(CNN) -- Barely holding back his sobs, a 13-year-old boy makes a heart-rending 911 call to the Grove City Police Department in Ohio.

"My dad just killed my mom. He just told me to call you guys," the boy is heard telling a 911 dispatcher. "He just ran outside and killed my mom. And she's laying in the grass in front of the apartment."

The boy's father, Jeremy Roberts, had the boy make the call, police said, after allegedly stabbing his ex-wife to death outside his apartment.

Despondent dads driven to kill loved ones

Roberts then calmly got on the phone himself, giving the apartment's address and informing police that the "only" weapon -- a knife -- was outside with his ex-wife, Candice Roberts.

"What did you do?" the dispatcher asks him.

"She's covered in a blanket. You guys will see," Roberts responds in an even tone.

He can then be heard, on the nearly five-minute 911 call, telling his children that they have a "good big sister (who) will take care of you guys."

"I told you that there's a lot of things that you don't understand, and you don't know. And now there's no choice for them to come out," Roberts said in the recorded call, without detailing what he meant.

Before going to the front door -- and handing the phone back to his 13-year-old son -- Roberts says, "One more hug. I love you guys." A small child can be heard crying in the background.

The 13-year-old boy can be overheard telling his father, "I don't want to see you right now."

Roberts, 38, is in custody and will be charged with murder in connection with his ex-wife's death, police said.

The victim had gone to the suspect's apartment in Grove City, about 10 miles southwest of Columbus, before 9 a.m. Sunday to pick up their two children, police said.

Afterward, the 13-year-old boy phoned police to tell them his mother was dead and his father was responsible.

Candice Roberts' 16-year-old daughter told CNN affiliate WCMH she feels "incomplete and abandoned" after the death of her mother, who she said "was always there for me."

Her brother is haunted by what he saw, she said.

"My brother says that every time he opens his eyes, he sees my mother's face and her yelling, 'Help me!' " the teenager said. "And he sees my dad standing there with the blood all over him, and the knife in his hand."

The daughter added that she "would do everything for him to be held accountable."

"You don't just get to murder somebody and get away with it," she said. 

How horrible for this boy and his siblings. WTH is wrong with these parents that kill the other parent and sometimes themselves and leave these kids behind with a sorry start in life. So sad for this family. 

i just cannot fathom this. i mean...ok so he hates the ex, whatever, but to put your children through this is reprehensible. 

I wish I would not have read this. 

i just cannot fathom this. i mean...ok so he hates the ex, whatever, but to put your children through this is reprehensible.


Anger and resentment can do terrible things to people. There's probably a lot of history between them that he can not accept or hated her so much for it.

I feel for the kids, they lost both mother and father. :( 

The 911 call is just :( sickening. He is so calm and "justified". You can hear the son sobbing in the background. And he tried hugging his kids bye. You just murdered their mother! And then you're going to hug your kids?! And he tells them oh your sister will take care of you! She is only 16! Wish it were like old times. Hang him by sundown or sunrise. 

She is only 16! Wish it were like old times. Hang him by sundown or sunrise.


By 16 though she would already be a mother in the 'old times'.


He killed her in a fit of rage, his logical brain was not in control. It's sad that it was too late, and he realized what he had done. That's probably why he hugged them, because he knew he screwed up. :( 

Very sad. The real victims are the kids. :( 

Before going to the front door -- and handing the phone back to his 13-year-old son -- Roberts says, "One more hug. I love you guys." A small child can be heard crying in the background.

The 13-year-old boy can be overheard telling his father, "I don't want to see you right now."

So incredibly selfish. I hope there is someone in their lives that can step and give them real parental love..the kind that will protect them from this nightmare that will never leave them. 

textualhealing --- 1 hours ago - quote - hide comments
I wish I would not have read this.


we are so very sorry about the discomfort this article has caused YOU. You poor thing.