WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita police are trying to piece together the how and why behind stabbings Friday that left one girl dead and her younger sister and mother critically injured.
Police responding to an accident call before 7 a.m. found the 6-year-old girl and her 24-year-old mother inside a Jeep that had crashed into an unoccupied van in the parking lot of a strip mall in Wichita.
Both had multiple stab wounds, and the girl was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Her bleeding 4-year-old sister was found shortly after 8 a.m. several miles away by employees of a sand company who saw her wandering in a field near Valley Center. She too had been stabbed multiple times.
The mother and the younger girl were critically injured and their conditions are stable after both underwent surgery, said Lt. Todd Ojile. The names of the victims have not been released.
"We haven't been able to figure out how or why this occurred," Ojile said.
The injured mother was able to identify a suspect before being transported to the hospital, he said.
The mother's 47-year-old uncle was arrested at a home in Haysville and booked on suspicion of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and attempted first-degree murder.
Police have not been able yet to interview the injured mother. They found a knife believed to be the weapon at the crime scene.
Ojile said late Friday that police made a mistake when they earlier identified a 27-year-old man as a person of interest, noting that person was out of state at the time and is not a suspect.
