John Jefferson
Background: The 5-year-old son of murder suspect Cedar Sarten (GoFundMe). Inset: Sarten’s son in a photo from his obituary (Tribute Archive).
“We don’t have a son no more.”
These chilling words allegedly came over in a voicemail from Alaska mother Cedar Sarten after she murdered her 5-year-old son and then called the boy’s father to tell him about it, according to police.
“Robert this is really bad you seriously need to come over here right now,” Sarten told Robert Gagner in one of three voice messages she left for him after the alleged killing, according to her criminal complaint, which was obtained by Law&Crime on Tuesday.
“Please don’t freak out,” Sarten allegedly said. “We don’t have a son no more.”
Officials with the Fairbanks Police Department told Law&Crime on Tuesday that Sarten not only beat her child to death with a 20-pound “kettle ball”-style weight on Oct. 13, she also allegedly attacked his lifeless body with a knife afterward.
“It was a pretty horrific scene,” said Public Information Officer Teal Soden. “The initial responding officer found the child dead on the bed and observed injuries that were consistent with him being cut or stabbed.”
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Sarten, 43, attempted to take her own life after the alleged attack on her son — slicing her forearms, neck and head — before calling Gagner and then police the following day at around 10 a.m. on Oct. 14 to reveal what had happened, her complaint says.
“[Sarten] called 911 reporting someone had ‘crashed’ her son’s brain with a 20-pound weight,” the document says. “The Defendant indicated her son was definitely dead. In response to the dispatcher’s questions about what had happened, the Defendant stated she did not know. She stated the last time she had seen her son alive was when he was falling asleep in her arms at approximately 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.”
First responders transported Sarten — a career criminal with more than 20 arrests on her record, including charges of felony theft, assault, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment against her son — to a local medical facility, where she was charged on Monday and remained hospitalized.
“She has been hospitalized since the incident,” Soden said “We’re hoping this week that she’ll be actually be arrested.”
According to Sarten’s complaint, she left her voice messages for Gagner after he failed to answer, including one from her hospital bed.
“I might die over here, I’m not playing,” she said in one alleged voicemail.
“I don’t know if I can make it to the door, come over please,” Sarten pleaded in another. “Robert, I’m not playing. I couldn’t save our son. They did this to us.”
In the message from the hospital, Sarten allegedly called Gagner and said: “I know you’re mad as hell at me cause he died on my watch. I called you, okay. I called you. I knew something was wrong. I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying.”
In the complaint, Fairbanks police say Gagner told investigators that Sarten had been “acting differently” in the days leading up to their son’s death and her actions were “inconsistent with her normal demeanor.” He and Sarten have joint custody, per the complaint, and it was Sarten’s turn to watch the boy.
“Mr. Gagner dropped off [the child] the evening of October 13, consistent with the custody agreement,” the complaint says. “Gagner reported that the Defendant’s behavior seemed off.”
Court records show that Sarten has a violent past, including a 2022 conviction for reckless endangerment against her son. For that incident, cops say she “grabbed onto his head and twisted it” when he was around 16-months-old, her complaint says.
The boy’s cause of death, according to his autopsy, was significant blunt force trauma to his head and brain.
“Multiple injuries consistent with a sharp object, including a stab wound to his right chest,” were also reported, but these were from Sarten’s attack afterward.
“No bleeding was observed to be inside the chest cavity of the stab wound, suggesting the injury occurred postmortem,” the complaint says.
For cops handling the case, Soden told Law&Crime, it’s been especially hard dealing with details like these.
“This is definitely a rare type of case for us,” she said. “It is much more horrific than what our officer usually deal with. Of course, responding to a dead child in any circumstance is very difficult and tragic, but in a case where they’ve been murdered like this, its even more so.”
Family and friends have set up a GoFundMe for Gagner to help deal with funeral costs and the loss, which included a photo and description of the boy, as did his obituary.
“He was the sweetest most kind hearted, loving little boy who wanted nothing more than to play and just be a kid,” the GoFundMe description explains, noting how the child’s life was “unexpectedly and tragically” taken.
“He always had the biggest smile on his face and could talk up a storm,” the description adds. “He loved to swing, play at his favorite park, and was always asking his school friends to play on the playground. He absolutely loved cheese pizza (his most favorite food in the world) and mozzarella sticks. Popsicles were a huge hit as well. He loved to go camping with his dad and be outside. [The boy’s] dad had just bought him a mini snowmachine so that they could go riding this winter. Robert … and his fiance Jenn are absolutely and unimaginably devastated.”
Sarten is facing a first-degree murder charge, according to police. She has not yet been given a court date.
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