Before she allegedly stabbed her older sister to death last month, Sandra Baumgartner was prescribed new anti-psychotic medications, and was exhibiting bizarre behavior, according to her psychiatrist.
This was not the first time those close to Sandra had been concerned about her long-standing mental illness. According to court records, in July 2013 police were called to Sandra’s Carpentersville home after Sharon Baumgartner, 57, reported concerns about her sister’s increasingly erratic behavior.
Sharon told police Sandra was “delusional” and that she was especially concerned because in 2001, Sandra had been charged with stabbing a man 120 times in Memphis. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity, institutionalized, and eventually moved into a multi-unit building in Carpentersville with her older sister.
In affidavits filed in Kane County, police said Sandra appeared to still be suffering from mental illness. During their investigation into the Sept. 29 stabbing death of Sharon, police spoke with a local psychiatrist who said he last saw Sandra four days prior to the murder. He said he had recently changed the woman’s anti-psychotic medications, and that he had been concerned about her recent behavior and history of violence.
According to police, the doctor had cause to be concerned.
Witness accounts
On the evening of Sept. 29, a man living in the same building as the Baumgartner’s called police to report that the sisters had been arguing earlier in the day. Around 9:45 p.m., the man said he heard screaming coming from Sandra’s unit, and then heard Sandra move to her sister’s downstairs apartment where the screaming and arguing continued.
Concerned, the neighbor said he headed to Sharon’s apartment to see what the commotion was about. He said he looked through a kitchen window and allegedly saw Sandra kneeling on the kitchen floor, holding a bloody knife.
The man called 911, and when police arrived, Sandra was no where to be found. Sharon was located in a pool of blood on the floor. She had been stabbed multiple times.
Police said Sharon was dead by the time paramedics arrived, and that blood smears on the unit’s back door knob suggested that whomever committed the murder had fled.
The Kane County Major Crimes task force was called to assist Carpentersville police in locating Sandra. An extensive search of the woods near the Baumgartner’s home led them to their suspect.
According to court records, Sandra was found “dirty” and “disheveled” in the woods. She appeared to have been out all night, police said. She told investigators that she had ditched the murder weapons as she fled the scene.
Sandra was taken into custody, where she immediately refused to talk with investigators, they said in the affidavit. Officers secured a warrant to search Sandra, as well as vehicles belonging to both Sandra and Sharon. Sandra was charged with three counts of first degree murder.
Past history
According to court records, in April 2001, Baumgartner, who had been a registered nurse, got into an altercation with a Tennessee man at his apartment and stabbed him multiple times. At her bench trial “the defendant presented evidence that at the time of the offense, she had Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type, and was not able to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct.”
Court records indicate Baumgartner received intensive outpatient therapy for her condition. In 2003, a Tennessee judge mandated that upon her release, Sandra live with her parents. Baumgartner’s mother, Carol, died in 2010. Sources said Baumgartner’s 87-year-old father is in a nursing home and a brother lives out of state. She had recently been living in the same building as her sister.
More Top Picks Best Weighted Vests For Autism
If convicted of Sharon’s murder, Sandra faces a sentence of between 20 and 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.