Tarzana Woman Kills Herself After Attacking Son, Mother : Crime: The 3-year-old is stabbed repeatedly and the second victim, 79, is struck several times with a hammer. Both remain hospitalized.

A Tarzana woman distraught over marital problems repeatedly stabbed her 3-year-old son in the chest Tuesday morning and fractured her mother’s skull with a hammer, then killed herself with a kitchen knife, police said.

Paramedics found Elizabeth Avery, 44, dead on her bedroom floor in the 6000 block of Melvin Avenue. She was found with a self-inflicted stab wound in her upper torso at 4:40 a.m., Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Swanston said.

The woman was apparently distraught by the breakup of her marriage, Swanston said.

She and her husband, who lived nearby, were separated, but it was unclear whether their divorce was final, detectives said.

Kathleen Avery, 79, mother of the dead woman, called police after regaining consciousness.

Avery was struck at least four times on the head with a claw hammer while she slept and suffered several skull fractures, Swanston said.

When she regained consciousness, Avery found her daughter’s body after she heard her grandson Nathaniel Debevoise crying in a nearby room, saying that his mother had stabbed him, Swanston said.

She had stabbed him three times in the chest, puncturing his liver and one lung, Swanston said.

To avoid further alarming the boy, Kathleen Avery spelled out words to the 911 operator in reporting the incident, Detective Joel Price said.

Debevoise was airlifted to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, where he was in fair condition, spokeswoman Gayle Coffey said. Kathleen Avery was in serious condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, spokeswoman Deborah Moore said.

Kathleen Avery had moved to Tarzana from Arizona in August.

She and her daughter co-owned the house, Price said.