An unhinged Florida mom allegedly stabbed her 12-year-old daughter in the face and neck before stashing her bloodied body beneath brush at a nature preserve — even though the girl was still alive.
Gwendolyn Girard, 35, carried out the twisted attack Monday at Cecil Webb Wildlife Management Area in Punta Gorda and then fled the gruesome scene in a gold-colored van, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said the savaged survivor was found alone and struggling to speak by passersby.
“The victim had been kind of, I hate to use the word, discarded,” a deputy spokesperson told WFTV.
“But that’s kind of the best way to describe what it was. After the attack, she was left bloodied and under a pile of brush.”
The child, who identified her assailant, was treated at a local hospital and remains in stable condition.
Girard was arrested Tuesday after investigators found her getaway car in North Fort Myers, about 22 miles from the nature preserve.
Deputies, who confirmed the pair’s relationship to the local outlet, said the heartless mother allegedly confessed to the warped stabbing and disclosed the location of the knife.
She was booked at Lee County Jail and charged with aggravated battery and aggravated child abuse.
“In my 33-year career, there are only a handful of times that I have been left speechless. This is one of those times,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement.
“To attack a child with a knife … I can’t understand it. It is only by God’s grace that she is still with us today, and I pray for her as she heals from this horrific accident. Unfortunately, the mental trauma inflicted on her may never heal.”
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