Centennial – A woman who stabbed her young granddaughter 62 times with a butcher knife after she received “spiritual messages from the geese flying overhead” has been determined to be criminally insane by the state mental hospital.
The evaluation on Carol Lynn Pappas was announced Thursday at a hearing in Arapahoe County District Court. Case records, including the hospital’s evaluation, have been sealed.
Pappas, 53, has a history of mental illness and has been diagnosed as manic-depressive and bipolar. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on the charges that she killed her granddaughter.
She is charged with stabbing her 21-month-old granddaughter, Madison Pappas, on Oct. 29 at her son’s house in Aurora. Pappas had told her son she was receiving the spiritual messages about eight months before she stabbed the girl.
According to police, Pappas said she killed her granddaughter minutes after the girl’s father left for work. When police and firefighters arrived in response to her 911 call, Pappas unlocked the door with blood on both hands.
A police officer said the girl was found facedown on a bed with holes in her shirt. Next to her was a butcher knife about 8 inches long.
A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14 when the prosecution is expected to call its expert witnesses.
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
