Kristhie Alcazar Penns Grove NJ woman suffering post partum depression stabs 5 month old baby daughter to death as neighborhood is left reeling.
A New Jersey woman battling post partum depression has been charged with murder after she allegedly stabbed her five-month-old daughter to death.
Kristhie Alcazar, 26, of Penns Grove was arrested Friday night after police responded to her home and found her infant daughter dead after having suffered multiple stabs wounds to her chest.
Investigators recovered several knives at the house, as well as other undisclosed evidence 6ABC reported.
Neighbors said the incident was shocking, claiming that Alcazar appeared to be a ‘good mother’ and was rumored to be afflicted from post-partum depression, described as a kind of clinical state suffered by a mother following childbirth, typically arising from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue; postnatal depression.
‘She seemed like such a good mom, but they said she had post-partum and I have no idea what that’s like so I can’t judge,’ a neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, told CBS3.
‘I knew something was wrong’
‘I lived next to her for two and a half years, so it’s a shock to me,’ next door neighbor, Arthur Edge told CBS3
Police say the baby’s death has been ruled a homicide as a result of multiple stab wounds. Alcazar is currently being held in Salem County Jail on charges of murder and a weapons offense.
Officers responded to Alcazar’s apartment on Helms Cove Lane Friday night after receiving an ‘open 911 call with audible disturbance in the background’.
When authorities arrived on scene they found Alcazar arguing with another person as the infant’s body lay nearby.
‘The lady’s mom was over there screaming, and I knew something was wrong,’ an unidentified neighbor said.
Adding: ‘The EMS went in there and when they came out and left I knew the baby was dead because they would’ve transported her.’
Alcazar was handcuffed and taken into custody.
‘It’s sad. It hurts. A baby,’
The child’s father was not home at the time of the stabbing and, according to police, no other individuals were injured during the incident.
Community members claim the incident has caused a shockwave throughout the neighborhood.
A candle and stuffed animal were placed on the front porch in remembrance of the child.
‘It touches home cause I got grandkids and all that,‘ Edge told ABC 6. ‘I know the father and the mother, so you know we just got to be here for each other from here on out, and hopefully, this type of stuff stops happening, hopefully.’
‘It’s sad. It hurts. A baby,’ neighbor Jose Quiles added. ‘Especially a baby. It really hurts.’
Not immediately clear is what treatment and supervision, if any, the mother had been receiving in the months following child birth amid her mood swings.
Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to contact the Salem County Prosecutor’s Office at (856) 935-7510 or the Penns Grove Police Department at (856) 299-0056.
