A woman has woken up from a two-year coma and accused her brother of being responsible for her ending up in the state she was in, according to authorities.
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 Mellenger said. But law enforcement had attained no leads.
“When we got there, to be honest we thought she was dead,” Sheriff Mellenger 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.”
One witness said they had seen Daniel on her porch around 12:00 AM the night before she was found in an "upright position" on her couch with life-threatening injuries.
Police had spoken to a number of people but were never able to file charges until recently.
Daniel, 55, was arrested on Friday and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding. He was arraigned and assessed with a bond of $500,000, but it is unclear how he pleaded.
He doesn't have a lawyer as he is refusing to sign any paperwork, said Cathryn Brubaker in the Jackson County magistrate's office of the criminal court.
Daniel denies being involved in the attack and told police he had not been to his sister's home in the days before the incident.
