Woman wakes up from coma two years after ‘machete’ attack and names brother as culprit

A woman has woken up from a coma after two years and accused her brother of brutally attacking her.

Authorities in West Virginia said that they received a call from a long-term care centre after Wanda Palmer regained consciousness last week and identified her brother, David Palmer, as her alleged attacker.

Ms Palmer was attacked with a weapon at her home in Cottageville, West Virginia in June 2020, Jackson County Sherriff Ross Mellenger said, but investigators had no leads.

“When we got there, to be honest we thought she was dead,” Sheriff Mellenger told MetroNews. “We had a little bit of an idea what happened, but the problem was with the nuts and bolts of the case we had nothing to go on.

“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.”

Investigators went to meet with Ms Palmer, who suffered brain damage during the attack, at a care home in Wetzel County where she identified her brother.

David Palmer was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding over the attack, which officials believe was carried out with a machete or hatchet.

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

“He didn’t give us any fight or anything. There was a little bit of surprise, but not entirely.”