'Kill me!' a mother begs police after a terrible act

Four years ago she seemed to have it all. A good job. Two little girls she loved. And a newly renovated home in Roseville for the three of them to enjoy.

On Thursday, however, Sylvia Sieferman, 60, sat alone, a knife in front of her, bleeding heavily from her neck. Police said she was near the front steps of the family's new home in Roseville, about a half-mile from the one they apparently could no longer afford, yelling to police officers: "Kill me! Kill me!"

Sieferman had savagely attacked her two daughters and then stabbed herself, authorities say, two months after she was hospitalized because of her own fears that she might harm them.

Until Thursday, police said, that was something they didn't know.

Inside the townhouse in the 400 block of County Road C, police found Linnea Sieferman, 11, upstairs in a pool of blood, her throat slashed, according to a criminal complaint filed against Sylvia Sieferman on Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

Her other daughter, Hannah Sieferman, almost 12 and also adopted from China, escaped to a nearby home, but not before the single mom allegedly attacked her with an ax.

She told her daughter during that assault: "I'm a bad mom ... I had to do this."

In Sieferman's bedroom, the complaint said, officers found a handwritten note that read, in part, "sorry, I can't deal with them anymore."

On Friday, Sylvia Sieferman, described by a friend as overwhelmed by stress and financial pressures, was hospitalized in stable condition at Regions Hospital, charged with second-degree attempted murder in the ax attack on Hannah.

Authorities had yet to charge her with the alleged stabbing of Linnea, saying that a decision will be made later "based on her critical medical condition," police said. Late Friday afternoon, Linnea was at Gillette Children's Hospital, still in critical condition. Hannah, also hospitalized there, was listed in good condition.

Warning signs

Two months ago, Carrie Micko recalled, a distraught Sylvia Sieferman phoned her. The women weren't close, Micko said, but were neighbors on the Roseville street where Sieferman once lived. Sieferman, who had nowhere else to go, needed Micko's "kind voice," she said, because she feared she might hurt herself or her daughters.

For five hours, Micko said, she sat with Sieferman at a hospital she won't name. And later, she said, she was mystified that the hospital would release Sieferman -- and that the girls would go back to the home -- without any apparent follow-up by anyone.

"Somebody should have gotten the clue that unless the circumstances at home changed those kids should not have gone back into the house," Micko said.

But Roseville police Capt. Rick Mathwig said Friday that police had no reason to suspect trouble. Because of rules involving patient confidentiality, he added, he was unaware of any time during his 20 years with the Roseville Police Department that a hospital notified authorities about someone having been hospitalized for mental health problems.

As for his take on Sieferman's mental state and her alleged actions, however, Mathwig said: "Not to excuse it, but there has to be some level of mental-health instability."

According to the complaint, a Ramsey County dispatcher received a call from Sylvia Sieferman, coughing and breathing heavily, who said, "I killed my children." She reportedly stabbed herself, as well, saying, "The knife is hurting me now."

Interviewed later by police, Hannah Sieferman said her mother had made her an egg sandwich for lunch, and the two sisters then talked in Linnea Sieferman's room.

As Hannah left the room, she said, her mother walked in with a pillow, a knife and an ax, and Hannah saw her stab her sister repeatedly.

Hannah fled to her mother's bathroom, she said, but forgot to lock the bathroom door. Sylvia Sieferman forced her way inside, striking her daughter at least five times with the ax, the complaint said. She also tried to stab her in the neck and the heart, Hannah said, but the girl defended herself by grabbing on to the blade.

Sylvia Sieferman, now in police custody at Regions Hospital, is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail. The children have been turned over to child-protective services, Mathwig said.

Anthony Lonetree • 651-298-1545