Jackson County, West Virginia Sheriff's Department Facebook
Wanda Palmer of West Virginia spent the last two years in a long-term care facility, comatose after suffering a brutal beating in June 2020. As Palmer remained unconscious, Jackson County detectives investigated—or tried to investigate—the attack that nearly killed her, but struggled to identify an attacker without any eyewitness accounts, video footage, or phone records. Recently, however, Palmer woke up, communication skills and memory apparently intact. According to Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellenger, Palmer identified the assailant as her very own brother, Daniel Palmer. As MetroNews reported, Mellenger said that “the keys to the whole thing lay with the victim herself.” Authorities arrested Daniel Palmer and charged him with both attempted murder and malicious wounding. Mellenger believes that Daniel Palmer used a machete or hatchet to strike his sister in the head.
