Krista Ann Brunecz and the apartment where she allegedly stabbed her infant daughter to death (West Virginia Regional Jail, WDTV screenshot)
A 32-year-old mother in West Virginia has been formally charged with killing her 3-month-old baby girl late last year, allegedly stabbing the infant in the chest multiple times with a butcher’s knife.
A Lewis County grand jury returned a true bill indicting Krista Anne Brunecz on one count each of murder and death of a child by a parent or guardian by child abuse, authorities announced.
Court records released earlier this year described a sanguinary scene inside of the apartment where Brunecz is accused of gruesomely stabbing her young child to death before turning the knife on herself.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Lynchburg, Virginia ABC affiliate WSET-TV, deputies with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office at about 8 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2022 responded to the Weston Manor apartment complex located on Hickory Lane regarding a report about a child being stabbed. The caller was a neighbor who told the 911 dispatcher that she was in Brunecz’s home where there was a dead child and “blood all over the apartment.”
Upon arriving at the scene, two responding deputies said they entered the home and found Brunecz “kneeling in front of the couch with a lifeless infant in her arms,” Clarksburg, West Virginia NBC affiliate WBOY-TV reported. A bloody butcher knife was reportedly found next to the couch and placed into evidence.
Medical personnel on the scene rushed both the mother and child to Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, the baby was pronounced dead at around 8:15 a.m. A subsequent autopsy determined that the infant victim’s heart and lungs had both been pierced by the knife. Her death was determined to be a homicide caused by “several stab wounds to the chest,” WBOY reported.
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Brunecz was admitted to the facility and treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to the head, chest, and wrist areas. Once she was stable, Brunecz was airlifted to Ruby Memorial Hospital for more specialized treatment due to the severity of her wounds.
Investigators at Brunecz apartment reportedly said they recovered the child’s clothing, which consisted of a shirt with multiple holes in the chest area that appeared to have been pierced with the butcher knife found at the scene.
Investigators spoke to Brunecz’s mother, who told them that at about 6:50 a.m. on the day of the stabbing, her daughter sent a photograph showing herself covered in blood and holding her daughter, who appeared to be “lifeless” in the photo, WSET reported.
A nurse practitioner from Stonewall Memorial Hospital who cared for Brunecz during her stay spoke with investigators on Jan. 2, 2023, and told them that when she asked Brunecz what happened to her and her child, Brunecz responded by saying she “stabbed her baby, then herself,” Charleston, West Virginia ABC affiliate WCHS-TV reported. Additionally, the nurse said she asked Brunecz if she had been purposefully trying to kill herself and her baby, to which Brunecz allegedly responded, “Yes.”
Brunecz’s boyfriend, who spoke to West Virginia MetroNews on the condition his name not be printed, told the radio news network that Brunecz had been suffering from postpartum psychosis and could not get help prior to the tragic incident.
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