Detectives conducting a well-being check at a Morgan Township home Sunday walked into a grisly, blood-filled scene and found the victim covered in stab wounds with his heart cut out of his chest, according to charges.
Serena Dolnics, 32, was formally charged with murder in the death of her father, Gregory Dolnics, 69, according to court documents filed Tuesday afternoon. The two lived at the same address in Morgan Township.
Police found three bloody knives at the scene, according to the charges.
According to the charges, around 7:58 p.m. Sunday, deputies were dispatched to a residence on County Road 450 E for a well-being check for Gregory Dolnics. Family members contacted police because they had not been able to reach him by phone and were worried about him.
Serena Dolnics, according to the charges, “was making odd statements” when a family member asked to talk to Gregory Dolnics. Additionally, while the family member was on the phone with 911, they got text messages from Serena Dolnics’ boyfriend.
The boyfriend, charges state, was at the residence “and that Serena was covered in blood. (The boyfriend) also messaged saying that he thinks Serena stabbed Gregory and that he believed she will kill herself.”
When police arrived, the boyfriend told them Serena Dolnics had just locked him out of the house and that she was covered in blood, charges state. A deputy looked in the window and saw drops of blood on the floor but was unable to reach Gregory Dolnics.
The deputy “later observed a body lying on the floor that had dried blood on it,” documents state. Gregory Dolnics, according to the charges, lived on the north side of the residence.
Police doing a protective sweep of the residence saw a bedroom door on the south side of the residence being shut and locked, charges state.
The Porter County Emergency Response Team was called to the scene and, around 9:47 p.m., Serena Dolnics was located in that bedroom and taken into custody, charges state.
“When she was taken into custody, Serena was not wearing any shoes or socks and both of her feet had blood on them. Serena was wearing a tank top shirt that contained a large amount of blood and no pants,” charges state, also noting that her legs had blood on them and nobody else was in the residence.
Serena Dolnics was taken to a nearby hospital and, according to court records, had multiple injuries on both of her hands, “consistent with being from a knife slipping through a hand.”
After being treated and cleared from the hospital, according to the charges, she told police she last saw her father earlier that evening and that he wasn’t feeling “too good” and was watching “Game of Thrones” on TV.
“Serena stated that she and Gregory get along really well, but have small tiffs here and that they both get over it quickly,” records state.
She told police she injured her hands working in the garden using a weed whacker or a small saw, according to the charges, “and that she was clumsy and was by herself.” She told police she was going to go to the emergency room at some point for her wounds.
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According to the charges, “There was no garden, no bloody shears or small saw located on the property.”
She told police in charging documents that she didn’t observe her father injured or hurt at all, and that she remembered police being at the residence that day. She also recalled texting her boyfriend “to not come over.”
An autopsy, according to the charges, showed that Gregory Dolnics had suffered multiple lacerations on his hands and face, stab wounds on the back of his neck, and multiple stab and slash wounds all over his body, in addition to having his heart cut out of his chest.
Serena Dolnics is in custody at the Porter County Jail with no bond, according to jail records. An initial hearing has not been scheduled.