A former television news anchor is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 80-year-old mother after calling 911 to say she stabbed the woman “to save herself,” according to Wichita police.
Officers were dispatched to a home on East Crowley Street shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, where they found 47-year-old Angelynn Mock standing outside, covered in blood. Inside, they discovered her mother, Anita Avers, unresponsive in bed with multiple stab wounds. Avers was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police say Mock initially told dispatchers that she acted in self-defense. In a recording obtained by local outlet KAKE, 911 operators can be heard relaying that the “calling party stabbed the mother to save herself.” But investigators haven’t indicated any evidence to support that claim. Mock was arrested at the scene, taken to the hospital for evaluation, and booked into Sedgwick County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Neighbors told reporters they were shaken by what they witnessed. One woman, Alyssa Castro, said she and her boyfriend were sitting in their car when Mock approached them, her hands and clothes soaked in blood and asking the couple to call 911. Castro recalled, “We gave her a phone, and then she just ran back inside.”
The apparent contradiction — between Mock’s claim of self-defense and the image of her mother found stabbed multiple times in bed — is at the heart of what police are now trying to untangle. Wichita authorities have said little publicly beyond confirming the basic timeline and arrest. But the details released so far point to a violent and confusing confrontation between a mother and daughter with no known history of conflict.
Mock’s background adds another layer to the tragedy. She worked as a morning anchor for Fox 2 News in St. Louis between 2011 and 2015, before leaving the industry. Her mother, Avers, was a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than two decades of experience. Her biography on Wichita Counseling Professionals noted she specialized in helping adults manage depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship issues.
That parallel — a journalist once trained to communicate clearly and a therapist devoted to understanding human pain — makes the story even harder to process. Their lives were built around words, empathy, and connection. But something, perhaps years in the making or just one morning gone wrong, ended with blood and silence.
For now, Wichita police are treating the case as a homicide. Mock remains in custody, awaiting formal arraignment.
