At 5:15am on June 26, 2023, a frantic 911 call came into the Broome County Sheriff’s Office from a home on State Route 41 in Colesville, New York. On the call, the dispatcher heard a woman, Meghan Carey, telling someone to stay with Mommy and please don’t die. Meghan reported that she and her newborn baby, Eleanor M M Carey, had been shot with a crossbow.

Welcome to Love and Heartbreak to Homicide. We’re Kai’s AI co hosts, here to bring you another Midweek mini, a quick but powerful case written by Kai herself.

don’t forget, Monday’s case came out a bit late. Bakai did drop it yesterday, so if you missed it, look for the episode right before this one. She reported a very sad case and a shocking update to a previous episode. Then she read some of your comments.

Now let’s get back to Your midweek.

Mini 28 year old Patrick Priet, Meghan’s husband, was described as someone who had lived a ah, violent life, this uncontrollable life, long before he met Meghan in 2019. Patrick had a long record of disorderly conduct, repeated violations of protection orders, and previous arrests for abusing Meghan, including an incident where he slammed her head through a wall. The relationship had been marked by violence and control from the beginning. Even with an active protection order, Meghan had continued to suffer abuse. Police had been called to their home multiple times for domestic disturbances, but in the early hours of June 26, it reached its breaking point. Patrick became enraged when their three week old newborn started crying. He left the bedroom where Meghan sat holding Eleanor, loaded a crossbow, came back and um, fired the broadhead bolt, pierced Eleanor’s tiny body and exited near her armpit before hitting Megan in the chest. Instead of helping, Patrick ripped the arrow out, threw towels at her and told her to stop the bleeding. He then grabbed her phone, hid it in another room so she couldn’t call for help, put on his shoes, took the only car available and left. Meghan managed to find her phone while bleeding and made that 911 call. When paramedics arrived, they started immediate efforts to save the child, but Eleanor was pronounced dead at the scene. Sheriff Fred Akshar described this as one of the most heartbreaking and senseless crimes that has been Committed in recent history. Meghan was transported to Wilson hospital for treatment of huh her injuries while police started searching for Patrick. Thankfully, he didn’t make it far. His red dodge ram got stuck in the mud less than a mile from the house. He abandoned it and ran into the woods. Within an hour, law enforcement, including the Broome county sheriff’s office, New York state police, and Chenango county sheriff’s office surrounded the area and found him hiding. Sheriff Akshar said that Patrick, quote, ran into the woods and hid like a scared rat after taking his baby’s life.

Our thoughts are with the family of this innocent three week old girl. I commend the quick and decisive action of our law enforcement division and in responding to this tragedy and ensuring Mr. Profreit did not escape justice.

When detectives questioned him, Patrick showed no remorse. He blamed Meghan, saying she had dared him to shoot and claimed that it wasn’t that big of a deal. He was arrested and faced charges of second degree murder, second degree attempted murder, and first degree criminal contempt or violating an order of protection. District attorney Paul Battisti said Patrick, quote, wanted to blame everyone but himself. During their investigation, police found that Patrick had multiple domestic abuse charges against him. In one instance, he reportedly hit her during an argument about childcare. Another time, neighbors called police after hearing screams coming from their house. When officers responded to past incidents, they saw that Meghan often had visible bruises but sometimes chose not to press charges, A pattern advocates said is common in ongoing domestic abuse cases. In court in 2023, Patrick pled not guilty. However, on February 28, 2025, Patrick eventually pled guilty to second degree murder. Because he’d finally pled guilty, there was no trial. During his sentencing hearing on June 27, 2025, the prosecution played the 22 minute audio track or Meghan’s 911 call. The court was able to hear the heart wrenching moments where Eleanor died in her mother’s arms. By the end of the call, Meghan had said that Eleanor’s face was pale. She wasn’t moving or looking at her, and her breathing had stopped. Megan, who had survived her injuries, told the court what happened after Eleanor was shot. She talked about the 911 call, what those 22 minutes on the phone were like. Holding her baby, bleeding, begging and watching Eleanor’s life slip away.

Everywhere I look, I see you. A, uh, part of you in almost everyone. I can’t express how much I miss and love you.

She then said that she would do everything she can to get her daughter justice. She told Patrick that Even if he is ever capable of remorse, it could never bring her daughter back. She continued by saying, despite everything that.

Has happened, I still believe in love. I still believe in healing. I believe in forgiveness. But he is beyond forgiveness. He has no empathy and no humanity.

Patrick’s defense talked about his history of abuse, but said it was due to his tumultuous childhood and his developmental and mental health struggles. Attorney Batisti and Deputy District Attorney Lucas Finley focused on Patrick’s cold actions, stressing his refusal to show accountability. Attorney Battisti highlighted the premeditated nature of the attack, how Patrick left the room, loaded the weapon and came back to shoot Meghan while she held Eleanor. They also emphasised Patrick’s failure to act as a father. Broome County Court Judge Joseph F. Corley acknowledged Patrick’s difficult childhood and mental health struggles that was presented by the defence. He said that there is no doubt that Patrick has been subjected to a very difficult and tumultuous childhood, suffering from physical, verbal and sexual abuse at a young age. He also said that he believed Patrick’s downward spiral got worse in 2019 after losing a child shortly after birth due to health complications. But he reminded the court of what mattered most, that on the morning of June 26, 2023, Patrick didn’t try to help this child at all. He didn’t call for help, didn’t do anything to save his three week old daughter. The judge also made it clear that none of Patrick’s childhood experiences excused what he’d had done.

No one can possibly understand what Megan went through during those last 22 minutes of Eleanor’s life. There must be consequences.

Patrick mumbled a short statement saying, I take full responsibility.

I gotta do what I got to do. I apologize to my wife and I apologize to you for the sake of my child.

Attorney Batisti called the case an act of pure cruelty. And Sheriff Akshar echoed that saying, Patrick’s cowardice after killing his daughter spoke volumes.

It’s a senseless case.

Judge Cawley then sentenced Patrick to 25 years to life, the maximum allowed in the State of New York. As for Meghan, she continues to carry the weight of that morning, the scars, the grief and the memory of her 17 day old baby whose life was stolen before it had even begun. Sheriff akshar said that Mr. Profrit was.

Dealing with some internal demons. He was not dealing with having a newborn child. Domestic violence is incredibly real. These are situations that so many people throughout our community go through on a day to day basis. This is one of several cases in the last few months in which people have lost their lives because of domestic violence. I cannot stress to the people of this community enough that there are human service organizations that exist in Broome county that are here to help. Here to help people who are in troubled situations and relationships. Here to help people get out of one of those situations and relationships.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic violence hotline at uh, 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org all calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available 247 in more than 170 languages. You can also visit the LaM site for more resources.

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