Woman decapitated ex’s mother with knives because she wanted to ‘release victim’s soul’
Rachel Hilyard offered a tearful apology as she was jailed for life for killing her ex's mother Micki Davis
A woman chopped her ex-boyfriend’s mother’s head off with a pair of kitchen knives – then claimed she’d done it to ‘release her victim’s soul.’ Rachel Hilyard, 38, sobbed as she was sentenced to life for killing and decapitating Micki Davis, 63, at Davis’s home in Wichita, Kansas, in April 2017.
Hilyard had plotted to kill Davis before doing so, and flew at her when Davis came to her home to pick up some of her son’s belongings. The two women struggled over a painting, with Hilyard murdering David after she stumbled and fell.
Davis had taken her nine year-old grandson to Hilyard’s home, with the youngster able to run away and raise the alarm. A police officer called to the scene found Davis’s head in the kitchen sink, and the rest of her body elsewhere in the house.
Hilyard was found hiding in the home, and then made the bizarre claim that she’d chopped her victim’s head off as part of a spiritual ritual. The killer was convicted in February, and offered a tearful apology during last week’s sentencing hearing.
She sobbed: ‘I feel that even death would be too good for me now. … Every day and every night I am sorry…
‘I apologized to the many people that knew and loved Micki Davis, I apologized to her whole family, to her grandson, to all of her friends, to my neighbors, I apologized for who I became.’
Davis’s son Jeremy Rush branded Hilyard a ‘monster’ who he ‘hated’ – despite his mother’s insistence that he should never harbor such a negative emotion towards anyone.
Rush told KAKE: ‘Mom taught us one of the worst 4 letter words you can say is hate. And I’m not gonna lie, I hate this monster and I think my mom would be okay with that.’
Hilyard must serve at least 50 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk
For more stories like this, check our news page