Washington woman says voices told her to stab 5-year-old daughter to death and bury her body in neighbor's yard, police say

A woman told police that voices told her to stab her 5-year-old daughter to death and bury her in a neighbor’s yard, according to Washington state police.

Police were called to a home in the city of Darrington off of Commercial Avenue by a 30-year-old woman who allegedly confessed to killing her child.

30-year-old Alyssa Sanchez told police that she had stabbed her daughter to death in the backseat of her Toyota Camry on Feb. 14 and then threw away the knife into a dumpster. She reportedly said that she hid her daughter’s body under blankets and that the body had been in her car for several days.

Investigators said that Sanchez had asked her friend to buy her a shovel a few days after the alleged incident.

She allegedly told police that she buried her daughter’s body in her neighbor’s front yard because she was afraid that it would start to smell bad.

Family members told police that they had not seen the child since Feb. 14.

Police said Sanchez told them that the voices said to her that “she is a demon, the devil, the messiah and sometimes her ancestors speak to her.” She said the voices told her she needed to kill her daughter and herself in order to get into heaven.

On Tuesday, Sanchez was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on suspicion of first-degree domestic violence murder. On Wednesday, Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui set the woman’s bail at $5 million without dissent from her defense attorney.

Police said they recovered the child’s body early morning on Wednesday. They said they found a “significant amount” of blood in the woman’s Camry.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death for the child.

The judge ordered that Sanchez undergo a mental illness assessment by a professional at the jail. If she is found guilty, she could face a sentence of life in prison.

In a similar story from 2023, 34-year-old Eric Meagan of Connecticut murdered his mother in order to quell the voices in his head. He was later found dead in his cell with a ligature around his neck.

Darrington is a small mountain town of about 1,400 people about 1.5 hours away from Seattle.