Imagine for a moment that you’ve woken from a coma with an eyewitness account of a brutal crime. Now imagine that said crime happened to you — and that the perpetrator was your own flesh and blood.
That’s the situation a West Virginia woman finds herself in after waking up from a two-year coma following a brutal attack in which she was left for dead. Wanda Palmer, 51, wasted no time in telling police who carried out the assault: her brother, Daniel Palmer.
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The attack took place in West Virginia back in 2020.
51-year-old Wanda Palmer was brutally attacked at her home near Cottageville, West Virginia in June of 2020. According to police , Palmer was “attacked, hacked, and left for dead,” in the assault.
The attacker went after her with a machete or hatchet.
Neighbors found Palmer unconscious with serious head injuries. She was slumped over on her couch with severe injuries.
“I wouldn’t have wagered a nickel for her life that morning, she was in that bad of shape,” a police official told reporters .
Palmer was in a coma for over two years.
She survived the attack, but just barely: a police official told local media that she was “circling the drain medically, [with] massive amounts of head trauma.”
After a long two years, Palmer awoke from her coma with some valuable news for authorities.
She identified her brother, 55-year-old Daniel Palmer III, as her attacker.
Police say there’d been a violent history between the siblings, but they didn’t have enough evidence to implicate Daniel Palmer until his sister awoke from her coma and identified him as her attacker.
It’s a rare opportunity.
“From an investigator’s standpoint, this is about as rare as it gets,” said Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger, describing Palmer waking up and identifying her attacker. “I think it’s a true testament to the perseverance and the strength of the victim herself.”
Daniel Palmer was arrested and taken into custody.
He was charged with attempted murder. In interviews with police, he denied attacking his sister, despite an eyewitness account placing him at the scene of the crime.
“This hasn’t been a stale case for two years, but without any real credible information leading up to this,” said Mellinger.
Locals aren’t surprised by the attacker’s identity.
“The only thing I can say is, [Daniel Powers is] not a good person,” said Cottageville resident Myssi Powers. “I know, just listening to other people talk, that he had been mean to Wanda in the past.”
Daniel Powers’ bail has been set at $500,000.
He’s currently being held at South Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility awaiting trial. It appears unlikely he’ll be bailed out.
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