Inset: Katie Lee (Holland Department of Public Safety). Background: Police at Katie Lee’s apartment in the Bay Pointe Apartment Complex in Holland, Mich. (WOOD/YouTube).
In Michigan, a mother is facing a lengthy prison sentence after she claimed she and her son had an agreement that ended with her taking his life by slashing his throat. Her son reportedly did not wish to reach the age of 18.
On Monday, Katie Lee, aged 40, was sentenced in Ottawa County to 60 to 90 years behind bars for the murder of her son, Austin Pikaart, which took place in February 2025 at their Holland residence. During the sentencing, she maintained she believed she was “saving him,” as reported by local NBC affiliate WOOD.
Lee addressed the court, stating, “I never intended for him to suffer in any way. In my broken thinking, I was saving him from it.”
In October, Lee admitted guilt to charges of torture and second-degree murder concerning the incident, asserting that the plan was devised by Austin. She confessed that part of the plan was for her to end her own life with an overdose, a plan that ultimately failed. Austin also attempted to overdose, but when he did not succumb, Lee resorted to slashing his throat.
According to MLive.com, during a 911 call, Lee explained that “her son asked her to help him stop breathing and had been trying to for a while.”
Authorities reported that “she advised her son requested her assistance to stop breathing because he did not want to turn 18.”
Lee later admitted to using a knife to cut open her son’s throat while he was unconscious. Police also found stab wounds on his arm.
“At about 4:15 a.m., HDPS officers responded to an apartment in the Bay Pointe Apartment Complex, 791 E 16th St., on a report of a domestic incident,” HDPS officials said in a press release. “Officers went to the apartment where they were immediately confronted by a female subject who was holding a knife.”
Police said after Lee’s arrest that she wanted to be killed by responding officers that night after failing to overdose on the medication.
“Upon being taken into custody, Lee stated that officers were supposed to kill her … so that she could be with her son,” cops reported.
Lee said at her sentencing that mental health issues prevented her from leaving her apartment and made it “really hard” to tell what was “real and not real,” according to MLive.com.
“With the algorithms on my phone being nothing but the ‘world is ending’ content I fell so deeply into an echo chamber that we were living in a different reality. And it was a terrible one,” Lee said.
“Every day, every thought, every nightmare, every flashback, every moment without him, I’ll forever be punished,” she stated about Austin. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison trying to process what I could have done differently and how I could have reached out and continuing to speak out about the warning signs that I so clearly see now.”
Family members were in court Monday wearing shirts that said “Justice for Austin,” MLive.com reports. The judge who sentenced Lee said her actions were “nothing less than pure evil,” per WOOD.
“She’s not a mom, she’s a monster,” an aunt, Alisa Pikaart, told MLive after the sentencing hearing.
“She’s getting what she deserves,” Pikaart said.
