The first response centered on neighbors’ concerns; the second began after a wounded 7-year-old ran from the home and sought help.
MENOMONIE, Wis. — The first time police went to Emily Spalding’s home on July 20, they encountered a calm woman who denied neighbors’ alarming reports and a 7-year-old boy who did not ask officers for help. About two hours later, police returned after the same child escaped into the street and accused his mother of attacking him with a knife and hammer.
The contrast between those two calls is a central part of the criminal complaint now underlying attempted first-degree intentional homicide and child abuse charges against Spalding, 37. It also illustrates what authorities say they knew at two very different points in the evening. During the first contact, officers were assessing secondhand reports about unusual behavior and disturbing statements. During the second, they had an injured child outside the home providing a direct account of alleged violence. Spalding is accused of serious felonies, but the allegations have not been proven in court.
Neighbors prompted the first police response at about 8 p.m. at the Kausrud Street residence. According to WEAU’s account of the complaint, a witness told a Menomonie Police Department officer that Spalding had been yelling and swearing and had made comments about placing curses on people. The witness also reported that she had made a statement about children not needing to clean their rooms in heaven. Another part of the witness’s account described Spalding standing outside in the rain the prior night and apparently speaking to people who were not present.
An officer went to the home and spoke with Spalding. The complaint says she denied making those statements and responded that the neighbors had problems, not her. Officers described her as calm during the contact. Her son did not make any statement asking to leave, disclose an injury or request police help. Authorities later wrote that, given Spalding’s demeanor, the child’s lack of a request for help and what they characterized as vague statements reported by neighbors, the criteria for an emergency mental health commitment were not met. The officer therefore left the residence.
That decision must be understood from the information described as available during the first encounter, rather than from what police learned later. The public summary of the complaint does not say officers witnessed Spalding threaten the boy, saw an ongoing assault, noticed an injury or found a weapon during the welfare check. It also does not say the child disclosed an attack at that point. Later events would make the neighbors’ concerns more consequential to investigators, but a criminal complaint’s chronology should not be read backward as proof that an officer already knew an assault would occur.
The second call came at about 10 p.m. This time, officers were told a child was running in the street yelling “no.” Dispatchers soon relayed that the child was covered in blood and had said his mother was chasing him with a knife and had hit him in the head. Police found the boy in the lobby of a Jimmy John’s. An officer observed blood on his face, shirt and legs and reported seeing a small cut on the top of the child’s head. Emergency medical workers responded and transported him to Mayo Clinic in Menomonie.
The boy then gave police a first-person account of what he said happened after the earlier welfare check. He told investigators he had been playing video games in his mother’s bedroom when Spalding came into the room and tried to stab him with a knife, according to the complaint. He said he got away but was caught and pulled back into the residence. Once inside again, the boy said, his mother attacked him and struck him in the head once with a hammer. He escaped another time and ran until he found people who could help. Later, at the hospital, he told an officer that he believed he would have died if he had not fled.
Police secured the house after the child was found and detained Spalding. Her statements to officers differed sharply from her demeanor during the earlier welfare check, according to the complaint. Authorities said she claimed another person or force had taken over her body and was responsible for stabbing the child. She also made references involving Satan, the devil and angels. Police took her to a hospital for evaluation and treatment before she was later reported to have been transferred to Winnebago Mental Health Institute for psychological evaluation.
Investigators did not rely only on statements. A search warrant executed at about 2:30 a.m. July 21 led officers to recover a butcher-block knife set, a hammer with a red substance described as resembling blood and two cellphones, according to WEAU. Authorities also obtained warrants for the hammer and for a DNA sample from Spalding. Public reporting reviewed for this article does not disclose forensic test results. Any claim that a particular item was the weapon used in the alleged attack would therefore go beyond what has been publicly established.
Spalding’s sister provided investigators with additional context about the period surrounding the incident. She said she had seen Spalding a day earlier and believed Spalding was not mentally well because she was not eating or sleeping and was making unusual statements about God. The sister also described several objects she saw while visiting the apartment on July 24, including tarot or witchcraft-related materials, a homemade death certificate for Spalding and a book containing a lock of the boy’s hair. Those details appeared in the complaint as witness observations. They are not, standing alone, proof of a psychiatric disorder, an intent to commit violence or guilt on the criminal charges.
The case also demonstrates why criminal allegations and mental health questions must remain separate in reporting. A person may undergo psychiatric or competency evaluation without that process proving the charged conduct, and unusual statements are not a substitute for a professional diagnosis. Wisconsin law provides competency proceedings when there is reason to doubt whether a defendant can understand or participate in a criminal case. If a court determines a defendant is competent, proceedings resume; other procedures apply if a defendant is found incompetent. Public reporting reviewed through Sept. 8 did not establish a final competency ruling for Spalding.
The criminal charges themselves address a different question: whether prosecutors can prove that Spalding committed the acts alleged and possessed the intent required by Wisconsin law. Attempted first-degree intentional homicide requires the state to establish the elements of an attempt tied to an intentional killing offense. The child abuse charge alleges that she intentionally caused great bodily harm to a child, an offense classified as a Class C felony under Wisconsin law. The charging decision represents the prosecution’s theory of the case, not a judicial finding that those allegations are true.
Child protective services entered the case after officers located the boy. Police were told Spalding’s sister was headed to Menomonie and could be considered for placement, and she later received temporary custody. That step separated the child’s immediate welfare from the longer legal process. Public reports do not provide a detailed account of his medical recovery, and no such details should be assumed beyond the fact that he survived, received hospital care and was placed with a relative.
The July 20 chronology therefore begins and ends with different kinds of information. It begins with a request that police check on a household because neighbors were worried about an adult’s conduct. It ends with a child outside the residence, an injury visible to an officer, an allegation of an attack, a secured scene and a later criminal prosecution. The complaint connects those stages, but the legal process will determine what evidence is admissible and what can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
As of Sept. 8, the latest reliable public reporting located for this article said Spalding had been taken to Winnebago Mental Health Institute for evaluation. No later confirmed report reviewed here provided a final disposition of the attempted homicide or child abuse charges. The boy remained identified publicly only as the 7-year-old victim, and the allegations against his mother remained pending rather than adjudicated.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.