Metallica Rose Harrison’s stepmother now believes the Pennsylvania mom planned the killings of her husband and young son for weeks.
April Thetga, Harrison’s stepmom, told The Post that the 27-year-old appeared completely normal during a video call on Sunday, the same day she allegedly stabbed her husband Chris and their 3-year-old son Tristan before attempting to slit her own wrists and neck at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.
“She had called and we’re video chatting, and then she says she loved us very much, just like she normally would,” Thetga recalled.
“It wasn’t an odd conversation,” she added.
Thetga said Harrison had never shown any signs of mental illness, leaving the family grasping for explanations after the bloodshed. “It was a loving family. We’re just as shocked as everybody else,” she said.
The family’s only hint that something might have been amiss was the unusually long stay at the water park resort. Thetga found it “odd” that Harrison and her husband were extending their time at Great Wolf Lodge, though they assumed it was simply because Tristan loved playing there so much.
“He was amazing,” Thetga said of the boy. “Very happy.”
The stepmom’s suspicion that the attack was premeditated crystallized after learning where the murder weapons came from. Police found a butcher knife on the bathroom floor and a smaller knife in the bathroom sink, and Thetga was told both blades had been brought from Harrison’s own home.
“I was told the knives came from her home. Her house. So to me, it was planned,” Thetga told The Post.
Relatives remain entirely in the dark about what could have driven Harrison to violence. “We’re just as shocked as everybody else. … We want answers,” Thetga said.
The couple had presented a picture of domestic contentment that now seems shattered beyond comprehension. “They were always happy. This is devastating,” the stepmom shared.
Harrison survived her self-inflicted wounds and faces charges in the double killing that has left her extended family searching for any explanation that might make sense of the horror.
The Great Wolf Lodge, a family-oriented indoor water park resort chain, became the scene of the grisly attack that has drawn national attention to the Poconos vacation destination.
Harrison’s case continues through the Pennsylvania criminal justice system as investigators work to determine what led to the deadly violence inside the resort room.
