Former television news anchor Angelynn “Angie” Mock has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the brutal Halloween stabbing death of her 80-year-old mother inside their Wichita, Kansas, home.
Her guilty plea brings a shocking case involving disturbing allegations of delusions
and conflicting accounts of the killing one step closer to its conclusion.
Mock, 48, entered the guilty plea before Sedgwick County District Judge Faith Johnson in connection with the Oct. 31, 2025, death of Anita Avers and now faces a presumptive sentence of life behind bars with the possibility of parole after serving 25 years.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 5 at 11 a.m., according to local reporting, meaning the former broadcaster who once appeared on television screens in St. Louis could soon be formally ordered to spend decades in prison.
The horrifying case began shortly before 8 a.m. on Halloween morning last year when Wichita police were dispatched to a home in the 1500 block of East Crowley following reports of a stabbing and discovered Avers suffering from multiple wounds.
Police found Mock outside the residence with blood on her body and injuries to her hands, while officers entering the home discovered Avers unresponsive in her bed before she was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Investigators encountered an especially disturbing scene inside the bedroom, where several kitchen knives and a cheese grater were reportedly positioned on a pillow next to Avers, with blood found on the objects and multiple holes consistent with stabbing visible in the bedding.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Mock provided investigators with differing accounts of what happened that morning, including a claim that she entered her mother’s bedroom to discuss an upcoming job interview and discovered Avers sharpening knives.
Mock claimed her mother attacked her with a knife and made the bizarre statement, “I know you’re f–king Jesus Christ,” before Mock fought back and obtained a knife of her own.
Mock further claimed that her mother was “spewing venom” while she attempted to retreat and told investigators she ultimately stabbed Avers because she believed she needed to protect herself.
“I had to kill her, she wasn’t going to stop,” Mock said, according to the affidavit.
Mock also allegedly made deeply troubling comments suggesting that she believed the woman she had killed was somehow the devil rather than her mother.
“I’d kill that b***h to have my mom back any day. I don’t even know who she is anymore. I know, I believe she’s the devil,” Mock said, according to the affidavit.
A neighbor, Alyssa Castro, previously described encountering a blood-covered Mock outside the home and said the former anchor approached a vehicle she was sitting in with her boyfriend and urgently asked for help contacting authorities.
“There was a woman who approached our vehicle with like blood, like
her hands were filled, her body was filled with blood, asking to call 911,” Castro said.
“I asked her if she was OK, and she was pretty shaken up and she seemed scared, and she just ran off,” Castro added.
The case was complicated for months by questions surrounding Mock’s competency to stand trial, with a judge determining in January that she was not competent to proceed and ordering her to Larned State Hospital for evaluation and treatment.
That legal obstacle changed in July when a Sedgwick County judge reversed the earlier finding and determined that Mock had regained competency to face the criminal proceedings against her.
Mock’s stepfather told investigators that she had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder before that diagnosis was revised to schizoaffective disorder, according to the probable cause affidavit.
He also described a disturbing history of delusional episodes in which Mock allegedly claimed people around her were “robots” and “not real people,” while also reporting previous angry outbursts and psychiatric treatment.
Despite those reported episodes, Mock’s stepfather described her relationship with Avers as close overall, although it included what he characterized as the normal tensions between a mother and daughter.
Avers herself spent years helping others as a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist, with her professional biography stating that she specialized in treating adults dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma and mood disorders as well as couples and families experiencing relationship problems.
Mock, meanwhile, had previously built a career in broadcast journalism, serving as a morning anchor at KTVI Fox 2 in St. Louis from 2011 until 2015 after earlier working as a sports reporter at KLKN in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office formally charged Mock with first-degree murder in November 2025 after reviewing the Wichita Police Department Homicide Section’s investigation into Avers’ death from multiple stab wounds.
Her guilty plea means there will now be no jury trial to determine whether she committed the killing, shifting the case instead toward punishment and the formal sentencing hearing scheduled for October.
For a case that began with a bloody Halloween morning, extraordinary allegations of delusions and a former television personality accused of killing her own mother, the central question of guilt has now been answered by Mock herself in court.
What remains is the sentence, and under the terms of her plea, Mock is facing life in prison with no opportunity to seek parole until she has served at least 25 years.
