Man arrested for stabbing grandmother to death | Crime

LAKE WALES, Fla. - Polk County Sheriff's homicide deputies are investigating the brutal stabbing death of a 69-year-old Lake Wales woman.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, April 29, deputies arrested 23-year-old Christopher Chase Whaley and charged him with first degree murder after he admitted to stabbing his grandmother, Barbara Denmar, to death.

According to the arrest report, Whaley told detectives he got into an argument with his grandmother and his aunt on Saturday while he was in Daytona Beach. He said he decided after the argument that, when he returned home, he would kill them both. Whaley had been living with his grandmother in her mobile home in Lake Wales for the past five years. His aunt, Cassandra Pippin, also lives in Polk County.

Whaley tells deputies that when he got home, he sat in his bedroom and thought about committing the murders. He then went into the kitchen and grabbed two knives, went to find his grandmother, and stabbed her repeatedly while she was taking a bath. Authorities say he then left the room and came back to find her out of the tub and lying on her bedroom floor. She was unresponsive.

Deputies say he decided at that point not to kill his aunt, but instead called 911 and reported the crime. He was waiting inside the home when deputies arrived and turned himself in.

Whaley has been booked into the Polk County Jail.