Background: News footage of the scene where Wendy Wilson was stabbed on Oct. 29 (WCBS). Inset: Amanda Fraser (Nassau County Police Department).
A chilling case has emerged in New York, where a home health aide is facing charges of attempted murder after allegedly attacking her elderly patient.
Amanda Fraser, 23, was taken into custody in October for reportedly stabbing Wendy Wilson, an 84-year-old woman under her care. According to Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, surveillance footage from Wilson’s Massapequa residence captured Fraser entering the sleeping woman’s bedroom at 2:08 a.m. on October 29. Fraser is accused of using an 8-inch chef’s knife to stab Wilson in the torso while whispering for her to “succumb” to her injuries.
District Attorney Donnelly stated that Fraser left Wilson to bleed alone after the attack until the arrival of the next home health aide.
Donnelly further detailed the harrowing incident, noting that Fraser allegedly held the knife in place for a torturous 16 minutes. Wilson awoke in agony and attempted to dislodge the knife, but Fraser is said to have kept her grip, urging the elderly woman to “just let go” and “stop fighting it.”
Surveillance footage indicates that Fraser removed the knife at 2:28 a.m. before leaving the premises. In an interview with local ABC affiliate WABC, Wilson’s son, Kery Kilgannon, described how exterior cameras allegedly showed Fraser attempting to ram the house with her Dodge Charger before fleeing on foot. The day after the attack, CBS affiliate WCBS reported Fraser’s car was still parked on Wilson’s front lawn.
The Wilson family informed WABC that the morning shift home health aide discovered their mother the following day. Authorities arrived around 8:30 a.m., and Wilson was promptly taken to the hospital, where she was treated for a punctured lung that subsequently became infected. She remained hospitalized for an extended period, celebrating her 85th birthday while in care.
The Nassau County Police Department said in a press release that Fraser was located in Queens and arrested on Oct. 29. WCBS reported that she was taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation before her arraignment on Nov. 3. The station also spoke to an employee at Aides at Home, the agency that employed Fraser. A manager there told WCBS, “The investigation is ongoing. We’re cooperating fully.”
Fraser was indicted for attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, second-degree assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. She remains in custody at the Nassau County Correctional Center and is scheduled to again appear in court on Dec. 9.
