West Virginia Mom Sentenced to Life for Killing 4-Year-Old Daughter Over Husband's Affection: 'He Loved Her More'

A woman from West Virginia received two life sentences after she pleaded guilty to murdering her 4-year-old daughter. She slit her daughter’s throat and fatally stabbed her out of jealousy for not getting her husband's attention. The incident occurred in July 2022.

The 33-year-old West Virginia woman, Rebakah Weikle, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse charges on April 30. The victim was the 4-year-old daughter of Weikle, Haley.

Haley was fatally stabbed in the bedroom by Weikle at their Forest Hill area home on July 11 or in the early morning hours of July 12, 2022. She received two life sentences with parole eligibility after 30 years.

“I want everybody to know how evil the person that she is and what all she has done. She killed a four-year-old baby, my baby,” said Haley’s father, identified as Rusty Weikle, according to WOAY. “She was jealous that I was paying attention to her, doing what I was supposed to do, watching out for her. I was trying to keep her safe,” he added.

Prosecutors say Weikle had been searching on her phone about ways to harm people prior to the killing.

“What we could determine from her cellular phone searches beginning in mid to late June, she started having these very pointed searches on how to harm people, specifically searches relevant to lacerations or stab wounds, particular locations on the body,” Summers County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Lefler told People. “And I can only assume that with her statement that she had this growing animosity and jealousy, most likely when she was conducting these searches, she did have her daughter in mind,” he added.

The searches, Lefler said, were more “generic, like stab wounds to the upper chest, how long does it take someone to die from being stabbed, things of that nature. But nothing directed towards her,” the prosecutor said.

Lefler said that on the evening of the murder, the girl’s father and Haley’s two brothers went to bed, and then “it was just Haley and Weikle that were up, and Weikle had told her to go to bed, and at that point made the decision to retrieve the knife from the kitchen and decided to do it.”

“She used either a blanket or a pillow to cover Haley’s mouth, and she specifically used this method so that the father would not hear,” Lefler said.

After killing Haley, Weikle allegedly cleaned and hid the knife, used the laundry machine, and then went to bed.

“She stated that she then went to the bedroom, disrobed, and hid her clothing in a pile of clothes, which we were able to find on the execution of a search warrant,” Lefler said.

Weikle was allegedly on her phone all night, and the following morning, she told her husband that Haley was not awake. “And he said, ‘Well, go wake her up.’ She then immediately said, ‘Haley’s dead,'” Lefler said. Rusty then went to the bedroom, discovered her body, and immediately called 911 to report the incident.

Both parents were charged with murder, but the murder charge against Rusty was later dropped.