A 12-year-old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons allegedly stabbed a 37-year-old woman to death in Melbourne‘s inner west city of Footcray on November 16, 2023.
Detectives who arrived at the crime scene found blood all over the apartment’s kitchen floor and bathroom, with the girl and the two neighbors in the hallway.
One of the neighbors said they found the girl crying in the hallway in the middle of the night and saw the woman’s lifeless body on the bathroom floor.
The girl claimed the woman killed herself.
The neighbors immediately called the police after a noise woke them up in the middle of the night.
Months after the gruesome incident, the Victoria Police on Thursday confirmed that charges against the girl were dropped following significant consideration and advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A plea to get a matching DNA from the girl about the crime scene was also withdrawn.
Authorities said the 12-year-old girl was being assessed by a psychiatrist about doli incapax or the presumption that a child aged under 13 is incapable of understanding the wrongfulness of their actions and therefore cannot be convicted of a crime.
Prosecutors have notified the victim’s family regarding the decision.
