15-year-old girl charged with stabbing grandmother to death in Cobbs Creek home

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 15-year-old girl was taken into custody after she stabbed her grandmother to death early Wednesday morning inside their Cobbs Creek row home, investigators said.

Crime scene and homicide detectives spent hours at the row home on Cobbs Creek Parkway, near Spruce Street. There, police said the teenager called 911 around 2 a.m. and reported that her grandmother was stabbed. Officers rushed to the scene.

“[The girl] was inside and she was unable to open the door,” said Police Capt. Anthony Ganard, “so officers climbed through the window. She opened the window for the officers. Officers climbed inside, located the grandmother upstairs. She was pronounced by the medics.”

The 67-year-old victim was stabbed once in the abdomen and once in the hand.

The woman was the teenager’s legal guardian, police said. The weapon that was used, a knife, was also located on the second floor, according to investigators. There was no one else inside at the time.

Police took the girl into custody and she was charged with murder. Investigators did not detail the circumstances leading up to the stabbing or a motive, but Ganard described the situation as a “domestic disturbance that turned into a stabbing.”

It was not immediately clear to police at the scene if they had responded to the house before or had any prior contact with the 15-year-old.

Police later identified the victim as Elsa Aberra Bein.