One person has been arrested after three people were stabbed to death at an east Dallas home early Thursday morning.
Investigators arrived at the home on the corner of Peavy Road and Millmar Drive at about 6:30 a.m. after a call was placed to 911. When officers arrived a short time later, they found the bodies of a man and two women, dead from apparent stab wounds, inside the home.
Officers found the woman who called 911 injured, but alive and hiding in the home with her 6-year-old daughter. Police said the woman's brother-in-law, 50-year-old William Palmer, arrived at the home that morning and killed her sister and parents before attacking her.
In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Dallas police said that Palmer got into an argument with his estranged wife, 47-year-old Donya Palmer, outside of her parent's Dallas home earlier that morning. According to police, Donya ran inside only to be followed by her husband.
The argument continued into the living room where Palmer fatally stabbed his wife, police said. Hearing the commotion, Donya's 69-year-old father, Raymond Davis, came into the room to investigate. Police said that is when Davis was attacked and fatally stabbed by his son-in-law.
Also hearing the commotion was Donya's 67-year-old mother, Mary. She too walked into the room to investigate and was also fatally stabbed by Palmer, police said.
“As each one comes out to see what happens, they’re stabbed by the suspect in a short period of time,” explained Lt. David Pughes with DPD.
Donya's sister, the last to enter the living room, was also attacked. The woman, wounded but alive, was able to escape, grab her young daughter and call 911 while she hid inside another part of the home, police said.
“She was telling us she had been stabbed and he was stabbing people,” said Pughes.
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Conversations between police and Donya's sister led investigators to believe that Palmer was headed back to his home in Sachse. Dallas police reached out to officers in Sachse and asked them to initiate a traffic stop should Palmer be spotted. A short time later he was found ordering food at a Taco Bueno on state Highway 78.
Officers from both the Dallas and Sachse departments converged at the restaurant and arrested Palmer without incident.
Dallas homicide investigators have not yet released a motive and added that Palmer has no record of violence with their department. However, allegations of assault do exist between Palmer and his 20-year-old daughter, Brianna Palmer, according to incident reports filed by the Sachse Police Department.
“They seemed like a nice couple,” said neighbor Donna Christianson, of the Palmers who lived on Lee Hutson Lane in Sachse.
Police said the 6-year-old child, who was evaluated by a doctor Thursday, was asleep and didn't witness any of the stabbings.
Palmer is being held on $1 million bond.
NBC 5's Ben Russell and Ray Villeda contributed to this report.
