A Texas mother accused of stabbing her two young children and their father during a horrifying early-morning attack had been battling postpartum depression, her recovering husband said.
Holly Flores, 37, allegedly attacked her husband, Justin Hommel, 34, along with their 3-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son at the family’s Northlake home, north of Dallas, early Tuesday.
Hommel called 911 at about 4:20 a.m. after managing to fight off his wife, who allegedly stabbed him and both children.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox 4, officers found Hommel outside the house holding the kitchen knife believed to have been used in the attack.
Police took Flores into custody and entered the home, where they found the couple’s daughter and infant son lying bloodied on a bed.
As Flores was loaded into an ambulance, she reportedly told officers that she “wanted to kill herself and she no longer wanted to live,” the affidavit said.
The violence followed several disturbing hours. Hommel said he woke earlier after hearing his wife repeatedly attempting to light a lighter.
He told investigators that he had been sleeping on the couch to support Flores, who he said had experienced postpartum depression since the birth of their son 10 months ago.
According to her husband, Flores had been dealing with postpartum depression since giving birth to their son 10 months earlier
One neighbor described the Hommels as a “picture perfect” family to the Daily Mail (source: Holly Hommel/Facebook)
The Northlake Police Department said Holly Leeann Flores, 37, faces two counts of attempted capital murder involving her children and one count of aggravated assault in connection with the alleged stabbing of her husband
“He was concerned hearing the lighter, so he entered the bedroom,” officers wrote in their report.
The affidavit said Hommel saw Flores lighting a candle and noticed a kitchen knife on the bedroom dresser. Seeing the weapon “freaked him out,” he told investigators. When he asked Flores what she was doing, the two began arguing, according to the report.
Hommel eventually returned to sleep. A short time later, he woke to the sound of his children crying.
The affidavit said Hommel knocked on the bedroom door, and Flores opened it while holding the kitchen knife. She allegedly then lunged at him with the weapon.
A struggle followed, with Flores allegedly biting Hommel’s arms as he tried to wrestle the knife away from her.
Flores allegedly stabbed Hommel in the forehead before he succeeded in taking the knife from her.
Both children were conscious when officers found them and had knife puncture wounds to the upper chest.
The affidavit also said the young girl had additional wounds to her stomach.
A neighbor said Holly and Justin moved to the quiet Dallas, Texas, suburb in 2020 (source: Holly Hommel/Facebook)
The children are expected to survive their wounds as they recover at a hospital in Fort Worth surrounded by family, according to police.
When police tried to take Flores into custody, the report noted she kept escaping from the handcuffs and looking for the keys to set herself free.
Once she was in the ambulance, Flores said ‘she wanted to kill herself and she no longer wanted to live,’ according to the affidavit.
However, her tone quickly changed with officers asked if she knew why they were at her house.
‘I would like to speak to my lawyer,’ she told them.
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In the quiet Dallas suburb, neighbors were stunned to learn that the seemingly ‘picture perfect’ family had been struggling behind closed doors, although one witness recalled seeing the couple embroiled in a heated argument just a day before the attack.
‘Yesterday I saw them arguing. I was out here working, I don’t know what the fight was about but I could see her pointing and waving her arms. She looked upset,’ the witness told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
Police were called to the Hommel residence at 4.30am on Tuesday after the husband called 911
One neighbor described the Flores and her husband and kids as the ‘perfect family’
The construction worker, who was working next door, said Justin stood silently holding the couple’s baby as his wife yelled at him.
‘I didn’t think much of it; all couples fight. Plus she was so small compared to him,’ he said.
Police later revealed they had been called to the Hommel residence five times since March over wellness concerns.
But other neighbors said they had seen little indication of trouble within the family.
‘They just look like the picture perfect family. The kids are so beautiful,’ one neighbor told the Daily Mail.
Another described the couple as friendly and polite, saying they always waved and had shown no outward signs of trouble since moving into the neighborhood in 2020.
The family’s seemingly idyllic life was also on display across their social media accounts.
Flores, who goes by Holly Hommel on Facebook, frequently shared photos of her husband and children.
On August 17, Holly Flores shared a family photo of the four of them standing in front of a beach pier.
Holding her three-year-old daughter, Holly is pictured smiling and standing in front of Justin, who is cradling their infant son.
The day before, she posted another picture of her two children, showing her daughter kissing her son’s forehead.
Holly also appears to run a balloon decorating business. She has shared numerous photos of client’s Halloween parties, grand openings and birthday celebrations.
Justin appears to work as a health insurance expert.
‘Think of me as the Health Insurance Guru…’ Hommel wrote on his professional Facebook page, topped with a photo of him with Holly and their daughter.
Lindsay Clancy seen in court, mother accused of murdering her three young children while suffering from severe mental illness following childbirth
The terrifying incident at the Hommel residence comes months after the contentious trial for Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three young children while suffering from severe mental illness following childbirth.
Clancy, 36, strangled her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, inside their Duxbury home in January 2023 before attempting to take her own life.
Her trial sparked a national debate around how postpartum depression and psychosis are diagnosed and treated, and whether mothers who commit horrific acts while suffering from the symptoms should be held criminally responsible.
Her defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors maintained she was criminally responsible for the killings.
Her high-profile murder trial ended in a dramatic mistrial on September 4 after jurors deadlocked 11-1, with the majority reportedly favoring an acquittal on grounds of insanity.