Inset: Kailey Erhart (Mandan Police Department). Background: The Burleigh Morton Detention Center in Bismarck, N.D. (Google Maps).
A North Dakota woman is behind bars after killing two of her children and trying to kill the third, Peace Garden State law enforcement says.
Kailey Erhart, 22, stands accused of two counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and one count each of attempted murder, terrorizing, domestic violence resulting in bodily injury and child abuse, according to the Mandan Police Department.
The violence occurred Thursday evening, Aug. 6, at a residence on South Frontier Trail in Mandan — a medium-sized city which is located roughly 5 miles northwest of Bismarck.
Officers responded that night to reports of a mother who had stabbed her own children, according to an affidavit obtained by Fargo-based NBC affiliate KVLY. When police entered the house, Erhart allegedly had a kitchen knife to her own throat and was covered in blood.
The woman then dropped the knife and told the responding officers to kill her, before she was taken into custody, police said.
Then the officers followed a trail of blood.
The macabre path took police to a bedroom where three young children were lying motionless on a bed, according to the affidavit. All three children were suffering from cutting, slashing, or stabbing injuries to their necks, police said.
Ultimately, a 3-year-old and 5-month-old died in the attack, while a 1-year-old survived after undergoing surgery, Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler announced during a news conference on Friday.
"A scene like that is something that nobody should ever have to see in their lifetime," Ziegler said, according to the Grand Forks Herald.
Before law enforcement arrived, Erhart chased the children's father and grandmother from the residence with a knife, according to the affidavit. Before that, however, the defendant allegedly brandished a gun at the father and threatened to kill him, according to court documents obtained by Bismarck-based NBC and Fox affiliate KFYR.
The father said he was eventually able to wrest the pistol away from the defendant, disassemble the gun, and scatter the pieces throughout the house. In one video obtained by police from the father's cellphone, Erhart is allegedly seen holding one of the children, pistol at her hip, and warning, "Say goodbye to your kids."
After those alleged threats, the father called 911.
The police chief said initial information provided by 911 dispatchers "was that the mother had locked herself inside the home with three children and was going to kill them."
After being read her Miranda rights, Erhart allegedly told investigators she put the children on the bed after their throats were cut, according to the affidavit. The defendant went on to say she remembered holding the knife as police arrived, but that her memory of the entire night was not clear, police said.
Investigators also noted that the couple was in the process of separating or divorcing and that the father had concerns about the woman previously expressing a desire to die by suicide and kill their children, according to the charging document.
Those prior threats were known to the state's child welfare agency, police said. At the time of the incident, Erhart was on medication and cleared to be with the children – after recently spending time in a mental health facility – according to law enforcement.
Law enforcement has not identified the child victims by name or offered any kind of motive for the violence as of this writing.
The defendant is being detained in the Burleigh Morton Detention Center on $3 million bond.
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