A Naperville woman was convicted of the 2012 murders of her 7-year-old son and the 5-year-old girl she was babysitting on Wednesday.
A judge found Elzbieta Plackowska, 45, guilty on ten counts of first degree murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of Justin Plackowska and Olivia Dworakowski, according to a statement from the DuPage County State’s Attorney.
She was also found guilty on two counts of aggravated cruelty for stabbing two family dogs to death, the state’s attorney said.
The killings occurred on Oct. 30, 2012. Authorities said Naperville police were dispatched at around 11 p.m. in response to a report of a robbery, arriving at a home to discover Plackowska covered in blood.
Around the same time, police received a call from Olivia’s mother, officials said, requesting help in locating her daughter, who was being babysat by Plackowska.
Officers gained entrance to the Dworakowski’s home in the 800 block of Quin Court to find the bodies of the children and two dogs, authorities said.
Prosecutors alleged that sometime that evening, Plackowska told the children to get ready for bed, at which point they instead began to jump on the bed in the master bedroom. An investigation revealed that she then armed herself with a kitchen knife and returned to the room, stabbing her son 100 times over his entire body before turning the knife on Olivia 50 times, then the dogs.
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She then drove to a family friend’s home, prosecutors said, where she was taken into custody.
Police said Plackowska confessed to the crime, and admitted to stabbing her son to death in order to hurt her husband because he didn't appreciate her. She also allegedly told authorities that the children had devils inside them, according to a police account from her bond hearing in 2012.
A psychiatrist testified earlier this month that Plackowska saw a “black shadow” and thought the children were being possessed by the devil when she stabbed them, the Naperville Sun reports.
"Ms. Plackowska had a psychotic belief that devils had entered Olivia and Justin and that by taking their lives, she was allowing the children to enter heaven," Dr. Phillip Resnick said, according to the Sun.
Resnick said the shadow told her to “kill them, kill them,” the newspaper reported, adding that she also heard, “You are going to die, but you will be the last one."
Plackowska's attorneys reportedly built her defense around her alleged insanity, a claim prosecutors refuted over the course of the investigation and two-and-a-half week trial.
“Judge Miller correctly found that Elzbieta Plackowska fully understood her criminal conduct at the time she brutally murdered Justin and Olivia,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement following the verdict, calling it “an extremely disturbing case.”
“They were two beautiful children with their whole lives ahead of them and I continue to offer my sincerest condolences to their surviving family members,” Berlin added.
Plackowska is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 21, and faces a mandatory sentence of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole.
