Elzbieta Plackowska, 45, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder
A woman accused of stabbing her young son and another girl to death before killing two dogs believed a ‘black shadow’ commanded her to carry out the twisted deed, a forensic psychiatrist has testified.
Elzbieta Plackowska, 45, was babysitting five-year-old Olivia Dworakowski along with her own son Justin, seven, on October 30, 2012, when she allegedly killed the two kids in Naperville, Illinois.
Plackowska’s trial on two first-degree murder charges continued on Wednesday in the Chicago suburb, with the testimony of main defense witness Dr. Phillip Resnick, who interviewed the suspected killer 10 days after the murders.
‘Ms. Plackowska had a psychotic belief that devils had entered Olivia and Justin and that by taking their lives, she was allowing the children to enter heaven,’ said Resnick, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Plackowska is accused of killing her seven-year-old son Justin along with five-year-old Olivia Dworakowski, whom she was babysitting at the time of the murders
Plackowska had been hired to babysit Olivia in the condo (pictured) where the girl lived with her mother. She saw a ‘black shadow’ that urged her to kill them, a psychiatrist has testified
Plackowska had been hired to babysit young Olivia in the condo where the girl lived with her mother, and had brought son Justin along as well.
Her father in her native Poland had died several weeks earlier, sending her spiraling into psychosis on the night before Halloween 2012, Resnick testified.
The two children were with Plackowska in a bedroom of the condo and jumping on the bed when she told them to kneel down and pray, prosecutors have said.
It was then Plackowska saw a ‘black shadow’ that she believed was the devil entering the children, Resnick said she had told him.
‘Kill them, kill them,’ the shadow whispered to her, Plackowska told the eminent psychiatrist.
‘You are going to be the last one,’ she said the shadow told her. ‘You are going to die, but you will be the last one.’
Justin was stabbed 100 times, and Olivia was found with 50 stab wounds, police said.
Both children’s throats were slit and Justin was found in a bed, Olivia on the floor.
Prosecutors have said that after Plackowska killed the innocent children, she started frantically calling a local church, leaving numerous messages.
Justin was stabbed 100 times, and Olivia was found with 50 stab wounds, police said. Both children’s throats were slit and Justin was found in a bed, Olivia on the floor
A makeshift memorial is seen outside the crime scene in the days after the 2012 murder. Along with Justin and Olivia, two dogs in the home were stabbed to death
The crime was discovered when Olivia’s mother, nurse Marta Dworakowski, returned home from her night shift and could not get into the house, and called 911.
A trail of blood in the hallway led police into the bedroom, with veteran Police Chief Robert Marshall calling it ‘the most horrific and gruesome crime scene I have seen’ at the time.
Prosecutors contend that Plackowska knew what she was doing at the time of the murders, and was unhappy with her life and her marriage.
In a videotaped interview with police after her arrest, Plackowska agreed that that was the reason she killed the two children.
But Resnick argues that Plackowska was ‘browbeaten’ into that statement by police, and said she still exhibited manic and psychotic symptoms for many days after the murders.
Resnick was set to continue testifying on Thursday, when he faces cross-examination by prosecutors.