California Man Stabs Pregnant Wife, Kills 1-Year-Old Daughter By Throwing Her Off Cliff

In a series of horrifying incidents that were reported in California on Wednesday (May 6) morning, a man stabbed his pregnant wife and hours later, following a car crash, killed their 1-year-old daughter by throwing her off the cliff into a ravine. The man also stabbed a bystander who tried to save the baby girl from the crash.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, deputies from the Palm Desert Sheriff’s station were dispatched to a parking lot in the 44100 block of Washington St., Indian Wells, Wednesday morning after receiving a report of a stabbing.

Upon arrival, the deputies found a pregnant woman with multiple stab wounds that were believed to be caused following a domestic violence incident. The woman, identified as 23-year-old Ashley Grome, was immediately rushed to a local hospital. She was reported to be in stable condition.

During the investigation, the deputies identified the suspect as her husband, 49-year-old Adam Slater, who hails from Palm Desert, California. The authorities began a lookout for him and released a description of him and the vehicle he fled in.

At about half an hour after the stabbing incident was reported, the California Highway Patrol unit received a report of a collision off Highway 74 South of Vista Point, about five miles away from Palm Desert. The description of the overturned vehicle that was found several hundred feet away from the highway was similar to the suspect's vehicle in the stabbing incident.

People who witnessed the crash immediately rushed to the aid of the occupants in the overturned vehicle. A male bystander was trying to get a baby girl out of the vehicle. Slater, who was driving the car, noticing this ran to the passenger side of the vehicle and stabbed the man before snatching the baby off his hands.

Multiple witnesses at the scene saw Slater taking the child and throwing her off a cliff into a ravine. He then fled on foot to the canyon before the police arrived.

When the deputies arrived at the scene, the onlookers directed them to Slater’s location. After a short pursuit on foot, the deputies were able to detain him. They also located the baby girl who was lying dead.

The officers learned that Slater was the father of the child, identified as Madalyn Payton.

Slater suffered injuries from the collision and was transported to a local hospital. He will be arrested and booked for murder upon his release from the hospital.

The bystander who was injured during the incident sought medical treatment on his own.

To help with the funeral expenses of her baby girl, Grome, who is 6 months pregnant, has started a GoFundMe campaign.

"I am the mother of Madalyn Payton Slater, the one-year-old baby girl who was killed on May 6, 2020, by her father when he drove off of Highway 74 after beating and stabbing me, then leaving me to die in the Southwest Community Church parking lot," Ashley wrote on the campaign page.

"My daughter was the absolute love of my life and she meant everything and more to me," she continued. "Everything I did and everything I will do for the rest of my life is for her. She was beautiful and her smile was contagious, even after a bad day, she always cheered me up. She was taken from this world way too soon."

The investigation was ongoing to find out the motive behind the crime.