A family camping trip in Georgia ended in terror and violence over the weekend, and four people are now in jail, while the father and daughter victims try to recover.
But questions remain.
Krista Wilson, 44, Joshua Wilson, 42, Joshua Miller, 32, and Charles Miller, 39, are all accused of aggravated assault and battery, according to the White County Sheriff’s Office.
The incident took place on July 26 at the Low Gap Campground in Helen, a small mountain town in Georgia’s northeast, near Low Gap Creek, a tributary of the Chattahoochee River.
According to a press release from the sheriff’s office, responding deputies discovered that Krista Wilson attacked Gracee Waldon, 20, prompting the younger woman to stab the older woman in self-defense.
In the ensuing group attack, Bruce Waldon, 58, had his head smashed with a glass beer bottle. The father then collapsed on the ground, where his attackers allegedly continued to beat him.
Both victims were rushed to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where the daughter was initially listed in serious condition and her father in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Bruce Waldon suffered a cut from his right ear to the back of his neck that required 40 stitches, according to a GoFundMe page and an interview with another daughter, Brittanee Hollingsworth, with Augusta-based CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDW.
“This is just an act of evil and senselessness,” Hollingsworth told the television station. “My dad is having a lot of nightmares and just wakes up screaming because he’s afraid that they’re going to come and try to hurt the rest of the family.”
The unharmed daughter told WRDW that the family members were minding their own business when they were attacked from behind by the group.
“My dad was eating peanut brittle and fixing his fishing pole and my sister was eating boiled peanuts,” Hollingsworth explained. “And my dad was attacked with a beer bottle on the side of the head, and cut him from his ear to the back of his neck, and was passed out on the ground.”
That explanation is consistent with how authorities have described the attack.
“Investigators were called to the scene, and an investigation was launched into the incident,” the sheriff’s office stated. “During the investigation, it was discovered that a group of four people from Lula, GA assaulted the fifty-eight-year-old father and twenty-year-old daughter from Waco, GA. During the assault, the daughter stabbed her attacker for self-defense. The father was struck with a glass beer bottle, resulting in a severe laceration, and assaulted while lying on the ground. The individuals involved were identified and later arrested.”
The daughter is already recovering, according to the family, but the father is expected to be in the hospital for an extended period of time due to a brain bleed caused by the injuries.
“We have had several people ask how they can help,” Hollingsworth wrote in the online fundraiser. “If you feel compelled to donate, all funds will be directed toward medical bills, hotels, and food, as we are unsure of his release date. Above all, please continue to pray for my father. My father would give the shirt off his back without having another to put on.”
The victims’ families are now taking advantage of the situation to lobby for a ban on alcohol at the campground in question, assuming that alcohol played a role in the attack.
“I don’t understand why you would do this to a man that was with his daughter for a camping trip,” Hollingsworth told the station.
The daughter also told the TV station that she suspects other people were involved in the attack on her father and sister.
The sheriff’s office states that the investigation is ongoing.
