Texas father wonders if wife’s alleged stabbing of him and their young kids is a ‘postpartum thing’
The kids and their father were not fatally harmed.
A mother was arrested after being accused of stabbing her husband and their two young kids in their home in Texas. The father, during a call with a 911 operator, was heard asking if the stabbing was because of her postpartum depression.
On Oct. 6 at around 4:20am, Northlake Police Department officers responded to a report by a man who claimed that he was stabbed by his wife at the 1200 block of Daylily Drive in Northlake, Texas, according to WFAA. When officers arrived at the scene, 34-year-old Justin Hommel, the husband, was found standing in the driveway of their home with a stab wound to his head and carrying a bloodied knife, which he immediately dropped, per the affidavit obtained by the outlet.
Officers detained 37-year-old Holly Leeann Flores, the wife, before they did a protective sweep of the house. Both of the couple’s two young kids, a three-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy, were found conscious and screaming, but also suffering from multiple stab wounds to the chest.
Mother charged with attempted capital murder
Hommel and the kids were transported to a hospital in Fort Worth for medical treatment and were later released to the care of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Flores, on the other hand, was separated and brought to a hospital in Denton.
Flores was immediately taken into police custody and booked into Denton County Jail. Her preliminary charges reportedly include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted capital murder. Flores’ bond was set at a massive $1,000,000 for each of the alleged capital murder attempts, while a bond for her aggravated assault charge has yet to be set.
In Hommel’s 911 call, he was reportedly heard asking his wife if this was a “postpartum thing” during the alleged knife attack. Northlake Police Chief Robert Crawford said Hommel was trying to reach the kids in another room while Flores was “actively trying to stab him.”
Prior to the alleged attack, Hommel said Flores brought a candle into the kids’ room. He later woke up at 1am to the sound of her trying to use a lighter in the bedroom and saw a kitchen knife on the dresser, per the affidavit. The knife “freaked him out,” but before Hommel could enter the room, Flores reportedly closed the door on him, and he went back to sleep.
Husband says wife has postpartum depression
Hommel told police that his wife had been struggling with postpartum depression and became concerned about his wife’s behavior, so he decided to sleep on the couch to be near the kids. Sometime after, Hommel heard his kids crying in their bedroom and found Flores holding the knife before allegedly launching an attack on him. The father was able to remove the knife from Flores after sustaining bite marks in addition to his head wound.
Police said officers had previously responded to the home on five different occasions for welfare concerns and overdoses involving Flores since March. Audio from a dispatcher on the radio was reportedly heard saying, “They have a history of welfare concerns involving CPS with the mother.” Child Protective Services confirmed their contact with the involved family, but did not say more about the case.
Meanwhile, postpartum depression has become a widely discussed topic in recent months, especially in light of the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, where postpartum illness was cited as the reason she allegedly killed her three kids. Since then, there have been calls to provide better support and care for mothers suffering from postpartum depression.
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