Wife, Premature Son Die After Being Stabbed by New Husband
Celestia Duffin of Arkansas and her premature son have died after stab wounds inflicted by her new husband, James Herring. Now Herring, instead of being on his honeymoon, is in jail and could face substantial charges after the death of his wife and infant son.
According to authorities, Duffin, who was 32 weeks pregnant at the time, stumbled into an Arkansas police station covered in blood. She collapsed and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors immediately delivered her baby. Mother and son both died, and Herring was arrested soon after.
He told police that he and Duffin were already talking about divorce, even though the couple was just married.
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Herring has not given a reason for the brutality and is being held without bail. Formal charges are expected to be announced sometime this week. It is thought that Herring stabbed Duffin while the two were traveling in a vehicle that crashed into a utility pole.
Duffin escaped from the vehicle and made it into the police station before she collapsed. Friends and family say they are stunned by the tragedy and can't understand why Herring would stab his wife.
"I don't understand why he thought because the marriage was bad he had to do that," Duffin's friend Kari Coffman told 5NewsOnline. "That's ridiculous. [Celestia] is not just someone or something and neither was that baby. She is Celestia and she will always be my sister and always be my friend."
"She was very, very excited to find out what the baby was and to get ready to have that baby," Coffman added. "She was fun to be around. She always made me laugh."
Duffin leaves behind a 6-year-old son from a previous relationship. The bodies of both Duffin and the infant boy will undergo autopsies by the Arkansas coroner; that evidence will likely help determine what charges Herring will face.
