All of it went down on Could 26 on the Cecil Webb Wildlife Administration Space in Punta Gorda, the place police had been referred to as with a report of a younger lady with lacerations on her face, neck, and fingers, per CBS affiliate WINK.

Based on a CCSO press launch, when deputies arrived on the scene, they described the lady as “weak and in want of rapid medical consideration,” She was bleeding and “barely in a position to communicate,” per WFTV, however was rushed to a hospital and is now listed in steady situation.

The lady was in a position to determine her mom, Gwendolyn Girard, 35, as her attacker, based on a number of native media retailers.

“All the injuries look like knife-inflicted,” stated Chris Corridor of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Workplace in a information convention on Tuesday. “There have been stab wounds. There have been lower wounds. There have been defensive wounds on the sufferer’s fingers as effectively, the place she tried to dam a few of the assault.”

Talking with WINK after the alleged assault, the sufferer’s grandmother referred to as her a “courageous little lady.” She added, “She stated she performed useless. She stated she fought her mom off so long as she might, after which she performed useless, after which her mother left her there.”

“The sufferer had been, I hate to make use of the phrase discarded, however that is type of one of the best ways to explain what it was,” stated Corridor, based on Fox 4 Now. “After the assault she was left bloodied and underneath a pile of brush.”

Deputies consider that after the assault, and believing her daughter was useless, Girard tried to cover her physique. She then left and drove away in a gold van, based on what her daughter advised authorities.

In response to her assertion, police shortly launched a search of the car and had been in a position to observe it right down to the North Fort Myers space inside a matter of hours.

Girard was apprehended and purportedly confessed to the assault, and revealed the place she had hidden the weapon. In his press convention, Corridor said {that a} dive staff search of a canal close to the household residence was related to this stabbing incident.

“In my 33-year profession, there are solely a handful of occasions that I’ve been left speechless. That is a type of occasions,” stated Charlotte County Sheriff Invoice Prummell on the division’s information convention. “To assault a baby with a knife — I am unable to perceive it.”

He gave credit score to the individuals who discovered her wandering across the space for serving to to avoid wasting her life. “You may name it destiny, you may name it kismet, you may name it no matter you need however I feel on the finish of the day these individuals had been there for a purpose and thank God that they had been there,” he stated.

“It is just by God’s grace that she continues to be with us at this time, and I pray for her as she heals from this horrific incident,” Corridor added. “Sadly, the psychological trauma inflicted on her might by no means heal.”

Girard is going through fees of aggravated battery and aggravated youngster abuse. She is being held within the Charlotte County Jail on a $750,000 bond.