A Mother-to-be Fights Back

It's not exactly "man bites dog" but it's definitely a better outcome than the Missouri case a few weeks back. A Pregnant Kentucky Woman Fought Back against a knife-wielding woman who was attempting a copycat involuntarily caesarian.

FORT MITCHELL, Ky. (AP) - A nine-months' pregnant woman fought off and killed a knife-wielding woman who may have been trying to steal the baby, police said Friday.

Police said 26-year-old Sarah Brady acted in self-defense in killing Katherine Smith on Thursday. No charges were filed. "

The details of the story are chilling.

Smith, 22, had been falsely telling neighbors for weeks that she was pregnant, and a search of her apartment after her death revealed a full baby nursery, investigators said.

"She had everything in place that you'd expect to have in place with a newborn coming," said Steve Hensley, police chief in this Cincinnati suburb. Brady, 26, was treated for cuts at a hospital.

Police said that about a week ago, Smith called Brady, a stranger, and asked her to come over and pick up a mistakenly delivered package.

Brady picked up the package, the two spoke briefly and she left, according to police. Thursday's attack occurred after Brady went to pick up a second package at Smith's apartment, police said.

What is amazing, 24 hours after the story hit, is that there has been no followup report that we can find. In the Missouri case the press fell all over itself with followups and sidebars, most of them attempting to transmute a killer into a sympathetic victim. This time the good guys win, but where is the feature story lauding the heroics of a woman who would not submit to butchery? Is it because successful self-defense is seen as a conservative concept?

This story deserves more than a splash behind the obits on Page B-17. If recent history is any indication (and the worst fears realized) other crazed women may be out there contemplating similar thefts. Perhaps publicizing Sarah Brady's heroic defense of her own life, and that of her unborn child, will act as a deterrent.

One cannot miss the poetic irony in that the brave mother-to-be is named Sarah Brady. This version understands that the concept of self-defense might actually require the most extreme measures, what law enforcement refers to as "deadly force."