A man who was accused by his sister of carrying out a near-deadly attack on her after she woke up from a two-year coma has suddenly died.
Police in West Virginia had gotten a call from a long-term care center after Wanda Palmer managed to regain consciousness last week and identified her brother, Daniel Palmer, as the man she says brutally attacked her, CNN reports.
Wanda had been assaulted with a weapon at her home in Cottageville, West Virginia, in June 2020, Jackson County Sherriff Ross Mellinger said. But law enforcement had attained no leads.
“When we got there, to be honest, we thought she was dead,” Sheriff Mellinger told MetroNews. “We had a little bit of an idea what happened, but the problem was with the nuts and bolts of the case we had nothing to go on.
"There was no eye witnesses, nobody lived in the home, no surveillance footage, no cell phone records. There was virtually nothing there to move forward on.”
Police visited Wanda, who sustained brain damage in the attack, at a care home in Wetzel County, where she accused her brother of the savage assault.
Daniel was later arrested and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding in the attack, which police believe had involved either an ax or hatchet. However, investigators never managed to recover the weapon.
“The keys to the whole thing lay with the victim herself and with her unable to communicate we were left with nothing. Now low and behold two years later and boom, she’s awake and able to tell us exactly what happened,” the sheriff said.
“He didn’t give us any fight or anything. There was a little bit of surprise, but not entirely.”
Daniel died before he could be brought to trial, with Mellinger telling People that he was rushed to the Charleston Hospital on Wednesday and was pronounced dead the next day.
Mellinger believes Daniel's sudden passing was likely from natural causes.
"It was an avalanche of recurring health issues," Mellinger said. "He generally was not a healthy man to begin with and once he got to jail his health continued to spiral downhill."
He had been in custody for just seven days when he died.
"From an investigator's standpoint it is unfortunate we don't get the chance to see the case through," Mellinger added. "We turn the focus towards the victim in the case and hope she continues to get better. She has a long road ahead of her."
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