Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Oct 14

Pennsylvania Woman Charged in 2 Killings at Poconos Resort After Alleged Murder-Suicide Attempt

Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Oct 14

Pennsylvania Woman Charged in 2 Killings at Poconos Resort After Alleged Murder-Suicide Attempt

Q: Why did a woman call 911 for her own failed suicide attempt while leaving her husband and toddler dead in a resort bed?

The available evidence suggests she called 911 because her suicide attempt had failed, not to save her husband or child. According to the criminal complaint, Metallica Rose Harrison told dispatchers she was “too weak to stab my neck,” that the knives were “not working,” and that she needed “help dying.” She allegedly said her husband and 3-year-old son were “already gone in the bed” and did not ask for medical help for either of them during the call. That distinction is central: investigators say the call was framed as a suicidal crisis after the killings, not as a plea to rescue the other two people in the room. Her later statements reinforce that interpretation. Police said she told officers she “wanted to be with her husband and son.” During the ambulance ride, she allegedly expressed frustration that her blood was clotting despite taking medication to thin it, and asked questions indicating she was focused on how to kill herself more effectively. She also reportedly said, “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. I was supposed to have my happy family.” Authorities have not established a final motive, and the district attorney has said that remains one of the most perplexing parts of the case. But based on the affidavit, investigators believe she called because she had survived her own self-inflicted injuries and wanted assistance in dying or intervention after failing to kill herself, while her husband and son were already dead.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 14

27-year-old Metallica Rose Harrison was charged with two counts of criminal homicide after police found her husband and 3-year-old son dead with chest stab wounds in a room at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.
Pocono Township police were called for a "distressed female" and said Harrison had cuts to her wrist and neck; a criminal complaint says she told officers she wanted to be with her husband and son.
Investigators recovered a butcher's knife and a smaller knife at the scene. The family, from Towanda, Pennsylvania, had checked in on Sept. 21 and were due to check out Tuesday.
Police called the deaths an isolated domestic tragedy with no threat to the community, while the resort said it was cooperating with law enforcement.