Long Island home health aide indicted for trying to kill patient, DA says
By Mark Prussin
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NEW YORK (WCBS) — A New York home health aide accused of trying to kill an elderly patient in her sleep with a chef’s knife has been indicted for attempted murder.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Amanda Fraser, 23, stabbed the 84-year-old woman and held the knife to her torso for over 15 minutes at the elderly woman’s home in Massapequa last month.
“An excruciating 16 minutes” Fraser, who was arraigned on multiple charges Friday on Long Island, repeatedly told the woman to “just let go” and “stop fighting it” during the attack in October, Donnelly said.
“In the middle of the night as her elderly patient laid in her bed, this defendant allegedly brandished an approximately eight-inch blade and plunged it into the sleeping woman’s body,” Donnelly said in a statement. “For an excruciating 16 minutes as the woman moaned in agony, Amanda Fraser – the woman’s home health aide – held the knife firm in her body and repeatedly whispered for the woman to succumb. When she did not die, the defendant left the home, and the woman she was employed to care for, bleeding and alone in her bed.”
The injured woman was treated for a puncture wound to her lung and was hospitalized for weeks with an infection stemming from the injury, Donnelly’s office said.
Stabbing caught on surveillance video, family says Fraser, a Queens resident, was arrested after the alleged victim’s family said surveillance video showed her getting into the bed and stabbing the woman.
Sources told CBS News New York she went to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation before should could be arraigned.
Aides at Home, Fraser’s employer at the time, told CBS News New York the stabbing was a tragedy and an isolated incident.
“The investigation is ongoing. We’re cooperating fully,” a manager at the Hicksville office said.
Fraser was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
The DA’s office said she is due back in court on Dec. 9.
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