CLEVELAND, Ohio – Authorities say a mother killed her 9-year-old son and then took her own life Wednesday, just days before the boy’s father sought to gain custody of the child.
Firefighters responded at 7:30 a.m. to a home at 320 Broadway Ave. in Amherst Township following an alert from an ADT smoke alarm. Crews quickly extinguished the small fire and found two bodies lying in a bed, said Lorain County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Vansant.
The two were identified as Risa Louks, 46, and her son, Alex, 9, according to Lorain County Medical Examiner Frank Miller. Both died of gunshot wounds, he said.
Authorities believe Risa Louks tried to set the house on fire. The investigation also uncovered a suicide note, Vansant said.
Sheriff’s deputies had not dealt with Risa Louks in the past, Vansant said. She does not have any criminal or civil cases in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.
Guy Louks, the boy’s father, divorced his wife in 2019 and lives in Indiana. Last week, he filed an emergency petition for temporary custody of Alex in family court in Henry County, Indiana. Judge Bob Witham granted the emergency hearing, which was set for Monday.
In that court filing, Guy Louks said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was investigating Alex Louks’ welfare because there were concerns the child was being medically abused in the mother’s home. Guy Louks sought sole custody and asked the court to require any time Alex and Risa spent together to be monitored by a professional.
“The risk to the child is likely to be sustained so long as the child remains in (the) mother’s care,” Guy Louks wrote in the court filing.
Alex Louks was a third-grade student at Powers Elementary School in the Amherst Exempted Village Schools, Vansant said.
District Superintendent Mike Molnar released a statement expressing “our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by (Wednesday’s) events.”
The district will bring in its crisis counseling team and mental health professionals from Lorain County to offer support for students, staff and families, Molnar wrote.
He also encouraged anyone experiencing a mental health crisis to call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.