Mother charged with killing son; brother critical

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A pediatrician who prosecutors said told police she had killed her children and wanted to be killed herself was ordered held without bond Friday in the death of one son and wounding of another.

Dr. Ellen Feinberg, 43, was ordered held without bond in a state mental health facility Friday by Judge J.G. Townsend, who agreed with her defense attorney that the woman was unfit to stand trial.

The defense attorneys, in court documents, told the judge Feinberg was under the care of a psychiatrist and that she intends to raise insanity as a defense at trial.

Faces murder charge

Feinberg, who appeared in court via video camera, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

In court documents, prosecutors said Feinberg stabbed both sons in the chest with a knife Thursday afternoon.

Adam Feinberg, 10, was pronounced dead at Carle Hospital in Urbana shortly after the attack.

Matthew Feinberg, 6, was in critical condition Friday at the same hospital, said Gretchen Robbins, a hospital spokeswoman.

Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Dobson said in court that Feinberg called authorities shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday and said that "she had killed her children and wanted to be killed by the police."

Dobson said Feinberg told police they would find her sons in the basement and a bedroom, and a knife in the kitchen sink.

Dobson said Feinberg had blood on her hands, arms and clothing when police arrived.

Psychiatrist report

Defense attorney Carol Dison presented a report from a psychiatrist who said Feinberg was unfit to stand trial.

Dison declined to answer any questions from reporters Friday.

In the court documents, Dison said that defense attorneys met with the mother two hours after her arrest and described her as "unresponsive and uncooperative." The doctor who met with her about four hours after her arrest described her as "acutely suicidal" and recommended she be placed in protective custody at a mental health center.

Police said the mother and children were the only ones in the home at the time of the attack.

The coroner's office planned to release preliminary results of an autopsy late Friday afternoon, said Bill Fabian, the chief deputy coroner.

Nobody answered the door at the Feinberg home on Friday.

Neighbors described the family as friendly and quiet members of an upscale Champaign neighborhood. They said the father, Samuel Feinberg, is a surgeon at Christie Clinic and the mother is a pediatrician.

Al Ryle, who lives in the house next door, said the mother recently quit her practice to spend more time with the children. Earlier Thursday, he said she had chaperoned a field trip with Adam's class. Ryle said the family had lived next door for 10 years and he had fished with the two boys in the lake behind their homes.

"When we found out what happened, it was absolutely devastating," he said. "The brain is a very strange thing. I don't know if snapped is the right term, but I don't think she consciously did this."

At Barkstall Elementary, the 10-year-old's school, educators met for more than an hour Friday morning with classmates' parents, attempting to answer as many questions as they could about what had happened, said Champaign Unit 4 Schools assistant superintendent Arlene Blank. Classmates piled cards and flowers at the boy's empty desk.

"It's hit his classmates quite hard," Blank said. "We've sent a cadre of social workers and psychologists out there to help the teachers, the parents and the students, and they'll be back next week and for as long as they're needed."