FORT EISENHOWER, Ga. (WJBF) – A U.S. Army spouse from Fort Eisenhower has been charged with the murder of a baby.
According to the Department of Justice, 30-year-old April Evalyn Short is charged with murder with an aggravated circumstance. The department alleged she committed the crime during an act of child abuse.
The criminal complaint says that on the morning of Nov. 15, 2023, Short used a knife to cut the neck of her 11-month-old baby, who was later pronounced dead at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.
Fort Eisenhower released a statement about the child’s death Friday afternoon.
Warning – the details below may be disturbing for some readers.
According to the criminal complaint, Short’s husband received a text message from her just after 8 a.m. The message referenced “God” and that “the days of darkness” were upon them. He left his place of duty and returned to their home, finding his wife barricaded inside the master bedroom with their 3 children.
When Military Police and Civilian Police responded to the scene, they were able to talk Short out of the bedroom. She reportedly attempted to flee the scene in a vehicle with 2 of the children. According to the complaint, her husband went back into the home looking for the missing third child, whom he found bleeding in the master bathroom, wrapped in a shower curtain.
During the interview, one of the children reportedly told investigators that Short had cut the child so he could “be with Jesus and God.” Short reportedly told investigators she knew what she had done was “wrong” and “evil.”
Short made her initial court appearance, but has not yet entered a plea. At that initial appearance, the court ordered her to submit to a psychiatric evaluation because there was “… reasonable cause to believe [Short] may suffer from a mental disease or defect rendering her mentally incompetent to the extent she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her…”
She is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals.
