By Jeanne Sager
LIBERTY — Jessica Melchick is still in jail.
The Liberty woman was arrested Sunday for alleged matricide after her mother, 80-year-old Amelia Vogel, was found dead, stabbed to death with a pair of scissors.
Melchick, 45, was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on two murder charges in the second degree – one for intentional murder and another for depraved murder – and one charge of possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, all felonies.
Up until Sunday, Melchick shared a home on Willey Avenue in Liberty with her mother. The Vogels have been a longtime Liberty family – Melchick graduated from Liberty High School.
Vogel was a widow, and Melchick’s two children were not home Sunday morning between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. when the daughter allegedly stabbed her mother in the head, face, chest and groin.
Her arraignment was scheduled for yesterday in Sullivan County Court, but for now Melchick is in jail without bail and is expected to remain there for several months until the case makes its way onto the court docket.
District Attorney Steve Lungen could not comment on a possible motive, but he said the case is under investigation.