No bail for women accused in autistic boy’s death

A suburban mother and caretaker planned for more than a week to kill a 14-year-old boy with severe autism, prosecutors said Wednesday at a bond hearing for the women, both charged with first-degree murder in the boy’s stabbing death.

A Cook County judge denied bond for Dorothy Spourdalakis, 50, and caretaker Jolanta Skrodzka, 40. Neither woman spoke at the hearing.

The boy’s father and uncle found Alex Spourdalakis, 14, on Sunday stabbed numerous times in the chest and lying on his bed in a second-floor River Grove apartment, authorities said. Spourdalakis and Skrodzka were found nearby, uninjured but disoriented.

“Their initial plan was to give him an overdose of drugs so he would die,” Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Brittney Burns said during the bond hearing. “The defendants took turns in the evening to check the victim’s breathing and pulse. After several hours, Dorothy Spourdalakis took a knife from the kitchen, went to the victim’s bedroom and stabbed him four times in the chest.”

Spourdalakis also slit the boy’s wrist, Burns said.

Prosecutors said that the women were upset about lack of proper care for the boy. Police have said the boy needed constant care because of his severe autism.

The women lived at the apartment where the boy was found, but the boy’s father did not, authorities said.