Troubled Roseville mom suspect in girls' stabbing

By Terry Collins, Star Tribune.

A single mother who apparently stabbed her two young daughters and herself Thursday afternoon in their well-kept Roseville townhouse may have been overwhelmed by stress and financial problems, a close friend said.

Sylvia Sieferman, 60, and Hannah and Linnea Sieferman, both 11, were rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul after Sieferman repeatedly stabbed the girls and herself, police said.

Roseville police and investigators from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were summoned to the Westwood Village III townhouse in the 400 block of County Road C around 2 p.m. after one of the girls, bleeding from stab wounds, ran to a neighbor's house for help.

Sieferman and one of the girls are in critical condition, while the girl who ran for help is in stable condition, Roseville police Capt. Rick Mathwig said.

A Regions Hospital spokeswoman declined to say which girl was critical and which was stable, saying that parental permission is needed to release such information.

Police said Sieferman is the sole suspect in the stabbings but declined to speculate about motive.

"It's just a sad case," Mathwig said.

Neighbors said Sieferman is a single mother who adopted the girls from China. Her online blog identifies the girls as Hannah, adopted in 1999, and Linnea, adopted in 2003.

The blog contains Sieferman's account of her longheld desire to adopt daughters from overseas and her joy upon meeting them and watching them grow.

In an April 2005 post on a background of pink hearts, she described the girls as "wonderful, smart and loving."

In 2001, when Hannah was 4, Sieferman wrote that "it's so interesting to watch her active mind at work -- she's always thinking ...

"Her enthusiasm for just about anything life has to offer is undimmed."