[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A husband and father is going to be spending his life behind bars instead of with a loving family after committing one of the most heinous crimes imaginable.
On June 26, 2023, Patrick Proefriedt was fighting with his wife about their crying baby when he did the unthinkable, according to a court report from the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin in upstate New York. The 28-year-old man stomped off in anger to the next room and grabbed his crossbow. Megan Carey held their child to her chest as her husband shot at them. The bolt hit baby Eleanor first, piercing her tiny chest and exiting through her armpit. It then hit her mother in the chest.
We guess it finally hit Patrick what he was doing because he fled the scene. But before you think he was hit with a sudden wave of contrition, hold on. Because he first PULLED OUT THE BOLT. If you know anything about first aid, that’s the last thing you should do. Maybe he thought he could cover up that it was him without the evidence there? Because he also took his wife’s phone so she couldn’t call the police before jumping in his truck and driving away.
Related: BBC Sports Reporter’s Wife & Daughters Killed In Crossbow Attack!
Somehow Megan was able to call 911 anyway. She was on the line for 22 minutes. The whole time she tried to keep her daughter alive. In audio played for the court last week, she could be heard saying, “Stay with Mommy” and “Please don’t die.”
Police finally arrived. Megan was treated at the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. But little Eleanor was dead at the scene. She was 17 days old.
The Broome County Sheriff’s Office teamed with the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police. But the manhunt didn’t take long. Patrick’s truck got stuck in the mud less than a mile from his home. He was found hiding in the woods nearby. Per WBNG, Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar declared at a press conference:
“After the defendant in this case took the life of his own child, he ran into the woods and hid like a scared rat. A scared rat.”
Remember what we said about remorse? Broome County DA Paul Battisti made clear to WBNG there was none shown at all during his interrogation:
“At no point in time did he ever ask how’s my wife? How’s my three-week-old child? He never showed any remorse.”
Instead, he “talked about how it wasn’t that big of a deal, and I’ll be out of here as soon as possible.” He really thought killing his child wasn’t a big deal?! He also said his wife had “dared him” to shoot — as though that somehow made it her fault.
Ultimately Proefriedt pleaded guilty in March, to a charge of second-degree murder. On Friday he was sentenced — and despite the plea got the maximum, 25 years to life in prison. Judge Joseph F. Cawley said to the court:
“No one can possibly understand what Megan went through those last twenty-two minutes of Eleanor’s life.”
Megan herself spoke at the sentencing hearing as well. She said:
“Despite everything that has happened, I still believe in love, I still believe in healing, I believe in forgiveness. But he is beyond forgiveness. He has no empathy and no humanity.”
Sheriff Ashkar told the press afterward:
“I’m appreciative of Judge Cawley handing down the maximum sentence. But in a case like this, 25 years doesn’t seem appropriate. A pine box seems appropriate to me.”
We still can’t believe a father would do something like this. And to not even show any remorse afterward? Unthinkable. R.I.P. to little Eleanor.
[Image via Broome County District Attorney’s Office.]
The post Man Killed 17-Day-Old Daughter With A Crossbow — Then Told Cops It ‘Wasn’t That Big Of A Deal’ appeared first on Perez Hilton.
