Holly Leeann Flores

Introduction

Holly Leeann Flores is a 37-year-old Northlake, Texas mother of two — described by neighbors as a parent they knew through neighborhood gatherings who ran a balloon-decorating business — who was arrested on October 6, 2026 and charged with two counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after, police say, she stabbed her 34-year-old husband and her two young children, a 3-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son, inside the family’s home before dawn. Her husband, Justin Hommel, told police she had been suffering from postpartum depression and that her behavior had recently changed. All three victims survived; the children, both stabbed in the chest, remain hospitalized in stable condition and are expected to recover. Flores has been charged, not tried: the accusations against her come from a police arrest affidavit and responding officers’ accounts, and she is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

Background Information

Flores lived with her husband and their two children in Northlake, a town of roughly 3,000 in Denton County about 30 minutes northwest of Fort Worth; the family’s house sat on Daylily Drive in a subdivision east of Interstate 35W. Neighbors knew her through shared parenting circles and a home balloon business. “It was just camaraderie, and we related to what we were going through,” neighbor Brittany Flores — no relation — told NBC 5 DFW. “But there was a lot more that was going on underneath the surface than what you talk about at a birthday party.”

The family was not unknown to authorities. Northlake Police Chief Robert Crawford said officers had been called to the house five times since March 2026 — most of them welfare checks that originated from inside the home rather than from neighbors — and the arrest affidavit records prior responses for welfare concerns and overdoses. A dispatcher on emergency radio traffic could be heard saying “they have a history of welfare concerns involving CPS with the mother,” and Texas Child Protective Services confirmed it had been involved with the family without providing details. Her husband told police he had recently begun sleeping on the couch to be closer to the children because of changes in her behavior as she faced postpartum depression.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged. Flores faces two counts of attempted capital murder — a person under 10 years old — and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, per the Northlake Police Department. The charges are accusations; she has not been tried, and her husband’s account of postpartum depression is a family member’s statement, not a medical finding.

According to the arrest affidavit reported by WFAA and detailed by CBS News Texas and FOX 4, the night of October 5–6 unfolded in stages the husband described to detectives. Around 1 a.m. he woke to the sound of his wife trying to use a lighter and found her lighting a candle in the children’s bedroom, a kitchen knife on the dresser beside her; the knife “freaked him out,” he told police, and when he tried to enter the room she shut the door on him, and he went back to the couch. Sometime before 4:20 a.m. he woke again to his children crying, knocked on the bedroom door — and, per the affidavit, Flores opened it holding the kitchen knife and attacked him, stabbing him in the head. During a struggle over the knife she bit his arm; he managed to wrestle it away. On his 911 call, played by reporters, he can be heard asking his wife whether this was a “postpartum thing” while she screamed in the background, and Chief Crawford said he was trying to reach the children in another room as she came at him, forcing him to retreat outside.

Officers arrived within minutes to find Hommel in the driveway, bleeding from the head and holding the knife; he dropped it when ordered and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. In a protective sweep, officers heard the children screaming and found the 3-year-old girl and 10-month-old boy lying on a bed covered in blood — the affidavit describes a deep puncture wound to the boy’s upper chest and, on the girl, a chest wound with an inner organ protruding plus a stab wound to the stomach. Both were conscious. They were rushed to a Fort Worth hospital, where both remain in stable condition and are expected to survive.

Flores was treated at a hospital for a small cut to her upper chest and released into custody. Per the affidavit, she momentarily freed her cuffed hands in front of her body and tried to grab keys while an officer pinned her on a couch; she told medics in the ambulance that “she wanted to kill herself and she no longer wanted to live,” and when officers asked whether she knew why they had come, she answered, “I would like to speak to my lawyer.” Chief Crawford said she “didn’t really say a whole lot — more of a stare.” She was booked into the Denton County Jail on the three charges.

Public Reaction and Consequences

At a press conference the morning of the stabbings, Chief Crawford said the children’s injuries did not appear life-threatening, disclosed the five prior police responses to the home since March, and asked for prayers “for both the family and the officers who responded.” The case’s release set off the sharpest local reaction: neighbors who learned of the call history told NBC 5 DFW they believed intervention had been possible. “I think it’s awful that the police were here multiple times, and it sounds like something like this could have been prevented if there was some kind of intervention,” Brittany Flores said. Another neighbor, Ally Barfuss, said the attack had shaken the street: “It breaks my heart for both of them — the kids and the mom. I feel really sad for all of them. I hope everyone is okay, including her.”

The affidavit’s release on October 7 drew wider coverage because of its mental-health dimension: the husband’s postpartum-depression account, his overheard “postpartum thing” question, and the hospital suicide statement, which FOX 4 discussed with a criminal defense attorney in its affidavit report. The case landed as the third North Texas incident in a week in which an adult was accused of attacking children — after an Arlington man was accused of stabbing his two young children on September 30 and a Waxahachie mother was accused of fatally shooting her two sons on October 1 — a pattern local coverage flagged with alarm.

Current Status

Flores is in custody at the Denton County Jail charged with two counts of attempted capital murder of a person under 10 and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; no trial date or plea had been reported as of October 8, 2026, and she asked for a lawyer rather than speaking to detectives. Her husband and both children survived the attack — the children, aged 3 and 10 months, are hospitalized in stable condition and expected to recover. Texas CPS has confirmed prior involvement with the family but has released no details, and the New York Post reported that both the Northlake Police Department and CPS were approached for further comment. The postpartum-depression explanation remains her husband’s account to police, and no medical or psychiatric evaluation has been made public.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Overnight, Flores went from a suburban mother running a balloon business — the neighbor parents’ birthday-party circle — to a Denton County Jail inmate facing two counts of attempted capital murder, charges that in Texas can carry life sentences. Her children are expected to live, but the family she attacked is the family she has lost: her husband gave police the account that put her there, describing both her decline into postpartum depression and the knife on the dresser. The case has become a local referendum on the response system around her — five police welfare calls since March, dispatcher-noted CPS history, an agency that confirms involvement but explains nothing — and, whatever the trial brings, the record now permanently holds her own words from the ambulance, the lawyer request, and the affidavit’s account of a lit candle and a kitchen knife in a children’s bedroom.

Sources

• New York Post, “Texas mom accused of stabbing husband, 2 young kids was suffering from postpartum depression: report,” Oct. 7, 2026 — source
• CBS News Texas, “North Texas mother charged with attempted murder after husband, 2 children stabbed,” Oct. 6–7, 2026 — source
• FOX 4 (KDFW), “Husband shares disturbing details, claims of postpartum depression in Northlake mom’s affidavit,” Oct. 7, 2026 — source
• NBC 5 DFW (KXAS), “Denton County woman charged with attempted capital murder after husband, 2 young children stabbed,” Oct. 6, 2026 — source