A Buncombe County Sheriff s deputy has been put on administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigation looks into excessive force allegations against him.
HENDERSONVILLE - An attempted murder charge against a mother police initially said threw her infant daughter over a 30-foot ravine has been dropped, with conditions.
Krista Noelle Madden, a Biltmore Park resident, was charged with first-degree attempted murder after her infant daughter was found 30 feet down a steep, heavily forested ravine in rural Henderson County on May 9, 2019. Police said Madden threw the baby over the ravine s edge, though Madden described placing the baby on the ground in interviews with police, according to search warrants.
Her attorney, Sean Devereux, said this week that psychological evaluations showed Madden was going through acute postpartum depression, as well as sleep deprivation, that resulted in a psychotic episode. Madden believed someone was going to harm her baby, so she drove to a rural part of eastern Henderson County and placed the baby at the bottom of an embankment, Devereux said.