A Tennessee man is behind bars after he admittedly stabbed his wife and then left her to die in a burning building, authorities say.
Zachary Mowel, 28, currently stands accused of one count each of attempted murder in the first degree, aggravated arson, aggravated assault (domestic-related), and domestic assault, according to a press release issued by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The incident occurred on Monday evening. Firefighters first arrived on the scene at a house on North Charlotte Street in Dickson, a small town on the western edge of the Nashville metro area.
A resulting law enforcement investigation by local police and state agents determined that Mowel attacked his wife, doused her with gasoline, and then set their home on fire, according to the bureau.
A family member of the victim says the extent of the crime is far worse than law enforcement have revealed so far.
A GoFundMe was started by Tori Ila Elizabeth Trotter, the twin sister of the woman who was attacked, for medical expenses and lost income.
The online fundraiser describes “the unimaginable” that happened when Tessa Mowel came home from work on Monday night.
Trotter says her husband “stabbed her in back with a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabbed her 8 more times in the neck, chest, and back all while brutally beating her over 30 times in the face.”
After that, the mystifying attack allegedly continued in particularly cruel and chilling fashion, according to the victim’s sister.
“He poured gasoline on her and set her on fire while watching her burn to death,” Trotter’s recounting of the incident reads. “He then set the house on fire and left her to die. This all happened with their 5 year old and 8 year old boys watching and pleading for their dad to not kill their mom.”
Tessa Mowel, however, survived.
She is currently recuperating in stable condition at the trauma unit of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
The victim is now paralyzed from the waist down, she has third degree burns covering her right leg, a collapsed lung, all of her ribs are broken, and she has nine total stab wounds, according to her sister.
Recovery is expected to take over a year, the fundraiser continues. The children are now said to be in the twin sister’s custody.
“Please if you can my entire family would appreciate any help,” the fundraiser reads. “[H]er and her boys did not deserve this torture.”
The brutality of that torture is underscored by what investigators found when they discovered Tessa Mowel amid the churning smoke near the back door of the residence: a knife was still lodged in her body, according to court documents obtained by Nashville-based ABC affiliate WKRN.
While the grim toll of the violence’s aftermath on the shaken family is somewhat clear, details on what led to the attack are scarce.
Law enforcement have not floated a specific motive for the incident. The victim did tell police that she and her husband had been in a fight that turned violent, according to the TV station.
Still, law enforcement say the man himself owned up as soon as police officers arrived outside the blaze.
“I did it,” Zachary Mowel allegedly said as he walked toward police standing outside his burning and broken home. “It was me.”
The defendant is being detained on $765,000 bond in the Dickson County Jail.