A 4-year-old girl was the only witness when her “loving” paternal grandmother stabbed her sister, while they were both visiting her home in The Bronx (NYC).
The 7-year-old victim miraculously survived after losing a third of the blood in her tiny body and remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition after the serious injuries she sustained Tuesday morning, when she was stabbed more than a dozen times, reported Daily News.
According to witnesses, the grandmother, identified as Maritza Yauger, 65, was frequently seen in the area in a loving manner when her two granddaughters, who live in New Jersey, visited her.
An uncle of the girls was at home sleeping and woke up to find his niece unconscious and covered in blood on a bed inside the apartment on Clinton Ave. near E. 169th St., Morrisania neighborhood, around 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.
She called police, who picked up the injured person and rushed her to Lincoln Hospital in a patrol car without waiting for an ambulance, authorities said. The victim’s 4-year-old sister was not harmed.
“She would tell me: ‘I love my granddaughter. I give it my all’”
María Castillo, hairdresser close to the accused grandmother
The grandmother was taken into custody at the apartment and taken to St. Barnabas Hospital for medical evaluation and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges. At the scene she recovered the knife that she allegedly used to stab her granddaughter for unknown reasons.
“Dear Lord, I can’t believe it,” said an old friend and neighbor of Yauger’s who only wanted to be named as Emma D. “I’m crying because I’m shocked. She loved this girl.”
Medics told investigators the unidentified girl sustained more than a dozen stab wounds, including deep cuts to her windpipe and the left side of her chest. The knife punctured one of her lungs and apparently also a kidney, according to police sources. She also suffered internal bleeding near her heart and lost a third of her blood. The same Tuesday she was operated on and she received a blood transfusion.
The victim and her baby sister live with their parents in New Jersey but were staying at her grandmother’s apartment when the assault occurred, police said.
Hairdresser Maria Castillo, 47, who has styled Grandma’s hair for years, said her client often brought her granddaughter with her when she went on an appointment and she has also done the little girl’s hair and nails. “She told me: ‘I have two children. I don’t have a daughter. I love my granddaughter. I give it my all.’” She added that Yauger had been at a business the day before, but without company.
The New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) had never investigated the grandmother or her family for abuse or neglect prior to this incident, the police source said.
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.