A 21-year-old Montgomery County woman was charged Friday with the stabbing death of her mother in Perkiomen Township, the county district attorney’s office said.
Elena C. House-Hay stabbed her mother, Annette E. House, 54, early Friday in a home in the 400 block of Abbey Lane, police said. House-Hay has been charged with homicide and possession of an instrument of crime.
Limerick Township police were first to respond to the 3:18 a.m. stabbing report, authorities said.
“Pennsylvania state troopers were dispatched to the scene and arrived at the Abbey Lane residence to find Ms. House unresponsive in the second-floor bedroom with a wooden-handled kitchen knife in her chest,” the district attorney’s office said. “She was later pronounced dead.”
Hay-House initially told police she saw a man fleeing the house after the stabbing, but later said she had fought with her mother Thursday night over Hay-House’s treatment for bipolar disorder, according to the police arrest affidavit.
Hay-House appeared to have blood on her clothing “in the areas of her left chest, and left thigh, arms and hands,” and her left hand was wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage, the affidavit says.
A trooper asked her what happened to her hand and she said, “I tried to help her, she tried to grab me,” the affidavit says.
State police also discovered that, on Thursday night, Hay-House sent a Facebook message to a friend, saying, “Haha, I hate my family,” according to the affidavit.
Police said they found no evidence of a fleeing man or burglar at the home.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and state police at Skippack announced House-Hay’s arrest Friday night.
An autopsy by Dr. Khalil Wardak of the county coroner’s office determined that House died of multiple stab wounds, and she also had defensive wounds on her arms. He ruled her death a homicide.
House-Hay was arraigned by District Judge Albert J. Augustine, who committed her to Montgomery County Prison with no bail.
House’s home is between Schwenksville and Collegeville in central Montgomery County.
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