Grandmother identified in Lauderdale County stabbing, grandson charged

LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WAFF) - The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office has identified the woman found stabbed to death Friday as 64-year-old Janice Campbell Murphy of Florence, the grandmother of the man charged in her death.

Sheriff Joe Hamilton says Murphy’s grandson, 23-year-old Caleb Dakota Druckemiller, also of Florence, is charged with murder.

What happened Friday

Deputies were called around 6:20 p.m. Oct. 23 to a home on Highway 157 for a reported stabbing.

When they got there, they found Murphy on the living room floor with stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Druckemiller remains in the Lauderdale County Detention Center without bond pending an Aniah’s Law hearing. Murphy has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy.

Prior case from 2022

Druckemiller was previously charged after allegedly attacking Murphy, his grandmother, with a pipe wrench in February 2022, when he was 18.

According to our 2022 reporting with the TimesDaily, that attack happened in Petersville after an argument turned physical. Murphy told deputies she was punched and hit in the head with a wrench, barricaded herself in a bedroom, then escaped through a window to call 911.

He was charged at the time with attempted murder, menacing and third-degree criminal mischief and held on a $60,400 bond. Murphy was treated at North Alabama Medical Center and released.

The investigation into Friday’s killing is ongoing, and the sheriff’s office says no other details will be released right now.

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