Sara Daniels, 36, was charged with three counts of child abuse resulting in injury.
Daniels was charged following interviews conducted May 18 at the Child Advocacy Center in Elkins in the presence of West Virginia State Police.
The three children—ages 14, 11, and 9—each told a certified interviewer that Daniels grabbed them by the throat, hit them, and threatened them.
All three children separately described an incident where Daniels chased the 14-year-old with a knife, and the 9-year-old reported Daniels told the oldest child, “I’ll cut your brother and sister’s throat if you leave.”
The allegations painted a picture of systematic abuse within the Elkins home.
One of the juveniles said Daniels would grab the child by the throat and would only let go “after a few minutes.”
Court documents detailed a pattern of violence using multiple weapons.
One of the juvenile victims stated in the CAC interview that Daniels would “grab [the victim] by the throat,” They added that Daniels had struck the victim with a fire extinguisher “in the head,” cut the victim “on the finger” with a knife, struck the victim “in the arm with a hammer” and said she would “help [the victim] kill [them]self,” according to the complaint.
Verbal abuse accompanied the physical violence.
The victims stated that Sara Daniels, 36, would call the juveniles “fat f***s, whores and b****es,” and would get into “several physical altercations” with the children, troopers said.
Another child offered a bleak observation of household conditions.
A third juvenile victim stated in a CAC interview that “the drugs smelled nasty” and that Daniels is “mean and yells,” and that she “would sleep all day,” which would leave the children in the care of another juvenile during that time, troopers said.
Drug use appeared to be central to the household dysfunction.
The children said Daniels “was using drugs” since December of last year and said her “behavior had gotten worse” since then.
The children noted that Daniels and her boyfriend were using drugs together and had once rammed their vehicles into each other, nearly hitting the 9-year-old.
The abuse extended beyond physical threats to psychological harm.
The children also recalled an instance in which Daniels allegedly told the 14-year-old she “wished she would have died” and that “she’d help her make sure she did it right the next time.”
Physical scars documented some of the injuries.
The interviewer also observed a scar on the 11-year-old that the child said was inflicted when Daniels banged her head against a door.
Sara R. Daniels, 36, of Elkins, has been charged with three counts of child abuse resulting in injury, a felony, and one count of strangulation, also a felony.
The strangulation count stemmed from the choking incidents the children described.
In the viral moment that led to charges, the three children came forward separately during interviews at the Child Advocacy Center in Elkins on May 18. Each recounted a chilling incident in which Daniels chased the eldest daughter with a knife, threatening to cut the throats of all three children if they tried to leave. The youngest child reported that their mother told the oldest, “I’ll cut your brother and sister’s throat if you leave.” The children described a home environment marked by drug use, physical assault with various weapons including a fire extinguisher and hammer, repeated strangulation, and psychological abuse that included telling the 14-year-old she wished she had died.
She is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $30,000 cash-only bond, set by Randolph County Magistrate Tracy M. Harper.