After spending two years in a coma, a West Virginia woman has woken up and identified the attacker as her brother, according to the local sheriff’s department.
51-year-old Wanda Palmer accused her brother of attacking her while she was at her residence near Cottageville, West Virginia, in June 2020, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
The police said that Palmer was “attacked, hacked, and left for dead,” the statement from the department said.
On the day of the incident in 2020, police reported finding Palmer on her couch in an “upright position” with injuries from what appeared to be caused by a hatchet or ax.
Ross Mellinger, the Jackson County Sheriff, shared with CNN that when police found Palmer, they thought she was dead but quickly discovered she was alive and breathing shallowly.
A witness reported seeing Daniel Palmer, the woman’s brother, on her porch at around midnight the night before she was found, according to Mellinger. But there wasn’t any surveillance footage or witnesses, and a weapon was never recovered.
Charges were never filed in the attack as investigations did not produce enough evidence. That was until a couple of weeks ago when Palmer’s care facility contacted the authorities saying she was able to speak.
On Friday, Daniel Palmer, 55, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding, CNN reported.
Currently, Palmer cannot hold entire conversations but is coherent, the sheriff shared with CNN.
A criminal complaint obtained by CNN claimed that Palmer and her brother had a violent history, but Daniel Palmer has denied any involvement in the attack.
The investigation remains ongoing as Palmer continues to regain cognitive function each day.
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