Man claims to be werewolf after stabbing mother in Bellingham, police say

A Bellingham man made bizarre statements about being a werewolf before and after officers found his mother stabbed to death Sunday at her home in the Fairhaven neighborhood, according to police.

Sheaen Emmette Smith, 29, placed a nonsensical 911 call around 2 p.m. from his mother’s duplex across from a Fairhaven fire station, according to the Bellingham Police Department. Officers responded to find Smith’s mother, Aurora Buol-Smith, dead on the ground floor of the home. She suffered multiple stab wounds, police said.

She was 57.

Police found Smith in an upstairs bedroom. He told officers he’d stabbed his mother, and he went on to make “numerous” delusional comments about why he did it, according to police. He claimed he was a werewolf, and his mother was a vampire — the same things he’d told an emergency dispatcher, said Bellingham Police Lt. Danette Beckley.

Smith drew a picture for police to show where he’d left the knife, and investigators recovered the suspected murder weapon inside the house.

Hours into their investigation, police tweeted that the son had a “sexual motivation” for the killing, based on statements Smith made to police. However, it’s not clear if those statements were grounded in fact or in a deluded state of mind, Beckley said Monday. Police are awaiting the results of autopsy before saying if a sexual assault occurred.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder. He is scheduled to make a first appearance in court Monday afternoon. In the meantime the yellow crime scene tape has been taken down from the duplex at 1520 McKenzie Ave.

Smith lived in the home with his mother.

Buol-Smith was a licensed practical nurse since the early 1990s. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

This story will be updated.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Man claims to be werewolf after stabbing mother in Bellingham, police say."