An Army wife has been charged with murder in the death of an infant whose neck was cut at a Georgia post southwest of Augusta.
Apil Evalyn Short was also charged with an aggravated circumstance of the murder taking place during an act of child abuse, US Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Jill E. Steinberg said.
The criminal complaint says that Short used a knife on Wednesday to cut the neck of the 11-month-old child, who was later pronounced dead at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.
Short appeared for an initial hearing but has not yet entered a plea. She is in the custody of the US Marshals Service.
According to the complaint, Short texted her husband just before 8 a.m. Wednesay, referencing “God” and that “the days of darkness were upon them,” WJBF reported. He left his duty post and returned home to find Short barricaded in the master bedroom with the couple’s three children.
Military Police and civilian police arrived on the scene and convinced Short to exit the bedroom, but she reportedly tried to flee the scene in a vehicle with two of the children. The husband found the third child bleeding in a bathroom, wrapped in a shower curtain.
One of the other children told investigators that she cut the baby so he could “be with Jesus and God.” Short herself reportedly told investigators she knew she’d done something “wrong” and “evil.”
At her initial appearance, the court ordered Short to submit to a psychiatric evaluation.
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[Featured image: April Evalyn Short/Jefferson County Detention Center]
