson, according to the memorial. Friends described her as kind, welcoming and active in book-club and tennis circles. The criminal case will focus on the evidence surrounding her death, but those accounts document the decades that came before it.
WPBF reported that a judge barred Harrington from contacting Baratto’s next of kin. The station also said a search of Palm Beach County records showed no prior misdemeanor or felony arrests for him dating to 1998. A lack of previous local arrests does not affect whether prosecutors can prove the current allegation, but it adds context to a case that moved rapidly from an afternoon call to a homicide investigation and jail booking. The early proceedings have so far produced no public resolution and no reported trial date.
Several reports issued soon after the arrest listed differing dates for upcoming proceedings. More recent accounts from Law&Crime and Us Weekly said Harrington was scheduled to return to court Nov. 5. The discrepancy in earlier reporting illustrates why the docket, rather than initial news accounts, will ultimately control the case schedule. What is clear from the reporting reviewed here is that Harrington remained held without bond and continued to face one first-degree murder charge. No conviction or plea resolving the case has been reported.
The next stage will turn less on the unusual circumstances that drew national attention and more on the formal evidence placed before the court. Prosecutors must support the charge they filed, while Harrington’s defense can challenge statements, physical evidence, intent and other parts of the state’s case. For now, authorities have provided no public motive for Baratto’s death and no complete narrative of what happened before deputies arrived. That leaves the central factual and legal questions unresolved as the prosecution moves beyond its first appearances.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.