SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - Minnehaha County authorities say 24-year-old Heath Otto is charged with two counts of murder in connection with Sunday's double homicide at a North Cliff Avenue trailer home.
Otto had his first court appearance Monday, during which prosecutors said that the suspect strangled his own mother and a seven-year-old boy and then slit their throats.
Captain Jason Gearman identifies the mother as 48-year-old Carol Lynn Simon. The little boy has not yet been identified, nor has his relationship to Otto.
Gearman says the bodies showed possible evidence of strangulation and knife wounds.
Gearman says it was Otto who activated a "panic alarm" from the mobile home. He calls it a simple home security device that alerts law enforcement. When sheriff's deputies arrived, Otto was at the scene and talked to authorities who determined that something had happened in the home.
The have not released or determined a motive.
If convicted, Otto faces life in prison or the death penalty.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol, Sioux Falls and Brandon Police assisted the sheriff's office in the investigation.
Gearman says Otto lived on and off at the rural Sioux Falls trailer house.
