“I should have stabbed myself first,” were the words a naked and blood stained Secane woman told police after they arrested her for the murder of her daughter.
On Christmas Eve, Upper Darby police released the criminal complaint against Diane Grovola, 57, who stabbed her daughter Daniele to death in her bedroom early Tuesday and then failed in an apparent attempt to kill herself.
According to the complaint filed by Upper Darby Police Det. Desiree Forlini:
Officers were called at 6:38 a.m. to the 200 block of South Bishop Avenue for a stabbing of a 23 year-old female.
Responding officers were directed to make contact with the victim’s mother, Diana Grovola, who was reportedly armed with a knife.
When police arrived inside the home, Grovola was naked, covered in blood, and displayed superficial lacerations to her body that were later determined to be self inflicted, police said. She resisted officers commands and therefore she was forcibly secured into wrist restraints.
While secured, she stated to Officer Inderbir Randhawa, “sorry, I should have stabbed myself first,” the criminal complaint said.
Responding emergency service personnel tended to the victim, Daniele Grovola, who had suffered lacerations to her face, chest, legs and back. All life saving measures were exhausted, and she was pronounced deceased at 7:07 a.m.
Detectives spoke with the victim’s father, John, who had made the 911 call.
He said he left his job at the UPS facility at the Philadelphia Airport between 5 to 5:30 a.m. and on the way home stopped at McDonald’s to pick up breakfast for the family. License plate readers confirmed this time frame.
When he entered his residence, the family dog ran to him, he touched the dog and got blood on his clothing.
The man told police his wife, Diana, was seated on the living room sofa, holding a knife.
“I stabbed our daughter,” the woman told him.
She also mentioned harming the dog, which had lacerations to it’s abdomen.
The father walked into his daughter’s bedroom and observed her lying on her back with her eyes open. He called her name several times, but she was unresponsive. He then returned to his wife in the living room, and called 911.
The father told detectives that while he was calling 911, his wife stated that she did not want to live anymore, and she began to stab herself in the chest.
The 911 operator told him to flee, and as he did, he saw her throw the knife onto the living room floor near the television stand.
He stated that his wife stripped naked, and he could hear her breaking items in the kitchen until the police arrived.
Following obtaining a search warrant, police recovered one large, stainless-steel knife with a black handle in the living room wall which appeared to have blood on it.
The dog was transported to a veterinarian facility where it was treated for its injuries.
Grovola was charged with criminal homicide, murder of the first and third degree, possession of an instrument of crime and aggravated cruelty to animals.
She was arraigned before District Judge Michael Burns denied bail and committed to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
It was clear how long before the father home that the attack had occurred.