A 22-year-old man has been arrested in a sickening and gruesome murder. He is accused of not only killing his mother the day after Christmas -- but also of pulling out her intestines because he wanted to "see if there was a baby." The man, Robert Owen Rankin, reportedly told police he awoke on Boxing Day with the determination to snap his mother's neck. But as soon as she began to scream, he decided to stab her in the neck with a fire poker.

The man, of Deep River, Connecticut, said his mother fought back and he had a difficult time killing her -- repeatedly strangling and stabbing her with a buck knife. Once he finally killed her, he then pulled out her intestines, which he said were like "octopus tentacles." He reportedly said he was looking to see if she had a baby.

He explained his motive to police like this:

I killed my mother because she is pretty much responsible for everything that has gone wrong in my life.

He reportedly put her entrails in a wood stove and a bucket. He then confessed to his father, who had arrived at the house. His father called 911.
 
When police began questioning him, Rankin reportedly said:
 
I will tell you anything you want to know. I was trying to make things right and I guess I messed up. I tried to make my mother responsible for the terrible things she has done.
 
Sadly, his mother, Margaret Rohner, seemed unaware that her son hated her so much and posted about her "great kid" on Facebook before the murder.
 
 
What a horrible tragedy. Rankin's public defender says he has a "long history of severe psychiatric issues that I don't think were being properly addressed." According to his lawyer, Rankin had gone off his medication for at least some days.
 
My heart goes out to this poor woman and her family. Her last moments were terrible ones, having her own son do this to her. It's really tragically horrible that this man's mental illness got to this point.
 
How can this country better address the problem of mental illness?
 

 
 
Image via Fox CT