Parents who feel like they are “competing” with their children kind of make me sick. How a full-grown adult could look at their child and not feel the urge to lift them up and help them to succeed is baffling. It is especially wild when parents get jealous of the affection and attention their own children get from their significant other. After all, the “attention” the parent is getting versus the kind the child is getting is supposed to be wholly different.
Some immature people, however, cannot grapple with the shift, and some have remedied their feelings in the most gruesome ways possible.
A mom in West Virginia killed her young daughter because of jealousy.
According to People, in July of 2022, West Virginia mom Rebakah Weikle was the last one awake with her daughter Haley after her husband and Haley’s two brothers went to sleep. She reportedly sent her to bed, retrieved a knife from the kitchen, and swiftly cut her throat and stabbed her multiple times.
“She used either a blanket or a pillow to cover Haley’s mouth, and she specifically said so that the father would not hear,” Summers County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Lefler told People. “And the nature of the wound, it was fatal very quickly. It wasn’t a wound where she languished.”
The mom then reportedly cleaned and hid the knife, took off her bloody clothing, did laundry, and climbed into bed with her husband. She woke him up to have sex, and the two fell asleep.
The following morning, Rebakah Weikle informed her husband that the girl was not awake.
When Rusty Weikle asked her to go wake up Haley, the mom immediately confessed that the girl was dead. Her husband ran into the room and called 911. Initially, police arrested both the mother and father for the murder, but it was revealed Rusty Weikle had no prior knowledge of the crime. According to WOAY, Rebakah initially claimed that her husband killed the girl to cover up “sexual abuse.” She finally pleaded guilty on April 30, 2026, ending the three-year investigation.
“He never changed his story, and ultimately it proved to be correct that he really didn’t know anything,” Lefler said. “This was the horror that he woke up to.”
On May 5, 2026, Rebakah Weikle was given two life sentences with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
Although Rusty Weikle pleaded guilty to child neglect resulting in death and two counts of child neglect creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury, he is thrilled with the sentencing for his wife.
“I want everybody to know how evil the person that she is and what all she has done. She killed a four-year-old baby, my baby,” Rusty said, according to WOAY. “She was jealous that I was paying attention to her, doing what I was supposed to do, watching out for her. I was trying to keep her safe.”
Haley’s two brothers are living with another relative, the outlet reported.
