Woman praises son and dog for fighting off suspect in Illinois stabbing attack
A woman’s son and dog fought off a man who authorities have charged with stabbing and killing four other people in her Illinois town on Wednesday, saving her along with her relatives from being murdered, she has said in an interview.
Darlene Weber described the remarkable, life-or-death encounter in an interview published on Thursday evening by NBC News, explaining how “I don’t think I’d be standing here talking to you right now” had it not been for her 21-year-old son Jacob Vollman and the family pit bull Brandy.
“I mean, this is – like – my knight in shining armor,” Weber said of Vollman. “It was like God sent him to me … and I was blessed with that.”
Investigators have charged Christian Soto, 22, in connection with the stabbings at multiple locations in Rockville, 90 miles north-west of Chicago. Police allege that the violence began when he fatally stabbed his friend – Jacob Schupbach, 23 – and his friend’s mother, 63-year-old Ramona Schupbach, with a kitchen knife at the victims’ home.
Soto, who later purportedly claimed that smoking marijuana given to him by his friend had made him paranoid, then stabbed and ran over Jay Larson with a truck, murdering the 49-year-old mail carrier on the job, officials allege.
He allegedly also broke into a home where a group of girls on spring break were having a sleepover and watching a movie in the basement, and he fatally bludgeoned 15-year-old Jenna Newcomb with a baseball bat.
At some point during the spate of killings, Weber took Brandy out the back door of her family home, heard a voice greet her with “hey”, and then was stabbed in the face by Soto, she told NBC.
Weber recalled falling to the ground, crawling through her house and screaming for Vollman to help her as the attacker followed her. She said the commotion prompted Brandy to jump and bite Weber’s assailant, allowing them to retreat inside their home.
“It all happened [in] like such a blink of an eye,” Weber told NBC.
Weber said Vollman emerged as she was calling the police. The attacker at that point had gotten inside as well, charged at Vollman and swung the knife at him. Vollman was hit with the knife’s handle but avoided being stabbed with the blade, and he threw punches in return.
The intruder “had the world’s biggest smile on his face”, Vollman said. Weber said that, to her, the intruder “looked like the devil incarnate”, with blood covering his hands, sweater and pants. “It [was] like a horror movie,” she said.
Soon, screams of “get out of my house” and “you shouldn’t be here” woke Weber’s daughter – 23-year-old Cathy Gilfillan – from a nap. She said she ran toward the screaming and saw her brother “boxing” a man who then noticed her, charged at her and struck her.
Gilfillan told NBC that she fell to the ground and was about to be hit again when Vollman struck the intruder with a syrup bottle. At that point, police arrived, and the attacker fled out the back door.
They later arrested Soto on counts of murder, attempted murder and home invasion. He could get up to life in prison if convicted as charged.
Weber and her children were among seven people wounded in the killing spree attributed to Soto. Gilfillan echoed Weber in her gratitude for Vollman’s bravery, saying: “If it wasn’t for him, me and mom would not be here.”
But Weber also acknowledged that she and her children were processing feelings of guilt for surviving an attack some of their fellow residents of Rockford did not.
“We were survivors and … you had these innocent people that were taken from their families,” Weber said to NBC. “I can only imagine what everyone else went through.”