A Minnesota man has been charged with butchering his pregnant sister last week.
The mother of 30-year-old Bethany Ann Israel called 911 late Thursday night, saying her daughter had gone out to dinner with her brother, KSTP reported. She said she drove to Israel’s home, saw the brother quickly leaving, and then found blood when she went inside.
Officers arrived and entered the house, where they found body parts and bloody knives, WCCO said.
Police put out an alert for Joseph Ball’s vehicle, which was found shortly afterward in another neighborhood. As officers searched for him, a resident of the neighborhood called 911 to say they’d seen a man put “what appeared to be a body part” on their front step. Officers focused their search in that area, and quickly located Ball in the backyard of a neighbor’s home with an apparently self-inflicted knife wound to the neck.
He was covered in blood and was found with more body parts, according to KSTP.
Investigators found journals and other handwritten papers belonging to ball that said he was angry about Israel’s pregnancy because she was “no longer innocent.”
Israel, who was married, was 17 or 18 weeks pregnant, officials said.
Ball appeared in court Tuesday and was given a $2 million bail, or $1 million with conditions, and is scheduled to return to court on June 10. He is still hospitalized, authorities said.
