By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COBB COUNY, Ga. — After allegedly stabbing his mother to death Monday afternoon, an 18-year-old man called 911 to report what he had done in the family’s west Cobb County home, police said. Then he waited outside for police to arrive.
Damian Cornell Purdue McElrath called police from the residence about 1:45 p.m., Cobb police Sgt. Dana Pierce said. The house is in the 2600 block of Ashley Drive, in the Zachary Woods neighborhood off Barrett Parkway near Marietta.
Because of a poor connection between the 911 caller’s phone and the operator, police initially were concerned the suspect would leave the home, Pierce said. But that didn’t happen.
“He was waiting on us when we got here, and we took him into custody without incident,” Pierce said.
Inside the home, investigators found the body of 58-year-old Diane McElrath.
Other family members, including two men who identified themselves as the suspect’s brothers, arrived at the home shortly after the officers and assisted investigators, Pierce said. Damian and Diane McElrath were believed to be the only people in the home at the time of the stabbing.
Investigators had been dispatched to the home on previous occasions, but Pierce declined to release information regarding those incidents.
Shortly after 7 p.m. Damian McElrath was arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault and booked into the Cobb County Jail, online records showed. McElrath also was charged with violating probation, according to jail records. He remained in jail without bond Tuesday evening.
The 18-year-old’s arrest came less than two months after he was released from the jail in another case, booking records showed. Damian McElrath had been arrested May 2 for violating his probation after a conviction for a December arrest.
On Dec. 2, McElrath broke the glass in a display case and took four iPads from a Target store on Dallas Highway before being apprehended in the store’s parking lot, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also threatened to kill the Cobb officer attempting to arrest him, the warrant said.
In November 2010, he was charged with drug possession and fighting in a public place after an arrest at an alternative school, according to the arrest warrant.
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution