JACKSON COUNTY, West Virginia – Two years after she was pronounced dead, a woman woke up from a coma and identified her brother as the alleged assailant who nearly killed her.
In June 2020, neighbors found Wanda Palmer sunk on the couch and covered in blood with serious injuries caused by what appeared to be an ax or an ax, according to authorities.
“He wouldn’t have bet a dime on his life that morning,” Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger told WCHS. “She was in that bad shape. And, and honestly, she was unconscious and, flipping the drain medically. Massive and massive amounts of head trauma. You know, according to some kind of machete or ax type injury.”
Wanda Palmer had been hospitalized since then, unable to tell investigators who attacked her and why.
Mellinger said authorities had tried to remove the suspects, develop clues and execute search warrants. He added that Wanda Palmer and her brother, Daniel Palmer, 55, had a violent history. But authorities had no evidence that he could have done this.
A few days ago, Wanda Palmer’s nursing home called authorities because she was awake and able to utter words.
When a deputy asked him who hurt him, he said it was his brother.
“So she can wake up and say, you know, give the name, thank God. That’s all I can say. Thank God, because she definitely deserves justice. Definitely,” Mellinger said.
Daniel Palmer has been charged with attempted murder and willful injury.