Emily Spalding faces two felony charges after her son escaped, while her reported mental health evaluation raises a separate procedural issue.
MENOMONIE, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman accused of trying to kill her 7-year-old son was reported transferred to a state mental health institute for psychological evaluation after prosecutors charged her with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and child abuse, adding a procedural mental health issue to a case already built on the child’s escape, witness accounts and evidence seized from the family home.
Emily Spalding, 37, is accused of attacking her son in their Menomonie residence July 20 after the boy had been playing video games in her bedroom. Authorities say he escaped, was pulled back inside and attacked again before getting away a second time and finding people who could help him. Police later recovered a knife set and a hammer from the residence, while the boy was taken to a hospital. Spalding’s reported psychological evaluation does not establish whether she committed the alleged acts, and the criminal charges remain allegations unless proved in court.
The legal posture of the case involves at least two distinct inquiries. The first is the prosecution’s allegation that Spalding intended to kill the child and took actions toward doing so. Wisconsin law defines first-degree intentional homicide as causing another person’s death with intent to kill, subject to provisions in the statute. Because the boy survived, prosecutors charged an attempt rather than a completed homicide. Wisconsin’s general attempt statute requires proof of the required intent and acts toward the crime that satisfy the statutory test. Attempting an offense for which the completed crime carries life imprisonment is classified as a Class B felony.
The second charged offense concerns the harm allegedly inflicted on the boy rather than whether Spalding intended to cause his death. Wisconsin’s physical child abuse statute makes intentionally causing great bodily harm to a child a Class C felony. WEAU reported that Spalding was charged with child abuse involving intentional great bodily harm along with the attempted homicide count. The exact elements of both offenses still must be proved through the criminal process, and charging documents present allegations rather than final factual findings.
A separate question emerged from Spalding’s reported mental condition after her arrest. Civic Media reported Aug. 4 that she had been moved to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for a psychological evaluation. Wisconsin law has procedures for addressing a defendant’s competency when a court has reason to question whether the person can proceed. Competency focuses on the defendant’s present ability to understand and participate in the legal process. It does not answer whether the defendant committed an offense, and it is not the same as a verdict based on a mental disease or defect. Public reports reviewed through Sept. 8 did not provide a final competency determination in Spalding’s case.
The circumstances described before and after the alleged attack help explain why questions about Spalding’s condition entered the public record. At about 8 p.m. July 20, roughly two hours before the boy was found outside the home, police conducted a welfare check at the Kausrud Street residence. A witness had told a Menomonie police officer that Spalding had been yelling, swearing and making statements involving curses. The witness also attributed to her a comment that children would not need to clean their rooms in heaven and said she had been outside in the rain the night before apparently talking to people who were not there.
Those reports did not lead to an emergency detention during the first police visit. Spalding denied making the statements and said the neighbors had issues, according to the criminal complaint as reported by WEAU. Police described her as calm. Her son did not ask the officer for help or make a statement indicating he was in danger. Authorities said that, based on the information and behavior presented at the time, the criteria for an involuntary mental health commitment were not met. The public account does not say an officer witnessed violence or saw an injury during that contact.
Around 10 p.m., police received a much different report. A child was running in the Kausrud Street area and yelling “no,” according to the complaint. Dispatchers later told officers the child was covered in blood and had said his mother was chasing him with a knife and had struck him in the head. Police located the 7-year-old inside a Jimmy John’s restaurant. An officer saw blood on his face, shirt and legs as well as a small cut on the top of his head. Emergency medical responders took him to Mayo Clinic in Menomonie.
The child’s interview gave investigators the allegations that became central to the criminal case. He said he had been playing video games in his mother’s bedroom when Spalding entered and tried to stab him with a knife. According to his account, he escaped but Spalding caught him and pulled him back into the residence. He alleged that she then hit him once in the head with a hammer. The boy got out again and ran down the street until he encountered people who helped him. During a later interview at the hospital, he told an officer that he believed he would be dead if he had not run away.
Spalding’s behavior when police returned to the residence was also included in the complaint. Authorities said she told officers another person or force had taken control of her body and was responsible for stabbing her son. She reportedly made additional statements involving the devil, Satan and angels. Police detained her and took her to Mayo Menomonie Hospital for medical evaluation and treatment. Reporting later placed her at Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Nothing in the public material reviewed here identifies a confirmed diagnosis, and unusual or religious statements should not be converted into one by news reporting.
Police also sought physical evidence that could be evaluated independently from those statements. Investigators obtained search warrants and entered the residence at about 2:30 a.m. July 21. They recovered a butcher-block knife set and a hammer bearing a substance police said appeared similar to blood. Officers also took two cellphones, one from outside the front door and another from the front yard. Authorities obtained permission for a DNA sample from Spalding. The available reports do not provide laboratory findings from those items, so it remains unclear from the public record what forensic evidence, if any, prosecutors will ultimately present.
Spalding’s sister became involved in both the child’s placement and the investigation. Child protective services was notified that the boy would need somewhere else to stay, and the sister was identified as a potential caregiver. She later received temporary custody. She also told investigators that she had seen Spalding a day before the alleged attack and believed she was not mentally well at the time, citing a lack of sleep and eating and unusual statements about God. That is a witness’s opinion and observation, not a clinical diagnosis.
The sister later reported seeing several objects during a July 24 visit to the apartment that concerned her, including tarot and witchcraft-related material, a homemade death certificate for Spalding and a book that she said contained a lock of the child’s hair. Those details are part of the complaint’s account of what the witness told authorities. Their relevance, if any, to the criminal allegations would have to be established through evidence. Personal religious, spiritual or occult interests do not by themselves demonstrate criminal intent, dangerousness or mental illness.
If competency formally becomes an issue, Wisconsin procedure places that determination with the court. State law provides for examination when there is reason to doubt a defendant’s competency and outlines how proceedings may resume or be suspended depending on the finding. The purpose is to determine whether a defendant can fairly participate in the court process, not to decide the underlying facts of the alleged crime. That distinction is particularly important in this case because the complaint contains descriptions of unusual behavior that could otherwise invite unsupported assumptions about diagnosis, intent or legal responsibility.
The prosecution still rests on conventional criminal evidence: the child’s account, witness statements, police observations, physical items seized under warrants and whatever admissible forensic or other evidence investigators develop. The defense, in turn, retains the right to contest those allegations and the state’s interpretation of the evidence. Spalding’s transfer for evaluation does not lessen the prosecution’s burden to prove the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt if the case reaches trial.
Public reporting reviewed through Sept. 8 did not disclose a final resolution of the charges, a confirmed plea or a final competency ruling. The boy survived, received medical treatment and was placed temporarily with Spalding’s sister. Spalding therefore remains a defendant accused of attempted intentional homicide and child abuse while the legal and any competency-related proceedings continue on separate tracks.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.