Woman wakes up from coma after 2 years, names brother as attacker

The man has been charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding.

A West Virginia man has been arrested after his sister, Wanda Palmer, awoke from a long coma and told the police that it was her brother who had attacked her two years ago.

The 51-year-old woman was found unconscious at her house in Ravenswood with a serious head injury. She had suffered brain damage in the attack that took place in 2020.

According to a statement by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, Palmer was found in an "upright position" on her couch with severe injuries to her head. She appeared to have been attacked by a hatchet or an axe.

The police initially thought she was dead, but later realised that she was still breathing and rushed her to a local hosptital. She had since been in a long-term care facility in New Martinsville.

The police had initially suspected her brother's involvement in the attack, but they did not have enough evidence against him.

The investigation into the case was still open when the police received a call from Wanda Palmer's care facility, who said that she had started speaking in single words. Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger told MetroNews that the woman gave them enough evidence against her brother, and they arrested him on Friday.

"There was no eye witnesses, nobody lived in the home, no surveillance footage, no cell phone records. There was virtually nothing there to move forward on," said Mellinger.

"The keys to the whole thing lay with the victim herself and with her unable to communicate we were left with nothing. Now lo and behold two years later and boom, she's awake and able to tell us exactly what happened," he said.

Her brother, Daniel Palmer, has been charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding. His bond is set at $500,000.

"He didn't give us any fight or anything. There was a little bit of surprise, but not entirely," added the Sheriff. Wanda Palmer is now able to communicate coherently but still cannot hold full-length conversations, according to a report in The Independent.