Deputies responding to a reported stabbing on a home along Highway 157 found 64-year-old Janice Campbell Murphy dead on her living-room floor Friday evening, and by Saturday her own grandson was behind bars on a murder charge. Investigators say 23-year-old Caleb Dakota Druckemiller, also of Florence, now sits in the Lauderdale County Detention Center without bond as the case moves forward.
According to WAFF, deputies were called around 6:20 p.m. on Oct. 23 to the home, where they found Murphy on the living room floor with stab wounds; she was pronounced dead at the scene. The station identified her as 64-year-old Janice Campbell Murphy of Florence. Murphy's body was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy, the outlet reported.
Grandson and Witness Were Inside the Home
Per the same account, Murphy's grandson, Caleb Dakota Druckemiller, is charged with murder in her death. A separate report from WHNT notes that Murphy's grandson and a witness were also in the home when deputies arrived, though the station said the sheriff's office has not yet released a motive in the case.
Druckemiller remains held without bond pending an Aniah's Law hearing, the station's report indicates. As first reported by AL.com, investigators processed the crime scene, collected evidence, and interviewed Druckemiller and the female witness before he was arrested and charged. The sheriff's office said it would release no further details at this time, with the investigation described as ongoing.
A Prior Attack Four Years Earlier
This is not the first time Druckemiller has faced charges tied to an alleged attack on his grandmother. WBRC reports he was previously charged in February 2022 after allegedly attacking Murphy with a pipe wrench.
In that earlier incident, Murphy told deputies she was punched and hit in the head with a wrench, then barricaded herself in a bedroom before escaping through a window to call 911, according to the outlet. Druckemiller was charged at the time with attempted murder, menacing and third-degree criminal mischief and held on a $60,400 bond, the station noted.
About four years and eight months later, the family is grieving a far more final outcome. No motive has been disclosed in Murphy's death, and officials have said little beyond confirming the murder charge and the autopsy order as the investigation continues.
