Those words were enough to send a mother into panic.
She had been trying to reach her daughter.
Kimberly was not answering.
Now her son-in-law was calling and saying something terrible had happened.
Kimberly’s mother began heading toward the home.
The dispatcher immediately tried to stop her.
Do not go there.
Police were already responding.
The suspect’s location was unknown.
There might still be a weapon involved.
Walking into the area could put another person in danger.
Kimberly’s mother wanted answers.
Was her daughter alive?
Where was the baby?
What had Steven done?
The dispatcher could confirm that something serious had happened, but emergency operators rarely have the luxury of complete information while an incident is still unfolding.
The mother also believed the baby had been at the house.
She wanted to retrieve her granddaughter.
Then, during the conversation, another piece of the puzzle surfaced.
Steven had apparently taken the baby somewhere else.
He had dropped the one-year-old off with someone nearby before leaving.
For police, that information changed everything.
They now had a location to check.
Officers responded.
Eventually, they confirmed the news everyone desperately needed to hear.
The little girl was safe.
She had not been physically harmed.
For Kimberly, her mother, and the responding officers, that resolved one of the most terrifying questions of the night.
The child was alive.
The child was safe.
But Steven still had not been located.
Police now knew that he had left the home.
They knew he had contacted Kimberly’s mother.
They knew he had dropped the child off.
But they did not know where he would go next.
Then Steven made the next move himself.
He called police.
The man officers had been searching for was suddenly on the phone with dispatch.
Steven sounded confused and emotionally overwhelmed.
He said something had happened between him and his girlfriend.
He believed he had done something bad.
He told the dispatcher that he was coming to the police station.
His words suggested a man who knew something irreversible had occurred but was struggling to describe it.
Steven said he felt like he was losing his mind.
He also acknowledged something important.
He knew he had done wrong.
Police headquarters was notified that the suspect in the violent domestic incident was apparently coming in voluntarily.
That did not mean officers could simply assume the danger had passed.
A machete had reportedly been used.
A woman had been seriously injured.
The suspect’s mental and emotional state was uncertain.
So when Steven arrived outside the station, officers approached him carefully.
They asked whether he had any weapons.
They checked his hands.
They searched him.
Steven appeared to have some type of injury around his finger, hand, or thumb.
Whatever chaos had taken place at the house had left physical signs on more than one person.
Steven was taken into custody.
Officers searched his vehicle.
There, on the floorboard, they found the machete.
Now the investigation had reached an entirely different phase.
The immediate emergency was largely under control.
Kimberly was receiving medical care.
The baby had been located safely.
Steven was in custody.
The weapon had been recovered.
The next question was the one that would dominate the investigation.
Why did this happen?
How did a disagreement inside a family home become an alleged attempted murder?
Detectives sat down with Steven.
At first, the conversation did not immediately focus on the machete.
Investigators wanted context.
They wanted to understand the relationship.
They wanted to know what life had been like inside the home before that night.
Steven began talking.
He described a relationship under strain.
Both he and Kimberly had jobs.
Kimberly was also attending school.
Steven told investigators that he had taken on much of the responsibility for caring for their daughter.
In his telling, this had left him increasingly frustrated.
He said he felt isolated.
He said he felt sad.
He described himself as depressed.
He gave the impression of someone who believed he had been carrying more and more responsibility without receiving the support or appreciation he wanted.
It was his perspective.
It did not automatically establish that Kimberly would have described their home life the same way.
But it gave detectives insight into the resentment Steven claimed had been building before the attack.
Then investigators asked about drugs.
Steven admitted using marijuana.
He also mentioned what he referred to as liquid cocaine.
Detectives wanted to know how the substance affected him.
Steven claimed that it generally made him feel calm or fine.
He acknowledged using it before the incident.
That information gave investigators another factor to consider.
But still, none of it explained what had happened with the machete.
So detectives brought the conversation back to the hours before Kimberly ran bleeding to her neighbor’s house.
What had the couple been arguing about?
This is where Fortnite entered the story.
According to Kimberly’s account, she had been sitting on the couch playing the game.
Steven was attempting to take their one-year-old daughter to bed.
Kimberly said the child seemed afraid to go with him.
Steven saw the situation differently.
He told detectives that their daughter had been crying because she wanted attention from Kimberly.
He said Kimberly was wearing headphones while playing Fortnite.
In his view, she was too focused on the game.
He believed she was not giving their daughter enough attention.
What might sound like a trivial disagreement was, from Steven’s perspective, connected to much larger frustrations he claimed had been building for some time.
He complained about Kimberly’s gaming habits.
He said she could spend extremely long periods playing.
He suggested that gaming was affecting other parts of her routine and interfering with family responsibilities.
Again, this was Steven’s account.
Investigators were hearing his version of the relationship after he had already been taken into custody for a violent attack.
But those statements help explain how he framed the conflict.
That night, he said he wanted their daughter to go to bed.
He wanted the child to follow a consistent sleep schedule.
Kimberly apparently wanted to keep the little girl with her on the couch while she continued playing.
The disagreement escalated.
Voices rose.
Frustration grew.
Steven told detectives that Kimberly pushed him.
And then, according to Steven, his memory disappeared.
He said he essentially blacked out.
He could remember the argument.
He could remember some moments afterward.
But he claimed not to remember the central act of violence itself.
For investigators, that was a major statement.
If Steven truly could not remember, then detectives would need to rely on the other evidence.
Fortunately for them, there was evidence that did not depend on anyone’s memory.
The Ring camera.
At some point, investigators obtained or reviewed the camera footage from the property.
And suddenly, the missing portion of Steven’s story was no longer missing.
The camera had captured the confrontation.
It showed Steven.
It showed Kimberly.
It showed the machete.