There has been a disturbing spate of cases involving mothers violently attacking their own children.
Is this the result of a cultural sickness or heightened sensitivity to such cases due to the high-profile Lindsay Clancy trial?
Either way, Americans are on edge over this sickening phenomenon, and the media are dividing the country over what should be done about "maternal killers."
In the most recent case, a South Carolina mom, Taylor Gosnell, is accused of stabbing her children over 50 times, according to the police reports.
"Between the two children, we're estimating that there were approximately 50 stab wounds," Graham McLellan with the sheriff's office said.
The injuries were so extensive that prosecutors said during Gosnell's bond hearing that some of the wounds went all the way to the children's bones.
"Some of the lacerations were so deep they cut to the bone," the solicitor's office said.
The 6-year-old boy appears to have suffered the worst of the injuries. Both of the children are expected to live, but they have suffered serious trauma.
"He's currently facing the possibility of amputation of fingers and possibly an arm due to the severity of the injury sustained," the solicitor's office said.
The children weren't discovered until hours after the attack. It is unclear what triggered the alleged attack, but it may have been a mental illness episode.
Psycho South Carolina mom stabs her two kids over 50 times in unhinged attack that leaves one facing amputation https://t.co/4AnBp5xRlX pic.twitter.com/rmNq4BL2dL
— New York Post (@nypost) September 29, 2026
Deputies responded to the home on Bud Arthur Drive at about 2:30 PM Saturday after the 6-year-old managed to call his grandmother and tell her that he was hungry. The grandmother and one of Gosnell's former boyfriends then went to the house and called authorities.
What deputies encountered inside was horrific. The two children were reportedly alone and covered in blood. Investigators also found blood throughout the residence, while televisions and mirrors had been destroyed and shattered glass and other debris littered the home.
"There is no preparation that our deputies can have to see something like that," McLellan said.
Investigators believe the attack occurred early that morning while it was still dark, meaning the wounded children may have been alone inside the house for hours before help arrived.
Gosnell allegedly returned to the home shortly after investigators arrived. Authorities said she appeared distressed and was speaking rapidly, prompting officials to place her in an ambulance for a mental health evaluation.
According to prosecutors, she then tried to run.
"Miss Gosnell attempted to flee at one point from the ambulance, so she was subsequently handcuffed to her stretcher," the solicitor's office said.
Both children were initially taken for emergency medical treatment and were later treated at Greenville Children's Hospital. The sheriff's office said they were in stable condition and expected to recover, although additional surgeries were anticipated because of the severity of their injuries.
The children have also been placed in protective custody. Gosnell was arrested and initially charged with two counts of attempted murder. Authorities subsequently obtained warrants charging her with possession of a weapon during a violent crime. She was denied bond Sunday.
The sheriff's office also disclosed another potentially significant piece of Gosnell's history: She has pending child endangerment charges dating back to 2024. Authorities did not provide further details about that case.
A neighbor, Cheryl Bryant, said her family never heard the alleged attack taking place and wished they could have done something to help the children.
"I'm just praying that they're placed somewhere that they will be safe and taken care of," Bryant said.
As reported at RedState earlier, there was a recent case in Illinois that seems to be a kind of "copycat" case, or at the very least, may have been partly inspired by the Clancy case.
Now we have word in the aftermath of the appalling mistrial of Lindsay Clancy, there is an eerily similar murder case.
Prosecutors say a mother who was closely following the Clancy trial allegedly killed her 2-year-old son while believing the child was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.”
And she was reportedly discussing the Clancy case with friends just hours before her son was found dead.
The Corie Walsh case is more straightforward than the Taylor Gosnell case at this point in terms of potential motive. Thus, we are limited in drawing conclusions on what might have provoked it.
One of the Clancy jurors, Paula Devlin, has been emblematic of a misguided effort to "start a conversation" about mental illness and postpartum psychosis in the context of acquitting Lindsay Clancy in her murder trial.
"We didn't know what was going on outside of that room, but we knew that we had a chance to get a conversation started that could change something, that could maybe stop this from ever happening again," said Paula Devlin. "I think, that's one of the reasons why we feel — or I feel — so strongly about this is that I hope that no other woman or husband has to go through this."
“We knew that this was a turning point, and this would be something that could change something to make it better for other women. You know, justice for those children is this never happening again,” she said in another interview.
If you excuse inexcusable attacks on defenseless children because you sympathize with attackers' "mental illness," then what you get is more attacks on children.
Victim culture is being taken to such an extreme that some people can no longer even recognize who the actual victims are, even when they are the most vulnerable among us.