DISTURBING

Mom of 12-Year-Old Who Killed Her Brother Blames Medication

“She was as normal as your child,” the mom said, defending her daughter. “She was just starting to rebel but she was also just going through normal teenage things.”

The mom of a 12-year-old girl who allegedly stabbed her 9-year-old brother to death in January as he was lying in his bed in their Oklahoma home has blamed her daughter’s unprovoked attack on medication. In a recent update on the family’s GoFundMe page, April Lyda said her kids were raised as “God-fearing children” who “never had behavioral issues”—at least, not until her 12-year-old was put back on an undisclosed medication. “It wasn’t psych meds,” she said, without sharing further details. She defended her daughter as “happy and energetic” and “not mentally ill” or “diagnosed with anything.” The girl is being treated at a juvenile facility and has been “very well behaved,” Lyda wrote. “She was as normal as your child,” the mom claimed. “As any 12 year old child who was not allowed to cuss or watch scary evil movies, she was just starting to rebel but she was also just going through normal teenage things.” Disturbing, recently released body-cam footage shows the sobbing girl repeatedly saying “I’m so sorry” and that “it’s some demonic shit” after the brutal stabbing.