BENTONVILLE -- A woman will not face charges for killing her father in 2012, according to a Benton County Sheriff's Office news release.
The Sheriff's Office began investigating the death of an 85-year-old man Dec. 24, 2012, according to the Wednesday release. Detectives discovered a dead man with a stab wound to his chest on Arkansas 12 in Rogers.
The dead man was identified as Sigismund Rahn. Autopsy showed the death was a homicide.
Witnesses maintained Rahn accidentally had fallen on the knife.
No one was arrested and the case remained open for years. It was reassigned to Sgt. Hunter Petray and Lt. Ed Motsinger in May. They questioned witnesses again.
Monica Rahn, Sigismund Rahn's daughter, admitted she stabbed her father in self-defense after he tried to attack her in the kitchen.
She said her father was upset about the preparation of Christmas dinner and he attacked her in the past and threatened to kill her, according to the release.
Detectives reviewed the case with the Benton County Prosecutor's Office where it was determined criminal charges wouldn't be filed.
"I'm grateful to the Sheriff's Office investigators who kept working on this cold case and were able to finally solve it," Nathan Smith, prosecutor, said Wednesday.
Smith said the daughter and wife reported Sigismund Rahn was abusive and that supported the daughter's claim she feared for her life.
"The physical evidence also corroborated the daughter's account of the crime," Smith said. "Based on these factors, I concluded that this was a justifiable homicide."
NW News on 06/23/2016