Mom said she fatally stabbed 4-year-old daughter to ‘save’ her, Fort Worth police say
Fort Worth police arrested the mother of a 4-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed on Monday.
Krystal Lewandowski told police that she slit her daughter’s throat to save her from something worse happening to her, according to an arrest warrant issued Monday.
Lewandowski called 911 on Monday at about 11:40 a.m. from the 2100 block of Hurley Avenue and told the dispatcher that her daughter, Czara Lewandowski, was missing, according to the warrant. She started giving the dispatcher information about her daughter’s age, height and physical description. The dispatcher asked where she had last seen Czara, and Lewandowski said in the back yard.
At one point, Lewandowski said, “OK, maybe I should just tell you now. OK, so last night I was advised to slit her throat.”
The dispatcher asked where Czara was and Lewandowski said she had wrapped the girl up and put her in a trash can in the back yard.
An officer went to the house in the Fairmount area and searched a trash can in the back yard. He found the little girl inside. A Fort Worth Fire Department lieutenant pronounced the girl dead at 11:51 a.m, the warrant said.
Lewandowski told police several times that someone told her to kill her daughter and that something worse would happen to her if she did not. She told police she had killed Czara on Sunday night.
Her son, who police said is 18 months old, was also in the house.
Lewandowski was arrested and faces a charge of capital murder.
Detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit were at the scene Monday and are taking the lead in the investigation, Fort Worth police said.
Tiffani Butler, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said the department has previous history with the family from about a year ago. Butler did not provide any other details of Family and Protective Services’ previous involvement with the family.
DFPS did not have legal custody of the 18-month-old, but said they were making sure he was OK.
Angela Allen lives a few doors down from the house. She said she didn’t know the family personally, but would often see the mother with two young children walking on the street. She saw the youngest child taken away in an ambulance Monday.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 9:17 PM.
