Father shoots 3-week-old baby dead with crossbow bolt while wife holds her in horror
A New York father was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life in prison Friday for firing a crossbow at his wife while she was holding their 3-week-old daughter in 2023. The crossbow bolt injured his wife and killed the baby.
Patrick Proefriedt, 28, of Nineveh had initially pled not guilty to the murder in 2023, but changed his plea to guilty in March of this year, according to Broome County District Attorney F. Paul Battisti. Judge Joseph Cawley sentenced Proefriedt on the charges of murder in the second degree of his daughter Eleanor and attempted murder of his wife, Megan Carey.
“I’m appreciative of Judge Cawley handing down the maximum sentence,” Broome County Sheriff Frederick Akshar II said. “But in a case like this, 25 years doesn’t seem appropriate. A pine box seems appropriate to me.”
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Proefriedt’s wife, who recovered from her injuries, said at her husband’s sentencing that he has “no humanity.”
The Broome County Sheriff’s Office received a report on June 26, 2023, that an adult female and infant had been shot with a crossbow at a Colesville home around 5:15 a.m.
A preliminary investigation showed that Proefriedt had gotten into an argument with Carey before firing at her, according to the sheriff’s office. The broad head bolt hit their daughter in the upper torso, exiting her armpit before striking Carey in the chest.
Proefriedt tried to remove the bolt before he tried to stop his wife from calling emergency services, authorities said. He then fled the scene in a red 2016 Dodge Ram truck.
Deputies attempted to administer aid to the baby before bringing her to paramedics. She was pronounced dead at the scene when the deputies arrived, and Carey was released from the UHS Wilson Medical Center later in the day with non-life-threatening injuries.
Officers found Proefriedt in the woods less and a mile from the home with his truck stuck in mud, they said.
“Despite everything that has happened, I still believe in love, I still believe in healing, I believe in forgiveness, but he is beyond forgiveness,” Carey said during Proefriedt’s sentencing on Friday. “He has no empathy and no humanity.”
