Warning: The story below contains graphic details of a violent crime against a child.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — A 35-year-old Missouri woman has been charged with murder following the death of her 6-year-old son.
Prosecutors charged Tasha Haefs with first-degree murder and armed criminal action less than a day after she was arrested at a home in Kansas City.
Kansas City police were dispatched to Haefs home shortly before midnight on Tuesday after a woman had called for help, claiming that she was in danger and saying “the devil was trying to attack her,” according to an application police had submitted for a search warrant.
Officers arrived and noticed what appeared to be blood leading to the front door of the house, court documents showed. They also heard a woman singing loudly from inside the home, but she refused to answer the door and only raised the volume of her voice when officers knocked louder.
Looking inside a window, officers observed what they believed to be “a severed head near the residence’s entrance,” according to a press release from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police had also learned there were three children known to live in the house, according to court documents.
Officers forced their way inside and found Haefs in the kitchen with what appeared to be blood on her legs and feet and several cuts and scratches on both of her hands. She also had a cut and a puncture wound to her right thigh.
“That’s just horrific,” Mark Forrest, who lives nearby, said. “I feel sorry for the family, and all my prayers go out to family members. It’s just a terrible time with COVID just being lifted, and we don’t need this right now in our neighborhood.”
Anyone who may have more information on the incident is urged to call the Homicide Unit at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.