The most horrifying detail inside Gregory Dolnics’ Indiana home was not just the blood police say they saw through the windows.
It was what authorities say had been done to the 70-year-old father after the stabbing.
Gregory’s heart had been cut out and placed on his stomach, police said, after what investigators allege was a brutal stabbing attack by his own daughter inside the Valparaiso home.
Serena Dolnics, 32, has been charged with murder. Court records show she was denied bail, and she pleaded not guilty at her Thursday arraignment.
Authorities have not announced a motive. By the time Serena was arrested outside the home Sunday night, the case had already moved from a family welfare check to a bloody standoff.
Relatives first called police because they were worried about Gregory. They had been trying to talk to him, but Serena allegedly made “odd statements” instead.
The alarm grew while the family was still on the phone with 911. Serena’s boyfriend allegedly messaged them from Gregory’s home, claiming Serena was “covered in blood.”
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He also allegedly said she had stabbed Gregory in a frenzy and feared she might kill herself.
When an officer arrived, the boyfriend was outside. Court documents say he told the officer Serena had locked him out of the house and repeated that she was “covered in blood.”
The first view inside came through the windows. Police saw drops of blood on the floor and later spotted a body covered in dried blood inside the home, according to court filings.
A SWAT team was brought in around 8 p.m. Sunday. Serena remained in a standoff with officers until roughly 9:45 p.m., when police arrested her outside the house.
When officers finally took her into custody, court filings say, the blood was still on her.
Serena had no shoes or socks on, and both feet were bloodied, court documents say. Blood was also on her legs, and she was wearing a tank top that “contained a large amount of blood.”
She was not wearing pants when officers took her into custody.
Inside the home, investigators found Gregory with wounds to his head, hands and arms. Authorities said his heart had been removed from his body and placed on his stomach.
NBC Chicago, citing court documents, reported that officers described the scene in the Indiana home as gruesome and noted Serena’s blood-covered condition during the arrest.
Investigators reportedly recovered three knives inside the home. Each was covered in blood, and blood was reportedly found on the handles.
A coroner determined Gregory’s death was a homicide caused by multiple sharp-force injuries.
Serena was taken to a hospital after her arrest because of injuries to her hand. At the hospital, she allegedly blamed the injuries on yardwork.
She claimed the injuries came from using a “weedwhacker and small saw” in the yard.
Doctors documented injuries on the back of Serena’s right hand and multiple injuries on her palms. Police later noted that the property had no garden where she claimed to have been working.
Court documents say the wounds appeared consistent with a knife slipping through a hand.
After the hospital, Serena was brought to the police station. Investigators said she waived her Miranda rights and agreed to answer questions.
Court filings describe an interview in which Serena talked about television, the household and her relationship with Gregory.
Serena allegedly said she lived with Gregory and had “watched some TV today.” She told detectives nobody else lived at the home or visited and described the boyfriend as “more of an ex-boyfriend.”
Gregory, she allegedly told police, “wasn’t feeling too good.” She said she had been watching “Game of Thrones” while he “laid around.”
Serena also allegedly portrayed life with her father as mostly normal. She told investigators they got along “really well,” with only “small tiffs here and there” that they both would “get over quickly.”
In Georgia, a separate case is set to put another accused daughter before a jury.
Sarah Grace Patrick is accused of killing her mother and stepfather before posting tearful TikTok videos mourning them online.
Patrick is set to face a jury Monday after Judge Dustin Hightower declined to delay the case, relatives told WXIA-TV.
Patrick was 16 when prosecutors say Kristin Brock, 41, and James Brock, 45, were shot to death as they slept on Feb. 20, 2025.
She is being tried as an adult. The charges against her include two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and two weapons charges.
Her public defender, Shawn Hoover, had recently taken over the case and asked for more time to prepare.
Hoover told the court that the delay was needed to protect Patrick’s defense.
“More needs to be done so I can adequately protect Ms. Patrick’s interests moving forward,” Hoover argued.
At a July 13 hearing, Hoover said the defense had begun receiving additional information from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and law enforcement.
He said he was not accusing the district attorney of hiding information. Instead, Hoover told the judge that an issue he believed Patrick’s former attorney had missed had “snowballed into something a lot bigger.”
Hoover also tied the delay request to “forensic evidence” gathered by the GBI.
Patrick was arrested July 8, 2025, nearly half a year after the killings.
Prosecutors said during pretrial hearings that officers used those months to secure “a mountain” of digital and physical evidence.
Patrick also planned her parents’ funeral, delivered a eulogy and posted a series of tearful TikTok videos lamenting her situation before she was arrested.
Police obtained a warrant, and Patrick turned herself in.
She had physically called 911 after her then-5-year-old stepsister, Jaley, found the bodies.
