An eight-year-old boy told the police that his mother killed his father, before showing them where the knife she allegedly used to stab the man to death was hidden.
Police in Del City, Oklahoma, arrived on the scene on Saturday, Jan. 20 to find Neil Vaughn bleeding to death in his driveway from a stab wound to his chest. Despite being rushed to hospital, the man died from his injuries.
Responding officers reportedly said McMurtrey had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol when they arrived at the scene, and they said they could detect the odor of burned marijuana apparently emanating from the home.
McMurtrey was reportedly not cooperative and only told officers that the stabbing took place outside, not inside the home. Officers spotted a trail of blood inside the house and asked permission to enter and investigate, but the woman refused.
The woman was then arrested and a caseworker was contacted by police to take custody of her son, the Oklahoman reported, citing an arrest affidavit.
Police obtained a search warrant and entered the premises to find blood leading from a bedroom down a hallway to the driveway. A burned “marijuana cigarette” was also found in the home, along with drug paraphernalia.
Witnesses interviewed by police reported seeing Vaughn running outside the house before collapsing in his driveway. They also said McMurtrey claimed that she saw someone stab Vaughn and then flee.
Police were told by a witness that he had seen McMurtrey assault Vaughn “multiple times while she was intoxicated.”
The boy initially told police that a “masked person came in and stabbed my daddy and then left.” However, the child later changed his story and admitted that McMurtrey had stabbed Vaughn and hid the “reindeer knife” above the toilet, the Oklahoman reported, citing the affidavit.
Investigators discovered the knife exactly where the boy said it would be.
McMurtrey is currently in custody in the Oklahoma County Jail. She is charged with first-degree murder, according to arrest records.
