Taylor Gosnell spoke quickly and appeared to be in distress when deputies confronted her after the stabbing of her two young children.
Gosnell, 35, returned to her Spartanburg, South Carolina, home Saturday afternoon shortly after investigators arrived for a welfare check, according to the solicitor’s office. She was taken to an ambulance for a mental health evaluation but attempted to flee and had to be handcuffed to a stretcher, the office added.
The attack left her 6-year-old and 3-year-old severely injured with approximately 50 stab wounds between them, authorities said. “Between the two children, we’re estimating that there were approximately 50 stab wounds,” said Graham McLellan with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office in an interview with WCBD News 2.
The 6-year-old suffered the worst of the violence. “He’s currently facing the possibility of amputation of fingers and possibly an arm due to the severity of the injury sustained,” the solicitor’s office said in bond court. Some lacerations were so deep they cut to the bone, prosecutors told the court.
Both children were taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center for treatment and were described as being in stable condition, with expectations they will recover.
Deputies were called to the family’s home at 2:30 p.m. Saturday after the 6-year-old called his grandmother to say he was hungry. The grandmother and Gosnell’s ex-boyfriend went to the home and called police, who found the children alone and covered in blood.
Blood was found throughout the house, and television sets and mirrors had allegedly been destroyed, leaving glass and other debris scattered everywhere, according to WCBD.
Authorities believe Gosnell used both a knife and a blunt object during the frenzied early morning assault inside the home.
Gosnell was denied bond Sunday on two counts of attempted murder. Deputies later obtained additional warrants against her for possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to WIS 10.