A former television news anchor has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing her 80-year-old mother in her bed at their Kansas home.
Angelynn Mock, 48, will be eligible for parole after 25 years for the death of Anita Avers in Wichita. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in August.
At sentencing, Avers’ stepdaughter Sonja Kreutziger described the victim as a “bright, compassionate, loving woman who wanted to make every moment a moment of beauty.”
“There used to be so much joy in my heart because of her,” Kreutziger said. “Shock, disbelief, horror, trauma struck us all last Halloween. The person I knew as gentle, kind Angie did not just murder her mom. She ambushed Anita while Anita was in bed asleep. This was so out of character for the Angie we thought we knew. So devastating, so calculated, so demonic.”
Kreutziger said Avers had defensive wounds on her arms, which meant she woke during the attack. “She went to her death knowing that it was her daughter that slaughtered her,” she said.
Family members said Halloween, once a holiday they all celebrated, will never be the same. “There will be no more dressing up or carving jack-o’-lanterns or handing out candy,” her niece said. “How do you celebrate the worst day of your life? One minute I’m competing in a costume contest, and the next, none of it matters.
Walking around the store this time of year and seeing all the decor just reminds me of that day.” Mock, a morning anchor for KTVI, the Fox station in St. Louis, from 2011 to 2015, wept during the hearing and declined to address the court.
Police responded to a home in the 1500 block of East Crowley shortly before 8 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2025. Mock, covered in blood, was standing outside when officers arrived. Inside, they found Avers unresponsive in her bed with “multiple stab wounds.” She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
An arrest affidavit said there was blood throughout the home, and several knives and a cheese grater were on a pillow next to the victim’s body.
Mock told officers she went to speak with her mother about a potential job and found her sharpening knives in bed. She claimed her mother came at her with a knife, saying “I know you’re f—ing Jesus Christ,” according to the affidavit. Detectives noted she gave inconsistent accounts of who attacked first. She asked for an attorney, and the interview ended.
Avers’ husband told investigators that Mock had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and had previously spent time in a mental hospital. He also said she lost her anchor job after an “explosive situation involving alcohol.”
A neighbor, Alyssa Castro, told local KAKE that Mock approached her car for help. “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.
Mock has had competency issues since her arrest. Judge Jeff Goering ruled her incompetent to stand trial in January and ordered her hospitalized. He declared her competent in July. Avers was a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist with some 20 years of experience.