‘Broken’ mom, 27, admits killing young sons days after 72-year-old husband died of cancer

A “broken” mom killed her two young sons just days after her decades-older husband died of cancer — then tried to jump to her own death so they could all be “reunited in Heaven.”

Vanessa Collias, 27, sobbed in court Monday as she pleaded guilty to killing sons Yiannis, 5, and Dimitri, 4, in December 2023, just nine days after her 72-year-old husband, Costa, succumbed to an aggressive form of Leukemia, according to the Toronto Star.

She held her hands over their mouths and nose while singing “You Are My Sunshine” — then jumped off the balcony of their Toronto apartment in the hopes of killing herself, too.

Police found the brothers’ bodies lying in front of a TV with a kids’ show playing, with clothes for their funeral laid out beside them — along with a photograph of their recently deceased dad and a cross.

The killer mom survived her jump, but was left paralyzed from the waist down.

She was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charges were downgraded to second-degree murder because of the grief she was suffering from her husband’s death after a painful spiral.

She had told the psychiatrist she was “broken, absolutely alone, and unable to conceive of continuing a life without (her husband) and wanted all of them to be reunited in Heaven.”

“A part of me will always question why I never said I need help,” Collias said during an emotional virtual court appearance from jail. “I stand before you, still that broken person who needs help putting herself back together,” she said.

“To my babies, I love you more than anything,” she sobbed. “Thank you for showing me what true love is. You guys will forever be my favourite part of me. I am so grateful I got to be your mom. The hardest thing I will ever have to do is to learn to be OK being here without you.” 

Despite the lesser charge, Collias was still sentenced to life in prison without parole for at least 18 years.

Collias said that she knew what she did was wrong, but hoped “others would understand that her intent was to save her sons and to be with her husband so that they could all be together,” according to court documents.

Collias’ husband died on Dec. 1, 2023, and she killed the boys on Dec. 10. She told the court she was already exhausted from being her husband’s 24/7 caretaker and “watching him slowly deteriorate before my eyes.” 

When she became a single mother after he died, she said: “I broke. I couldn’t push no more.”