A 14-year-old teenager from Pennsylvania was accused of stabbing her older sister to death inside her home while her parents slept on Monday morning, officials said.
Claire Miller of Manheim Township was being charged with criminal homicide as an adult for the death of her 19-year-old sister Helen, Lancaster County Public Prosecutor said.
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“This is certainly an incredibly tragic and unusual case,” prosecutor Heather Adams wrote in an email to the local FOX43 station.
Police officers responded to the house shortly after 1 am on Monday, after the teenager called to report that “she had killed her sister,” said the prosecutor’s office.
Miller was arrested at the scene and held without bail at Lancaster County Prison, the district attorney’s office said. (Photo: Lancaster County District Attorney)
(Lancaster County District Attorney)
Court documents obtained by local media described her as “hysterical” while talking on the phone.
When the officers arrived at the house, Claire Miller pointed them to a room where they found Helen Miller, 19, with a stab in the neck, officials said. The first responders tried rescue measures, but were unsuccessful.
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The investigators determined that Helen had been stabbed during the night while the girls’ parents slept. No further details on what led to the incident are immediately available.
“I don’t know if I have ever been part of something as sad as that,” Tom Rudzinski, chief of police in Manheim, told WHTM-TV.
Claire Miller was detained on the spot and held without bail at Lancaster County Prison. She was charged as an adult because murder is not considered a delinquent act in Pennsylvania.
The tragic news shocked the community of Manheim Township, which has a population of about 38,000.
“It’s not the kind of thing we would expect in our neighborhood,” said Sarah Delia, a neighbor who said she didn’t know the family personally, to FOX43. “It is very calm and peaceful.”
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Steve Lisk, principal of the Lancaster Country Day School, where Claire Miller was enrolled as a ninth grader, told the station that the “united school community” was “surprised” and “saddened” by the news. The school was offering counseling services.
A preliminary hearing for Claire Miller was scheduled for February 26.