Inset: Kailey Erhart (Mandan Police Department). Background: Burleigh Morton Detention Center in Bismarck, North Dakota (Google Maps).
A North Dakota woman has been jailed after authorities say she fatally attacked two of her children and attempted to kill a third.
Kailey Erhart, 22, is facing two counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of attempted murder, terrorizing, domestic violence resulting in bodily injury, and child abuse, according to the Mandan Police Department.
Police said the alleged violence unfolded on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 6, inside a home on South Frontier Trail in Mandan, a city about 5 miles northwest of Bismarck.
Officers were called to the residence after reports that a mother had stabbed her children, according to an affidavit obtained by Fargo-based NBC affiliate KVLY. When they entered the home, authorities said Erhart was covered in blood and holding a kitchen knife to her own throat.
Investigators said Erhart eventually dropped the knife and told responding officers to kill her before she was taken into custody.
Police then discovered a trail of blood inside the home.
According to the affidavit, the trail led officers to a bedroom, where three young children were found motionless on a bed. Authorities said all three had suffered cutting, slashing, or stabbing wounds to their necks.
Ultimately, a 3-year-old and 5-month-old died in the attack, while a 1-year-old survived after undergoing surgery, Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler announced during a news conference on Friday.
“A scene like that is something that nobody should ever have to see in their lifetime,” Ziegler said, according to the Grand Forks Herald.
Before law enforcement arrived, Erhart chased the children’s father and grandmother from the residence with a knife, according to the affidavit. Before that, however, the defendant allegedly brandished a gun at the father and threatened to kill him, according to court documents obtained by Bismarck-based NBC and Fox affiliate KFYR.
The father said he was eventually able to wrest the pistol away from the defendant, disassemble the gun, and scatter the pieces throughout the house. In one video obtained by police from the father’s cellphone, Erhart is allegedly seen holding one of the children, pistol at her hip, and warning, “Say goodbye to your kids.”
After those alleged threats, the father called 911.
The police chief said initial information provided by 911 dispatchers “was that the mother had locked herself inside the home with three children and was going to kill them.”
After being read her Miranda rights, Erhart allegedly told investigators she put the children on the bed after their throats were cut, according to the affidavit. The defendant went on to say she remembered holding the knife as police arrived, but that her memory of the entire night was not clear, police said.
Investigators also noted that the couple was in the process of separating or divorcing and that the father had concerns about the woman previously expressing a desire to die by suicide and kill their children, according to the charging document.
Those prior threats were known to the state’s child welfare agency, police said. At the time of the incident, Erhart was on medication and cleared to be with the children – after recently spending time in a mental health facility – according to law enforcement.
Law enforcement has not identified the child victims by name or offered any kind of motive for the violence as of this writing.
The defendant is being detained in the Burleigh Morton Detention Center on $3 million bond.
The post Mother told children’s father ‘say goodbye to your kids’ before she slit 2 of their throats and tried to kill the 3rd, police say first appeared on Law & Crime.
