‘Momma, he tried to kill me’: Mother of Dickson stab victim recounts gruesome attack
TBI has charged 28-year-old Zachary Mowel in the attack and subsequent arson of their home.
DICKSON, Tenn. (WSMV) - Tina Trotter, her two daughters, and her grandchildren had planned to get together on Monday night. When Tina’s youngest daughter Tessa got home from work, they were getting ready to meet up.
The next time they’d see each other would be in a hospital room.
“We later got a text saying I’m on my way,” Trotter said. “That wasn’t her.”
The next 48 hours, Tina says, is a nightmare she can’t wake up from. Hours later she’d find herself nearly an hour from their Dickson home in the trauma center at Vanderbilt.
“She said, ‘Momma, he tried to kill me,’” Trotter recalled. “He was leaving me to die.”
First responders were called out to the 1200 block of North Charlotte Street in Dickson for reports of a house fire. What responders found on the scene was much more disturbing.
Trotter says her daughter Tessa told her what had happened, and why she was in a hospital bed nearly unrecognizable from injuries she sustained.
“The boys were sitting right there, my grandsons, and he grabbed her arm and stabbed her,” Trotter said. “She told Jackson, her oldest child, to go call 911, and he wouldn’t let him do it.”
Tina says her daughter then said her husband, who police identified as 28-year-old Zachary Mowel, allegedly put the kids in his truck. Investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation say Mowel then proceeded to set the home on fire.
“He promised me he would never do that, and then to do this in front of the boys,” Trotter said. “I don’t know, that’s why I can’t get my head around it.”
Tessa is at Vanderbilt, but is stable. She’s paralyzed from the waist down and suffered severe third-degree burns.
Tina says there are two reasons she’s alive: She’s a fighter, and two bystanders driving by.
She says they were in the area for a Facebook marketplace item, saw the smoke, rushed inside, and put out the fire consuming her daughter.
“God bless you, and I will reach out to you once my family finds out who you are,” Trotter said. “Our family is so grateful for y’all because I wouldn’t have her today.”
Tina says Mowel returned to the scene and eventually was arrested by law enforcement there as first responders worked to put the fire out. She says her daughter has an intense road to recovery, but she has a ton of people in her corner.
“She needed to be here with the boys,” Trotter said. “We’ve still got her.”
Mowel is facing multiple charges including attempted murder, aggravated arson, and domestic assault. He was booked in the Dickson County Jail on a $765,000 bond.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help offset hospital costs for Tessa.
Officers tell us the bystanders were from Alabama. We are working to connect the family with the two who saved Tessa’s life.
If you know the people who stepped in, or you have an idea of who they are, you can reach out to Steve Mehling at steve.mehling@wsmv.com .
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