In miraculous turn of events, a West Virginia awakened from a two-year coma and identified her brother as the attacker who left her with severe head injuries, and he is now in custody after years of suspicion.
CRAZYNEWS: WANDA PALMER HAS BEEN IN COMA FOR 2 YEARS TO WAKE … https://t.co/EofTe2ItQh pic.twitter.com/dso19hG5SF
— Daracheo corley (@Daracheo99) July 17, 2022
Wanda Palmer was clinging to life in her Ravenwood home next door to her mother’s house on June 10, 2020. She had suffered massive head trauma, possibly from blows with a hatchet, and authorities did not think she would survive, according to Law & Crime.
“I wouldn’t have wagered a nickel for her life that morning,” Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger said Friday, according to WCHS. “She was in that bad of shape. Quite honestly, she was unconscious, circling the drain medically.”
After the attack, Palmer’s mother, Eileen, told WTAP that landscapers had found her daughter inside the house in a pool of blood.
“They came Wednesday morning to mow her grass, and they found her in a pool of blood,” Eileen Palmer said. “They said they ran up on the hill real fast and told us, and I called the police.”
Palmer was in a coma in a nursing home for two years. Her brother, Daniel Palmer, had been identified as a suspect, but investigators didn’t have enough evidence to file charges, court documents said.
A deputy received a call on June 27, telling him that Wanda Palmer had started to speak single words and seemed to respond when questioned. Deputies then paid her a visit.
In a July 12 interview with police, Wanda Palmer said the person who injured her was her brother, and she identified him as Daniel, a criminal complaint obtained by WCHS said.
“From an investigator’s standpoint, this is about as rare as it gets,” Mellinger told WCHS. “I think it’s a true testament to the perseverance and the strength of the victim herself.”
BREAKING:Jackson Co. deputies have arrested Daniel Palmer for the attempted murder of his sister, Wanda Palmer, 2 years ago. Wanda has been in a coma since the brutal attack nearly killed her. Sheriff tells me she was able to recently identify her attacker & arrest was made today pic.twitter.com/8yd4POSC1r
— Leslie Rubin (@LeslieRubinWCHS) July 15, 2022
Online court records show Daniel Palmer is being held in jail on $500,000 bail. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer Sunday.
