The police said on Wednesday the grandmother decided to kill the five-year-old boy during her holiday on St. George Island while her husband had gone shopping. After drowning her grandson in the bathtub, the woman identified as Marianne Bordt from Nufringen near Stuttgart vainly attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself in the ocean.

Upon his return, the grandfather noticed the house’s door was open, but did not immediately find the boy. Eventually his wife came back to the house in wet underwear from the beach.

“She claimed she wanted to take her own life,” said an officer investigating the case.

Only later did the grandfather discover the body of the boy in the bathtub. He drove immediately to an emergency clinic after forcing his wife – who tried to flee – to come along. He then turned her over to the police.

She told police she killed the boy, who has US citizenship, because she couldn’t bear to see him grow up in a broken home after his parents divorced in 2006. According to the authorities, the boy spent most of his time in Georgia with his mother, who is the murderer’s daughter.

The grandmother now faces either the death penalty or life in prison should she be convicted of premeditated murder.