Army wife pleads guilty to fatally stabbing infant son at Georgia military base

A U.S. Army wife stationed at Fort Eisenhower in Georgia awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to the 2023 murder of her infant son, who was found stabbed to death in a shower curtain.

April Evalyn Short, 31, of Fort Eisenhower, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, according to a statement Tuesday from Tara M. Lyons, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. 

As part of the negotiated plea agreement, Short will serve 20 years in prison, along with substantial financial penalties and five years of supervision after her release, according to Lyons. There is no parole in the federal system.

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On the morning of Nov. 15, 2023, at Fort Eisenhower, Short sent her husband, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, a series of ominous texts with biblical references, according to court documents.

Concerned about the cryptic messages, he went to their home on post and found their 11-month-old baby bleeding from the neck, wrapped in a shower curtain in the bathtub, according to filings.

The boy was later pronounced dead at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center.

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The couple’s two other children, ages 11 and 6, were in a nearby bedroom at the time of the killing, though Short allegedly told them, “don’t come into the bathroom because it might be really scary,” according to court documents.

Col. Dori Mitchell Franco, a U.S. Army doctor, determined the baby was stabbed and slashed multiple times in the neck with two different knives, one of which was serrated, according to an autopsy report.

Short allegedly told authorities following her arrest that the first knife was too dull, requiring the second weapon, according to court documents.

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“The plea agreement in this disturbing case represents a difficult but appropriate resolution to this tragic and shocking homicide,” Lyons wrote in the statement.

Short remains in U.S. Marshals Service custody, and will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall after a pre-sentence investigation by U.S. Probation Services.

Paul Brown, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta said the mother “will now have 20 years to think about her heinous actions.”

“This plea cannot undo that tragedy and loss, but brings another measure of justice to those who knew and loved the child during his short life,” Brown wrote in the statement.