A Torrington woman has been charged with murder, accused of stabbing a 19-year-old woman to death last month.
Heather Birden, 20, has been charged with the murder of Holly Aeschlimann, 19, of Torrington, and is being held on $1 million bond, police said on Friday.
Police started investigating the case when they received a disturbance call at 1:12 a.m. on Friday, April 17 in the area of Prospect and Hungerford streets. When they arrived at the scene, they learned from a passerby that Aeschlimann had been injured and taken to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.
She'd been stabbed several times and later died from her injuries, police said.
Friends of the victim who were at the scene after the stabbing identified Birden as the person responsible and court document state she and Aeschlimann had quarreled since grade school.
Shortly before the stabbing, Birden told her boyfriend, 'I have to settle this tonight," and left his apartment with his knife, according to police.
Aeschlimann was stabbed in the neck during the fight and her friends rushed her to the hospital, but she died a short time later, police said.
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According to court paperwork, police found Birden hiding under a vehicle not far from the scene.
Documents state that Birden reacted with disbelief after learning Aeschlimann was dead and told police the knife was for "protection obviously,” and said it wasn't revenge.
Birden spent the next several hours, crying on and off and eventually confessed to the stabbing, police said.
The office of the chief medical examiner in Farmington conducted an autopsy, which revealed that she died of sharp force injury of head, neck, torso and extremities.
