May 12, 2021-
Sarah Whitney Ganoe sent her fiancé — the father of her 10-month-old baby boy — an ominous text message Monday night.
The voice-to-text message warned John Howard about what had just taken place at the the family’s home in northern Newport News, police said.
“Sarah Ganoe told him not be sad, but the house would be bloody when he got home,” according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Howard left work, the complaint said, and called 911 on the way home. He got to the Hilltop Drive residence before police and medics arrived.
“Upon entry, John Howard observed a large amount of blood in numerous bedrooms,” the complaint said. “He then located Sarah Ganoe, Zell Howard, and (the 8-year-old girl) lying on the bed in the master bedroom.”
Zell, the 10-month old baby, “had multiple stab wounds and an evisceration to his abdomen,” the complaint said. The 8-year-old “was determined to have at least 50 stab wounds throughout her body, including evisceration to her abdomen.”
Police Chief Steve Drew said Tuesday that investigators found a pocket knife, with a 2.5-inch blade, in the bedroom.
The criminal complaint, by Newport News Police Detective Brittany Beggs, said Ganoe had “superficial stab wounds.” She was arrested, taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center for treatment, then to police headquarters in Newport News.
During an interview with police detectives, Ganoe “admitted to stabbing her two children … multiple times with a knife,” the complaint said.
“She had bruising to her right hand and arm that she stated was caused by ‘hammering’ the knife during the stabbing,” the complaint added. “Sarah Ganoe also had one bite mark to her right forearm that she stated was from (the 8-year-old) biting her in an attempt to get free.”
The wounds to the girl were initially considered life threatening, the complaint said, but she was listed in “critical but stable condition” Tuesday after being flown Monday night to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk.
The girl’s father, Calvin Ganoe, posted on Facebook Wednesday that a CHKD nurse told him his daughter is “doing better.” But, he added, “keep the prayers and vibes coming.”
He could not be immediately reached.
No other children were in the home at the time. Another of Ganoe’s children, Salem Jade Fullerton, “passed away unexpectedly” as an infant in August 2012, according to a Daily Press obituary at the time.
Sarah Ganoe, 35, was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of felony child abuse and two counts of using a knife in the commission of a felony. She’s now being held without bond.
