COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – When police arrived at a Colorado Springs apartment to investigate a disturbance and spotted a bloody butcher knife laying on the counter, Ellyzabeth Rainey did the Peyton-Manning-like thing, and called an audible.
Holding up her two-month-old daughter, Rainey told them, “Take my baby,” court papers say. “Because I am going to run.” Then she threw the child at them, and took off.
Running didn’t work out to well, as cops caught up with her almost immediately in the complex’s courtyard, where they questioned the 19-year-old concerning her strange behavior. In an arrest affidavit, officers say she told them, “Because I just murdered someone.”
That someone turned out to be Deborah Rainey, 59, the suspect’s mother-in-law. Ellyzabeth was arrested Wednesday afternoon for her murder.
According to court documents, Deborah Rainey was in town visiting from San Francisco, staying at her son Jason’s apartment to help take care of his and Ellyzabeth’s baby. Ellyzabeth said that the couple were estranged, and planned to get divorced. Guess that’s a done-deal now.
Police were called to the Tanager Meadows complex on Sandalwood Drive to investigate reports of a disturbance and wound up in Rainey’s apartment after hearing a baby crying. Police say they accompanied Rainey inside and saw the bloody butcher knife.
According to court papers, Ellyzabeth Rainey told investigators, “voices” told her Deborah Rainey was going to take everything away from her. She also revealed that she’d recently been hospitalized for psychiatric care. What a shocker.
Her mother-in-law had never liked her, Ellyzabeth Rainey claimed, and she was sick of being pushed around. So, “she killed her,” court papers say.
Ellyzabeth Rainey told officers she began the attack by throwing boiling water on Deborah to distract her, then threw weights at her head. Deborah was stabbed multiple times, police said. Court papers show she also poured bleach into the victim’s nose and mouth. Rainey was dead when police found her. Investigators say her wounds were consistent with Ellyzabeth Rainey’s account of the attack.
Ellyzabeth Rainey, who’s also known as Ellyzabeth Bochelen, has priors for misdemeanor domestic violence that dates back to at least October 2011. Police say she told officers she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was 10, but doesn’t take medication for the condition.
