Police had checked the Menomonie home about two hours before the 7-year-old fled and found people who helped him.

MENOMONIE, Wis. — A mother in Wisconsin faces attempted first-degree intentional homicide and child abuse charges after authorities say her 7-year-old son escaped from their Menomonie home following an alleged attack with a knife and hammer on July 20. The encounter came about two hours after police conducted a welfare check at the same residence but did not find grounds at that time for an emergency mental health commitment, according to a criminal complaint described by local news outlet WEAU.

The case against 37-year-old Emily Spalding is built around two police responses to a home on Kausrud Street that evening. During the first, an officer was checking reports from neighbors about unusual behavior and alarming comments attributed to Spalding. During the second, police were searching for a child who had run into the street yelling and was reported to be covered in blood. Prosecutors later charged Spalding with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and intentionally causing great bodily harm to a child. The allegations have not been proven in court, and the available reports do not identify a plea entered by Spalding.

The first call came around 8 p.m. A witness told a Menomonie Police Department officer that Spalding had been yelling, swearing and making comments involving curses, according to WEAU’s account of the criminal complaint. The witness also reported that Spalding had said children would not need to clean their rooms in heaven. The same person said Spalding had been outside in the rain the previous night and appeared to be speaking to people who were not there. Those statements were reports made to police, not independent findings about Spalding’s mental condition.

When an officer made contact with Spalding, she denied making the statements and said the neighbors were the people with problems, according to the complaint. Police described her demeanor during that encounter as calm. Her son did not make a statement to the officer or ask for help. Based on what officers encountered at that point, authorities said the circumstances did not meet the criteria for an involuntary mental health commitment. The officer left. The complaint, as summarized publicly, does not say that police saw an injury, weapon or attack during that first response.

Roughly two hours later, the situation changed sharply. Officers were dispatched again to the Kausrud Street area after a report that a child was running in the street and yelling “no.” Dispatchers then advised responding officers that the boy was covered in blood and had said his mother was chasing him with a knife and had struck him in the head. Police eventually located the child inside a nearby Jimmy John’s restaurant. An officer reported seeing blood on the boy’s face, shirt and legs and a small cut on the top of his head. Emergency medical services were called, and the child was later taken to Mayo Clinic in Menomonie.

The boy identified himself as Spalding’s son and gave officers an account of what had happened inside the home. According to the complaint, he said he had been playing video games in his mother’s bedroom when she came into the room and tried to stab him with a knife. The child said he initially got away but that Spalding caught him, pulled him back into the house and attacked him again. He told investigators that she struck him once in the head with a hammer. He then escaped a second time, ran down the street and found other people who could help him. At the hospital, he later told another officer that he believed he would have died if he had not run away.

While medical workers cared for the boy, officers secured the residence and detained Spalding. The complaint says she made statements at the doorway claiming that another person or force had taken control of her body and was responsible for stabbing her son. She also made religious or supernatural references while talking with officers, according to WEAU. Police took her into custody and transported her to Mayo Menomonie Hospital for medical evaluation and treatment. Those statements are part of the prosecution’s account of the police response; they do not by themselves establish a psychiatric diagnosis or resolve questions about Spalding’s legal responsibility.

Investigators then sought court authorization to search for evidence. At about 2:30 a.m. July 21, police executed a warrant at the residence, according to the complaint. Officers recovered a butcher-block knife set, a hammer with what was described as a red substance resembling blood, a cellphone outside the front door and another phone from the front yard. Search warrants also were granted for the hammer connected to the alleged attack and for a DNA sample from Spalding. The public reports reviewed for this article do not give laboratory results tying any particular item to an injury, and the existence of seized evidence does not establish guilt.

Authorities also contacted child protective services because the boy needed another place to stay. Spalding’s sister arrived and was considered as a possible placement, the complaint says, and she was later granted temporary custody of the child. The sister told investigators she had seen Spalding a day before the alleged attack and believed something was wrong because Spalding had not been eating or sleeping and was making unusual religious statements. She also reported finding objects in the apartment during a July 24 visit that concerned her, including tarot and witchcraft-related items, a homemade death certificate bearing Spalding’s name and a book containing a lock of the child’s hair. Those observations were reported by the witness and should not be treated as evidence, by themselves, of criminal intent or mental illness.

The charges place two distinct legal questions before the Wisconsin court system. First-degree intentional homicide under state law requires an intent to kill when a death actually occurs. Wisconsin’s attempt law separately allows prosecution when the state alleges that a person intended to commit a crime and took acts toward carrying it out even though the completed crime did not occur. An attempt to commit an offense punishable by life imprisonment is classified as a Class B felony. Spalding also is accused under Wisconsin’s child-abuse statute, which makes intentionally causing great bodily harm to a child a Class C felony. Prosecutors would still have to prove every required element beyond a reasonable doubt if the case goes to trial.

The reports also raise a separate issue involving Spalding’s ability to participate in the criminal proceedings. By Aug. 4, Civic Media reported that she had been moved to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for a psychological evaluation. A mental health evaluation is not the same thing as a determination of guilt or innocence, and an examination of a defendant’s condition does not establish whether that person committed the charged conduct. Wisconsin criminal procedure provides a process for evaluating competency when there is reason to question whether a defendant can proceed in court. Competency concerns a defendant’s present ability to understand and participate in proceedings; it is distinct from the factual question of what happened during an alleged offense.

The child survived the July 20 encounter and was placed in the temporary care of a relative, according to the complaint. Public reporting reviewed through Sept. 8 did not provide a later, reliably confirmed disposition of Spalding’s criminal case, a reported plea or a final competency ruling. The attempted homicide and child abuse allegations therefore remain accusations as the case proceeds through Wisconsin’s courts.

Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.