Dena Schlosser (born 1969) is a Plano, Texas woman who, on November 22, 2004, amputated the arms of her eleven-month-old daughter, Margaret, with a knife. Plano police responded to a 9-1-1 call made by concerned workers at a local day care center who had spoken to Schlosser earlier that day. The 9-1-1 operator testified that Schlosser confessed to her and that the gospel song, "He Touched Me" played in the background. When police arrived, they saw Schlosser covered in blood and calmly sitting holding the knife singing Christian hymns.[1] Hours after her arrest, police heard her repeatedly chanting, "Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord."[2]
Schlosser had been investigated earlier that year by the Texas Child Protective Services, who had decided she did not pose a risk to her children.[3] The baby died the following day;[3] her other two daughters were not harmed.
Psychiatrist David Self testified that Schlosser told him that she had interpreted a television news story about a boy being mauled by a lion as a sign of the coming apocalypse and that she had heard God commanding her to remove her baby's arm and then her own.[1] The attack was later described as "religious frenzy".[4] Self determined that Dena Schlosser suffered from postpartum psychosis.[5] She was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to the North Texas State Hospital and ordered to stay there until she is deemed to no longer be a threat to herself or others.[4] Coincidentally, she was a roommate of Andrea Yates, the Houston woman who had drowned her five children in a bathtub, which she says was done to protect them from Satan.[6]
During the trial, much attention was drawn to Dena and her husband John attending Water of Life Church, a fringe charismatic church pastored by Doyle Davidson. Schlosser had been taking antipsychotic drugs for several years, and Davidson's teachings that mental illness was demonic had reportedly given her pause about taking them. Under oath, Davidson testified that in his view, all mental illness is demonic at bottom.[2][7]
John Schlosser subsequently filed for divorce. As part of the divorce settlement, Dena Schlosser was prohibited from having any contact with either her ex-husband or her daughters again.
On November 6, 2008, it was announced that Dena Schlosser would shortly be released into outpatient care. The order required her to see a psychiatrist once a week, take medication, be on physician-approved birth control, and not have any unsupervised contact with children.[8]
In April 2010, it was reported that Dena Schlosser was recommitted after firefighters from Richardson, Texas saw her walking on a street at 2:00 a.m. Her attorney, David Haynes, said that he felt the judge made the correct decision.[9]
However, Schlosser was later released on outpatient status. She stayed out of the public eye until 2012, when WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Schlosser, now going by her maiden name of Dena Laettner, was working at a Walmart in Terrell, east of Dallas. Within hours of learning this information, Walmart fired Schlosser.[10]
