Fairbanks mother found guilty in murder of her 5-year-old son

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - A Fairbanks mother was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the brutal death of her five-year-old son in 2024.

On Friday, a Fairbanks jury found 44-year-old Cedar Sarten guilty of one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder for the Oct. 14, 2024 killing of her child.

Police officials say that Sarten called police around 10 a.m. that day claiming that someone had hurt her son and that “he was definitely dead.”

When officers arrived, they found Sarten with cuts to her wrists, arms, neck, and head — injuries police believe she inflicted on herself. She was taken to the hospital for the injuries, which police described as life-threatening.

The five-year-old boy was found on the bed, and there was no one else in the apartment and no signs of a break-in, police say.

Officers found a 20-pound “kettlebell-style” weight and two knives in the room, one on the bed and another on the floor. Police said there was a lot of blood throughout the place.

Police found that the boys’ clothing was wet, as if it had been submerged. The bathtub was full of a mixture of what appeared to be blood and water. An autopsy revealed the boy’s cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries and multiple sharp force injuries.

Sarten reported that she was unsure what had happened and that she went to sleep with her son, only to find him deceased when she woke up. She reported that someone had “crashed his brain” with a weight.

According to State Prosecutors, the defense argued an unknown intruder entered the Defendant’s apartment, stabbed her, and brutally murdered her son.

Police said in 2024 that Sarten tried to hurt the boy in a previous incident in July 2020 that occurred at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

Sarten is in the custody of the Department of Corrections and is being held without bail pending sentencing, which is currently scheduled to begin Sept. 30.

Sarten faces a sentence of between 30 and 99 years.

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