Just Fucking Brutal

By Sam Bakken in News on Apr 29, 2005 8:40PM

Police have charged Tonya Vasilev with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths-by-stabbing of her 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. The father arrived at the family's Hoffman Estates home around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, found his son bloody, tried to administer CPR then called 911. Police took both parents into custody for questioning.

From the Sun-Times:

Investigators believe 3-year-old Gracie was attacked first, around 8:30 p.m., and then her mother brought her to the second floor, where her older brother, Christian, was watching television, the source said, citing the mother's statement to police.

"The boy looks up, sees his sister all bloody, and asked the mother, 'What's going on?' . . . The mother then attacked the boy. The boy runs from her, flees to the first floor, where she catches up with him, and she then alternates between attacking the boy and the girl."

Stories report that investigators say both children were stabbed 100 times each and that they'd confiscated several knives from the household they believe were used in the attack. The promulgators of English usage usually opine that the phrase "brutal murder" should be avoided because they wonder what murder isn't brutal. Uhm, well, we're going to go ahead and say this one was a brutal murder. It seems that filicides, at least those that make the news, usually are particularly brutal.

Officials aren't speculating on the motive, but the source quoted above said Vasilev has a history of mental illness and was afraid her children were going to be molested at the new church her husband's, a pastor, new church. Police are also taking another look a fire in the Vasilev's home in Elk Grove Village that killed their infant child in 2000. Originally investigators hadn't suspected foul play.